Security Architect Contract Job Trends

Security Architect
UK

The median Security Architect daily rate in the UK is £625, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 31 January 2026.

The table below compares current contractor rates and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
31 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 287 238 240
Rank change year-on-year -49 +2 +63
Contract jobs requiring a Security Architect 348 342 457
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.90% 1.09% 1.02%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.98% 1.17% 1.10%
Number of daily rates quoted 233 235 285
10th Percentile £463 £563 £519
25th Percentile £536 £600 £613
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £625 £675 £700
Median % change year-on-year -7.41% -3.57% -
75th Percentile £713 £772 £775
90th Percentile £775 £835 £825
UK excluding London median daily rate £600 £663 £700
% change year-on-year -9.43% -5.36% +2.94%
Number of hourly rates quoted 6 1 10
10th Percentile £79.38 - £75.54
25th Percentile £82.19 £68.26 £79.07
Median hourly rate £85.00 £73.31 £83.77
Median % change year-on-year +15.95% -12.48% +19.66%
75th Percentile £91.56 £78.36 £87.40
90th Percentile £94.38 - £87.53
UK excluding London median hourly rate £85.00 £73.31 £83.77
% change year-on-year +15.95% -12.48% +19.66%

All Contract IT Job Roles
UK

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies. Most job vacancies include a discernible job title that can be normalized. As such, the figures in the second row provide an indication of the number of contract jobs in our overall sample.

Contract vacancies in the UK with a recognized job title 35,445 29,208 41,662
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.48% 92.89% 93.12%
Number of daily rates quoted 22,347 17,858 27,594
10th Percentile £300 £296 £275
25th Percentile £405 £409 £411
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £638 £638
90th Percentile £719 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £479 £495
% change year-on-year -0.84% -3.23% -1.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,112 858 2,186
10th Percentile £14.38 £15.91 £13.25
25th Percentile £18.50 £21.25 £17.00
Median hourly rate £29.60 £32.50 £36.50
Median % change year-on-year -8.92% -10.96% +4.29%
75th Percentile £61.18 £62.50 £62.50
90th Percentile £70.00 £75.00 £73.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £27.50 £31.52 £38.00
% change year-on-year -12.75% -17.05% +26.67%

Security Architect
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings featuring 'Security Architect' in the job title relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

Security Architect job vacancy trend in the UK

Security Architect
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Security Architect job vacancies in the UK.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Security Architect job vacancies in the UK

Security Architect
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Security Architect over the 6 months to 31 January 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Security Architect in the UK

Security Architect
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Security Architect job vacancies in the UK.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Security Architect job vacancies in the UK

Security Architect
Top 17 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Security Architect within the UK over the 6 months to 31 January 2026. The 'Rank Change' column provides an indication of the change in demand within each location based on the same 6 month period last year.

Location Rank Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Matching
Contract
IT Job Ads
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
England -33 293 £630 -6.67% 67
UK excluding London -28 162 £600 -9.43% 39
London -30 135 £643 -5.51% 34
Work from Home -31 98 £600 -14.29% 31
North of England -26 55 £600 -14.29% 5
South East -14 51 £650 +4.00% 20
Yorkshire -21 34 £537 -22.17% 1
South West -24 19 £650 +6.12% 4
North West -30 19 £701 -6.60% 4
Midlands -38 19 £675 -3.57% 8
West Midlands -41 15 £675 -3.57% 8
Wales +6 9 £725 -
Scotland 0 9 £675 +3.85%
East of England -13 5 £520 +15.56% 2
East Midlands - 4 £438 -
Northern Ireland 0 2 £500 -
North East - 2 £545 -

Security Architect Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 31 January 2026, Security Architect contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads featuring Security Architect in the job title.

1 160 (45.98%) Security Architecture
2 138 (39.66%) Security Cleared
3 133 (38.22%) Cybersecurity
4 100 (28.74%) Azure
5 98 (28.16%) SC Cleared
6 90 (25.86%) NIST
7 86 (24.71%) Threat Modelling
8 85 (24.43%) AWS
9 80 (22.99%) Cloud Security
10 78 (22.41%) CISSP
11 66 (18.97%) ISO/IEC 27001
12 65 (18.68%) Network Security
12 65 (18.68%) Zero Trust
13 64 (18.39%) TOGAF
14 57 (16.38%) Firewall
15 55 (15.80%) Microsoft
15 55 (15.80%) Risk Management
15 55 (15.80%) SABSA
16 52 (14.94%) Vulnerability Management
17 51 (14.66%) Identity Access Management
18 50 (14.37%) Incident Response
19 46 (13.22%) CISM
20 42 (12.07%) Stakeholder Engagement
21 41 (11.78%) DevSecOps
22 40 (11.49%) SIEM
23 38 (10.92%) GCP
24 35 (10.06%) NCSC
25 33 (9.48%) DV Cleared
26 32 (9.20%) Roadmaps
27 31 (8.91%) Architectural Patterns

Security Architect Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities by Category

The following tables expand on the one above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. They cover the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each category:

