Security Architect Contract Job Trends

Security Architect
UK

The median Security Architect daily rate in the UK is £630, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 21 January 2026.

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

6 months to
21 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 291 243 255
Rank change year-on-year -48 +12 +42
Contract jobs requiring a Security Architect 330 321 428
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.88% 1.02% 0.99%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.96% 1.10% 1.06%
Number of daily rates quoted 220 214 268
10th Percentile £477 £550 £517
25th Percentile £538 £600 £611
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £630 £675 £685
Median % change year-on-year -6.67% -1.46% -2.14%
75th Percentile £721 £768 £771
90th Percentile £788 £825 £825
UK excluding London median daily rate £632 £660 £700
% change year-on-year -4.24% -5.71% +2.94%
Number of hourly rates quoted 6 1 7
10th Percentile £79.38 - £75.15
25th Percentile £82.19 £68.26 £78.77
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 £86.32
90th Percentile £94.38 - £87.21
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 34,444 29,232 40,404
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.42% 92.85% 93.09%
Number of daily rates quoted 21,829 17,869 26,812
10th Percentile £300 £290 £275
25th Percentile £405 £409 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £615 £638 £638
90th Percentile £719 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £480 £500
% change year-on-year -1.04% -4.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,030 877 1,934
10th Percentile £14.38 £15.92 £13.50
25th Percentile £18.50 £21.25 £17.72
Median hourly rate £27.50 £32.50 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -15.38% -18.75% +17.65%
75th Percentile £60.00 £62.50 £63.00
90th Percentile £70.00 £73.75 £74.81
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £40.50
% change year-on-year -22.62% -19.75% +36.13%

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 21 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 21 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 -30 282 £650 -3.70% 59
UK excluding London -29 159 £632 -4.24% 41
London -15 129 £644 -5.33% 27
Work from Home -37 85 £600 -14.29% 30
South East -7 54 £650 +4.00% 11
North of England -25 53 £600 -14.29% 9
Yorkshire -27 32 £544 -21.23% 1
South West -16 19 £650 +6.12% 12
North West -34 19 £701 -6.60% 4
Midlands -44 15 £675 -3.57% 3
West Midlands -39 12 £675 -3.57% 3
Wales +7 9 £725 -
Scotland +5 9 £675 +12.50% 3
East of England -18 5 £520 +15.56% 3
East Midlands - 3 £438 -
Northern Ireland -2 2 £500 -
North East - 2 £545 - 4

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

For the 6 months to 21 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 (48.48%) Security Architecture
2 124 (37.58%) Security Cleared
3 118 (35.76%) Cybersecurity
4 101 (30.61%) Azure
5 91 (27.58%) NIST
6 88 (26.67%) AWS
7 85 (25.76%) SC Cleared
8 83 (25.15%) Threat Modelling
9 81 (24.55%) Cloud Security
10 77 (23.33%) CISSP
11 67 (20.30%) ISO/IEC 27001
12 66 (20.00%) Zero Trust
13 65 (19.70%) Network Security
13 65 (19.70%) TOGAF
14 59 (17.88%) Firewall
15 54 (16.36%) Microsoft
16 52 (15.76%) Identity Access Management
17 51 (15.45%) SABSA
18 49 (14.85%) Risk Management
19 47 (14.24%) Incident Response
20 46 (13.94%) Vulnerability Management
21 42 (12.73%) CISM
22 41 (12.42%) GCP
23 40 (12.12%) DevSecOps
23 40 (12.12%) SIEM
23 40 (12.12%) Stakeholder Engagement
24 36 (10.91%) GDPR
25 35 (10.61%) Roadmaps
26 33 (10.00%) CI/CD
27 32 (9.70%) Information Security