Application Platforms
1 15 (4.31%) Confluence
2 4 (1.15%) Microsoft Exchange
3 3 (0.86%) SharePoint
4 1 (0.29%) nginx
4 1 (0.29%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 2 (0.57%) Microsoft PowerPoint
1 2 (0.57%) MS Visio
2 1 (0.29%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 6 (1.72%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
2 1 (0.29%) SAP EWM
2 1 (0.29%) SAP GRC
2 1 (0.29%) SAP HR
2 1 (0.29%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 100 (28.74%) Azure
2 85 (24.43%) AWS
3 38 (10.92%) GCP
4 21 (6.03%) Entra ID
5 13 (3.74%) Microsoft 365
6 12 (3.45%) SaaS
7 11 (3.16%) Microsoft Purview
8 10 (2.87%) Amazon GuardDuty
9 8 (2.30%) AWS KMS
10 7 (2.01%) AWS CloudFormation
10 7 (2.01%) GitHub
10 7 (2.01%) PaaS
10 7 (2.01%) Virtual Private Cloud
11 6 (1.72%) Azure Sentinel
12 5 (1.44%) IaaS
13 4 (1.15%) Akamai
13 4 (1.15%) Amazon EKS
14 3 (0.86%) Amazon ECS
14 3 (0.86%) Azure DevOps
14 3 (0.86%) Azure Key Vault
Communications & Networking
1 65 (18.68%) Network Security
2 57 (16.38%) Firewall
3 16 (4.60%) VPN
4 14 (4.02%) WAN
5 11 (3.16%) LAN
5 11 (3.16%) SD-WAN
6 8 (2.30%) IPsec
6 8 (2.30%) NGFW
7 7 (2.01%) DNS
8 6 (1.72%) BGP
9 5 (1.44%) OSPF
10 4 (1.15%) DHCP
10 4 (1.15%) Skype
10 4 (1.15%) SSL
11 3 (0.86%) DMZ
11 3 (0.86%) Internet
11 3 (0.86%) Kerberos
11 3 (0.86%) MPLS
11 3 (0.86%) TCP/IP
11 3 (0.86%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (0.57%) BigQuery
2 1 (0.29%) Elasticsearch
2 1 (0.29%) Metadata
2 1 (0.29%) Oracle Database
Development Applications
1 12 (3.45%) JIRA
2 2 (0.57%) Jenkins
3 1 (0.29%) AppScan
3 1 (0.29%) Burp Suite
3 1 (0.29%) Git
3 1 (0.29%) GitLab
3 1 (0.29%) Metasploit
General
1 71 (20.40%) Social Skills
2 55 (15.80%) Public Sector
3 48 (13.79%) Finance
4 17 (4.89%) Banking
5 13 (3.74%) Documentation Skills
6 12 (3.45%) Analytical Skills
7 11 (3.16%) Legal
8 10 (2.87%) Presentation Skills
9 7 (2.01%) Aerospace
9 7 (2.01%) Financial Institution
9 7 (2.01%) Influencing Skills
10 5 (1.44%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 3 (0.86%) Law
11 3 (0.86%) Military
12 2 (0.57%) Pharmaceutical
13 1 (0.29%) Electronics
13 1 (0.29%) Investment Banking
13 1 (0.29%) Manufacturing
13 1 (0.29%) Retail
13 1 (0.29%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 11 (3.16%) SAML
2 8 (2.30%) OAuth
2 8 (2.30%) OpenID
3 5 (1.44%) ModSecurity
3 5 (1.44%) OAuth2
4 3 (0.86%) ADO
4 3 (0.86%) Middleware
5 2 (0.57%) .NET
5 2 (0.57%) Elastic Stack
5 2 (0.57%) Kafka
5 2 (0.57%) LDAP
5 2 (0.57%) REST
6 1 (0.29%) ARM Templates
6 1 (0.29%) IDoc
6 1 (0.29%) JAAS
6 1 (0.29%) JSSE
6 1 (0.29%) JWT
6 1 (0.29%) OpenTelemetry
6 1 (0.29%) SailPoint
6 1 (0.29%) SAP PI
Miscellaneous
1 27 (7.76%) Security Posture
2 24 (6.90%) Cloud Native
3 17 (4.89%) Operational Technology
4 16 (4.60%) Onboarding
4 16 (4.60%) PKI
5 15 (4.31%) Data Centre
6 14 (4.02%) Management Information System
7 13 (3.74%) Product Ownership
8 11 (3.16%) Private Cloud
9 8 (2.30%) Cyber Defence
9 8 (2.30%) Cyber Threat
9 8 (2.30%) Hybrid Cloud
10 7 (2.01%) Legacy Systems
10 7 (2.01%) Taxonomies
11 6 (1.72%) SCADA
12 5 (1.44%) NHS
12 5 (1.44%) Public Cloud
12 5 (1.44%) Security Operations Centre
13 4 (1.15%) Cloud Security Posture
13 4 (1.15%) Data Protection Act
Operating Systems
1 17 (4.89%) Windows
2 12 (3.45%) Linux
3 4 (1.15%) Windows 10
3 4 (1.15%) Windows Server
4 3 (0.86%) Unix
4 3 (0.86%) Windows Server 2008
5 2 (0.57%) Android