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 (4.55%) Confluence
2 4 (1.21%) Microsoft Exchange
3 3 (0.91%) SharePoint
4 1 (0.30%) nginx
4 1 (0.30%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 2 (0.61%) Microsoft PowerPoint
1 2 (0.61%) MS Visio
2 1 (0.30%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 6 (1.82%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 101 (30.61%) Azure
2 88 (26.67%) AWS
3 41 (12.42%) GCP
4 21 (6.36%) Entra ID
5 12 (3.64%) Microsoft 365
6 11 (3.33%) Microsoft Purview
6 11 (3.33%) SaaS
7 8 (2.42%) Amazon GuardDuty
7 8 (2.42%) AWS KMS
8 7 (2.12%) AWS CloudFormation
8 7 (2.12%) GitHub
8 7 (2.12%) PaaS
9 6 (1.82%) Virtual Private Cloud
10 5 (1.52%) Azure Sentinel
10 5 (1.52%) IaaS
11 3 (0.91%) Amazon EKS
11 3 (0.91%) Azure Key Vault
12 2 (0.61%) Amazon CloudWatch
12 2 (0.61%) Amazon ECS
12 2 (0.61%) Azure DevOps
Communications & Networking
1 65 (19.70%) Network Security
2 59 (17.88%) Firewall
3 15 (4.55%) VPN
4 14 (4.24%) WAN
5 11 (3.33%) LAN
6 10 (3.03%) SD-WAN
7 8 (2.42%) NGFW
8 6 (1.82%) DNS
8 6 (1.82%) IPsec
9 5 (1.52%) BGP
10 4 (1.21%) DHCP
10 4 (1.21%) OSPF
10 4 (1.21%) Skype
10 4 (1.21%) SSL
11 3 (0.91%) DMZ
11 3 (0.91%) Internet
11 3 (0.91%) Kerberos
11 3 (0.91%) TCP/IP
11 3 (0.91%) VSAN
11 3 (0.91%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (0.61%) BigQuery
2 1 (0.30%) Elasticsearch
2 1 (0.30%) Metadata
2 1 (0.30%) Oracle Database
Development Applications
1 12 (3.64%) JIRA
2 2 (0.61%) Jenkins
3 1 (0.30%) Git
3 1 (0.30%) GitLab
General
1 70 (21.21%) Social Skills
2 51 (15.45%) Finance
2 51 (15.45%) Public Sector
3 17 (5.15%) Analytical Skills
3 17 (5.15%) Banking
4 11 (3.33%) Legal
5 9 (2.73%) Documentation Skills
6 8 (2.42%) Financial Institution
6 8 (2.42%) Presentation Skills
7 7 (2.12%) Influencing Skills
8 6 (1.82%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 5 (1.52%) Aerospace
10 4 (1.21%) Pharmaceutical
11 3 (0.91%) Law
12 2 (0.61%) Military
13 1 (0.30%) Aviation
13 1 (0.30%) Digital Health
13 1 (0.30%) Manufacturing
13 1 (0.30%) Organisational Skills
13 1 (0.30%) Police
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 9 (2.73%) SAML
2 7 (2.12%) OAuth
3 6 (1.82%) OpenID
4 5 (1.52%) ModSecurity
5 4 (1.21%) OAuth2
6 2 (0.61%) .NET
6 2 (0.61%) ADO
6 2 (0.61%) Kafka
6 2 (0.61%) Middleware
7 1 (0.30%) ARM Templates
7 1 (0.30%) Elastic Stack
7 1 (0.30%) J2EE
7 1 (0.30%) JAAS
7 1 (0.30%) JSP
7 1 (0.30%) JSSE
7 1 (0.30%) JWT
7 1 (0.30%) LDAP
7 1 (0.30%) REST
7 1 (0.30%) SailPoint
7 1 (0.30%) Spring
Miscellaneous
1 28 (8.48%) Cloud Native
1 28 (8.48%) Security Posture
2 16 (4.85%) Onboarding
2 16 (4.85%) PKI
3 15 (4.55%) Operational Technology
4 14 (4.24%) Management Information System
5 13 (3.94%) Data Centre
6 12 (3.64%) Product Ownership
7 11 (3.33%) Hybrid Cloud
7 11 (3.33%) Private Cloud
8 8 (2.42%) Cyber Threat
8 8 (2.42%) Public Cloud
9 7 (2.12%) Cloud Security Posture
9 7 (2.12%) Enterprise Software
9 7 (2.12%) Taxonomies
10 5 (1.52%) Cyber Defence
10 5 (1.52%) NHS
10 5 (1.52%) SCADA
10 5 (1.52%) Security Operations Centre
11 4 (1.21%) Legacy Systems
Operating Systems
1 15 (4.55%) Windows
2 9 (2.73%) Linux
3 4 (1.21%) Windows 10
3 4 (1.21%) Windows Server
4 3 (0.91%) Unix
4 3 (0.91%) Windows Server 2008
5 2 (0.61%) Android
5 2 (0.61%) Apple iOS
5 2 (0.61%) Windows Server 2019
6 1 (0.30%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 1 (0.30%) Windows 7
6 1 (0.30%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 160 (48.48%) Security Architecture
2 118 (35.76%) Cybersecurity
3 83 (25.15%) Threat Modelling
4 81 (24.55%) Cloud Security
5 66 (20.00%) Zero Trust
6 65 (19.70%) TOGAF
7 52 (15.76%) Identity Access Management
8 51 (15.45%) SABSA
9 49 (14.85%) Risk Management
10 47 (14.24%) Incident Response
11 46 (13.94%) Vulnerability Management
12 40 (12.12%) DevSecOps
12 40 (12.12%) SIEM
12 40 (12.12%) Stakeholder Engagement
13 35 (10.61%) Roadmaps
14 33 (10.00%) CI/CD
15 32 (9.70%) Information Security
16 30 (9.09%) Architectural Patterns
17 27 (8.18%) Enterprise Architecture
18 26 (7.88%) Regulatory Compliance
Programming Languages
1 7 (2.12%) Java
1 7 (2.12%) Python
2 4 (1.21%) SQL
3 3 (0.91%) PowerShell
4 2 (0.61%) Bicep
4 2 (0.61%) C
4 2 (0.61%) Kotlin
4 2 (0.61%) PL/SQL
4 2 (0.61%) Swift
5 1 (0.30%) Bash
5 1 (0.30%) JavaScript
5 1 (0.30%) Kusto Query Language
5 1 (0.30%) ProC
5 1 (0.30%) R
5 1 (0.30%) RPG
5 1 (0.30%) VB
5 1 (0.30%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 124 (37.58%) Security Cleared
2 85 (25.76%) SC Cleared
3 77 (23.33%) CISSP
4 42 (12.73%) CISM
5 31 (9.39%) DV Cleared
6 27 (8.18%) Cisco Certification
7 22 (6.67%) Degree
8 19 (5.76%) AWS Certification
9 16 (4.85%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 15 (4.55%) TOGAF Certification
11 14 (4.24%) Azure Certification
12 11 (3.33%) CCNP
13 10 (3.03%) CCSP
14 7 (2.12%) CCIE
14 7 (2.12%) Master's Degree
15 6 (1.82%) BPSS Clearance
16 5 (1.52%) GIAC
16 5 (1.52%) Microsoft Certification
16 5 (1.52%) PhD
17 4 (1.21%) Computer Science Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 91 (27.58%) NIST
2 67 (20.30%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 36 (10.91%) GDPR
4 31 (9.39%) NCSC
5 23 (6.97%) PCI DSS
6 8 (2.42%) JSP 440
6 8 (2.42%) PSD2
7 7 (2.12%) Cyber Essentials
7 7 (2.12%) EU AI Act
7 7 (2.12%) NIST 800
8 5 (1.52%) GRC
9 4 (1.21%) HIPAA
9 4 (1.21%) HMG Security Policy Framework
10 3 (0.91%) California Consumer Privacy Act
10 3 (0.91%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 3 (0.91%) Def Stans
11 2 (0.61%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
11 2 (0.61%) RMADS
11 2 (0.61%) SOC 1
11 2 (0.61%) SOC 2
System Software
1 8 (2.42%) Active Directory
2 7 (2.12%) Docker
3 3 (0.91%) VMware ESXi
3 3 (0.91%) VMware Infrastructure
4 1 (0.30%) BitLocker
4 1 (0.30%) Hyper-V
4 1 (0.30%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 22 (6.67%) Terraform
2 13 (3.94%) Kubernetes
3 7 (2.12%) Ansible
3 7 (2.12%) Single Sign-On
4 4 (1.21%) SCCM
5 3 (0.91%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 3 (0.91%) OPNET
5 3 (0.91%) vCenter Server
6 2 (0.61%) FortiGate
7 1 (0.30%) Kibana
7 1 (0.30%) logstash
Vendors
1 54 (16.36%) Microsoft
2 23 (6.97%) CyberArk
3 15 (4.55%) Palo Alto
3 15 (4.55%) Splunk
4 12 (3.64%) BiZZdesign
4 12 (3.64%) Cisco
5 11 (3.33%) Centrify
6 10 (3.03%) Zscaler
7 9 (2.73%) CheckPoint
8 8 (2.42%) Darktrace
8 8 (2.42%) Fortinet
9 7 (2.12%) F5
9 7 (2.12%) Virgin Media
10 6 (1.82%) Google
10 6 (1.82%) Sparx
10 6 (1.82%) VMware
11 5 (1.52%) ServiceNow
12 4 (1.21%) Juniper
12 4 (1.21%) Tenable
12 4 (1.21%) Thycotic