5 2 (0.57%) Apple iOS
5 2 (0.57%) Windows Server 2019
6 1 (0.29%) Kali Linux
6 1 (0.29%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 1 (0.29%) Windows 7
6 1 (0.29%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 160 (45.98%) Security Architecture
2 133 (38.22%) Cybersecurity
3 86 (24.71%) Threat Modelling
4 80 (22.99%) Cloud Security
5 65 (18.68%) Zero Trust
6 64 (18.39%) TOGAF
7 55 (15.80%) Risk Management
7 55 (15.80%) SABSA
8 52 (14.94%) Vulnerability Management
9 51 (14.66%) Identity Access Management
10 50 (14.37%) Incident Response
11 42 (12.07%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 41 (11.78%) DevSecOps
13 40 (11.49%) SIEM
14 32 (9.20%) Roadmaps
15 31 (8.91%) Architectural Patterns
15 31 (8.91%) CI/CD
16 30 (8.62%) Stakeholder Management
17 28 (8.05%) Enterprise Architecture
17 28 (8.05%) Information Security
Programming Languages
1 7 (2.01%) Java
1 7 (2.01%) Python
2 4 (1.15%) SQL
3 3 (0.86%) Bicep
3 3 (0.86%) PowerShell
4 2 (0.57%) C
4 2 (0.57%) Kotlin
4 2 (0.57%) PL/SQL
4 2 (0.57%) Swift
5 1 (0.29%) Bash
5 1 (0.29%) JavaScript
5 1 (0.29%) Kusto Query Language
5 1 (0.29%) Lisp
5 1 (0.29%) ProC
5 1 (0.29%) R
5 1 (0.29%) RPG
5 1 (0.29%) VB
5 1 (0.29%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 138 (39.66%) Security Cleared
2 98 (28.16%) SC Cleared
3 78 (22.41%) CISSP
4 46 (13.22%) CISM
5 33 (9.48%) DV Cleared
6 23 (6.61%) Cisco Certification
6 23 (6.61%) Degree
7 15 (4.31%) AWS Certification
7 15 (4.31%) TOGAF Certification
8 14 (4.02%) (ISC)2 CCSP
9 11 (3.16%) Azure Certification
10 9 (2.59%) CCNP
10 9 (2.59%) GIAC
11 7 (2.01%) BPSS Clearance
11 7 (2.01%) CCIE
11 7 (2.01%) CCSP
11 7 (2.01%) Master's Degree
12 5 (1.44%) Microsoft Certification
12 5 (1.44%) PhD
13 4 (1.15%) Computer Science Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 90 (25.86%) NIST
2 66 (18.97%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 35 (10.06%) NCSC
4 30 (8.62%) GDPR
5 19 (5.46%) PCI DSS
6 8 (2.30%) GRC
6 8 (2.30%) JSP 440
7 7 (2.01%) Cyber Essentials
7 7 (2.01%) EU AI Act
7 7 (2.01%) NIST 800
8 6 (1.72%) HMG Security Policy Framework
9 3 (0.86%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 3 (0.86%) Def Stans
9 3 (0.86%) HIPAA
9 3 (0.86%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
9 3 (0.86%) PSD2
9 3 (0.86%) SOC 2
10 2 (0.57%) COBIT
10 2 (0.57%) RMADS
10 2 (0.57%) SOC 1
System Software
1 11 (3.16%) Active Directory
2 4 (1.15%) Docker
3 3 (0.86%) VMware ESXi
3 3 (0.86%) VMware Infrastructure
4 1 (0.29%) BitLocker
4 1 (0.29%) Hyper-V
4 1 (0.29%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 23 (6.61%) Terraform
2 11 (3.16%) Kubernetes
3 8 (2.30%) Ansible
3 8 (2.30%) Single Sign-On
4 4 (1.15%) SCCM
5 3 (0.86%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 3 (0.86%) OPNET
5 3 (0.86%) vCenter Server
6 2 (0.57%) FortiGate
7 1 (0.29%) Kibana
7 1 (0.29%) logstash
7 1 (0.29%) Microsoft Intune
7 1 (0.29%) Nessus
7 1 (0.29%) Progress Chef
7 1 (0.29%) SELinux
Vendors
1 55 (15.80%) Microsoft
2 24 (6.90%) CyberArk
3 22 (6.32%) Splunk
4 13 (3.74%) BiZZdesign
4 13 (3.74%) Palo Alto
5 12 (3.45%) Cisco
6 11 (3.16%) Centrify
7 9 (2.59%) CheckPoint
8 8 (2.30%) Fortinet
8 8 (2.30%) Zscaler
9 7 (2.01%) Darktrace
9 7 (2.01%) F5
9 7 (2.01%) Virgin Media
10 6 (1.72%) Cribl.io
10 6 (1.72%) Google
10 6 (1.72%) Sparx
10 6 (1.72%) VMware
11 5 (1.44%) ServiceNow
11 5 (1.44%) Tenable
12 4 (1.15%) LogRhythm