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 25 January 2026.

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

6 months to
25 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 286 238 241
Rank change year-on-year -48 +3 +62
Contract jobs requiring a Security Architect 340 336 444
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.90% 1.07% 1.00%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.98% 1.15% 1.08%
Number of daily rates quoted 228 227 278
10th Percentile £471 £561 £519
25th Percentile £538 £600 £613
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £630 £675 £700
Median % change year-on-year -6.67% -3.57% -
75th Percentile £725 £772 £775
90th Percentile £779 £825 £825
UK excluding London median daily rate £613 £655 £700
% change year-on-year -6.49% -6.43% +2.94%
Number of hourly rates quoted 6 1 8
10th Percentile £79.38 - £75.28
25th Percentile £82.19 £68.26 £80.32
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 £87.13
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 34,647 29,282 41,206
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.46% 92.85% 93.06%
Number of daily rates quoted 21,895 17,892 27,296
10th Percentile £300 £291 £275
25th Percentile £406 £408 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £618 £638 £638
90th Percentile £721 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £478 £480 £498
% change year-on-year -0.42% -3.62% -0.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,062 868 2,070
10th Percentile £14.38 £15.92 £13.40
25th Percentile £18.50 £21.24 £17.54
Median hourly rate £28.50 £32.50 £37.88
Median % change year-on-year -12.31% -14.19% +11.40%
75th Percentile £61.18 £62.50 £62.50
90th Percentile £70.00 £74.13 £74.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £27.21 £31.08 £40.00
% change year-on-year -12.45% -22.30% +35.59%

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 25 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 25 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 -32 289 £648 -4.07% 59
UK excluding London -27 162 £613 -6.49% 44
London -18 134 £645 -6.18% 27
Work from Home -36 92 £600 -14.29% 27
South East -2 55 £650 +4.00% 16
North of England -31 54 £600 -14.29% 10
Yorkshire -21 34 £537 -22.17% 2
South West -20 19 £650 +4.00% 12
North West -30 18 £701 -6.60% 4
Midlands -41 16 £675 -3.57% 1
West Midlands -45 13 £675 -3.57% 1
Scotland +8 9 £675 +12.50% 3
Wales +4 9 £725 -
East of England -15 5 £520 +15.56% 2
East Midlands - 3 £438 -
Northern Ireland -3 2 £500 -
North East - 2 £545 - 4

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

For the 6 months to 25 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.

1 164 (48.24%) Security Architecture
2 132 (38.82%) Security Cleared
3 123 (36.18%) Cybersecurity
4 102 (30.00%) Azure
5 94 (27.65%) NIST
6 91 (26.76%) SC Cleared
7 87 (25.59%) AWS
8 86 (25.29%) Threat Modelling
9 82 (24.12%) Cloud Security
10 78 (22.94%) CISSP
11 70 (20.59%) ISO/IEC 27001
12 66 (19.41%) TOGAF
13 65 (19.12%) Network Security
13 65 (19.12%) Zero Trust
14 60 (17.65%) Firewall
15 54 (15.88%) Microsoft
16 53 (15.59%) Risk Management
16 53 (15.59%) SABSA
17 52 (15.29%) Identity Access Management
18 49 (14.41%) Vulnerability Management
19 47 (13.82%) Incident Response
20 42 (12.35%) CISM
20 42 (12.35%) DevSecOps
21 41 (12.06%) GCP
21 41 (12.06%) SIEM
21 41 (12.06%) Stakeholder Engagement
22 36 (10.59%) Roadmaps
23 35 (10.29%) NCSC
24 34 (10.00%) CI/CD
25 33 (9.71%) GDPR

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 (4.41%) Confluence
2 4 (1.18%) Microsoft Exchange
3 3 (0.88%) SharePoint
4 1 (0.29%) nginx
4 1 (0.29%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 2 (0.59%) Microsoft PowerPoint
1 2 (0.59%) MS Visio
2 1 (0.29%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 6 (1.76%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 102 (30.00%) Azure
2 87 (25.59%) AWS
3 41 (12.06%) GCP
4 22 (6.47%) Entra ID
5 12 (3.53%) Microsoft 365
5 12 (3.53%) SaaS
6 11 (3.24%) Microsoft Purview
7 8 (2.35%) Amazon GuardDuty
7 8 (2.35%) AWS KMS
8 7 (2.06%) AWS CloudFormation
8 7 (2.06%) GitHub
8 7 (2.06%) PaaS
9 6 (1.76%) Virtual Private Cloud
10 5 (1.47%) Azure Sentinel
10 5 (1.47%) IaaS
11 4 (1.18%) Akamai
12 3 (0.88%) Amazon EKS
12 3 (0.88%) Azure DevOps
12 3 (0.88%) Azure Key Vault
13 2 (0.59%) Amazon ECS
Communications & Networking
1 65 (19.12%) Network Security
2 60 (17.65%) Firewall
3 15 (4.41%) VPN
4 14 (4.12%) WAN
5 11 (3.24%) LAN
5 11 (3.24%) SD-WAN
6 8 (2.35%) NGFW
7 7 (2.06%) DNS
7 7 (2.06%) IPsec
8 5 (1.47%) BGP
9 4 (1.18%) DHCP
9 4 (1.18%) OSPF
9 4 (1.18%) Skype
9 4 (1.18%) SSL
10 3 (0.88%) DMZ
10 3 (0.88%) Internet
10 3 (0.88%) Kerberos
10 3 (0.88%) MQTT
10 3 (0.88%) TCP/IP
10 3 (0.88%) VSAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (0.59%) BigQuery
2 1 (0.29%) Elasticsearch
2 1 (0.29%) Metadata
2 1 (0.29%) Oracle Database
Development Applications
1 12 (3.53%) JIRA
2 2 (0.59%) Jenkins
3 1 (0.29%) Git
3 1 (0.29%) GitLab
General
1 69 (20.29%) Social Skills
2 53 (15.59%) Finance
2 53 (15.59%) Public Sector
3 17 (5.00%) Banking
4 15 (4.41%) Analytical Skills
5 11 (3.24%) Documentation Skills
5 11 (3.24%) Legal
6 9 (2.65%) Presentation Skills
7 8 (2.35%) Financial Institution
8 7 (2.06%) Influencing Skills
9 6 (1.76%) Aerospace
9 6 (1.76%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 3 (0.88%) Law
11 2 (0.59%) Military
11 2 (0.59%) Pharmaceutical
12 1 (0.29%) Electronics
12 1 (0.29%) Investment Banking
12 1 (0.29%) Manufacturing
12 1 (0.29%) Marketing
12 1 (0.29%) Retail
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 10 (2.94%) SAML
2 7 (2.06%) OAuth
2 7 (2.06%) OpenID
3 5 (1.47%) ModSecurity
4 4 (1.18%) OAuth2
5 3 (0.88%) ADO
6 2 (0.59%) .NET
6 2 (0.59%) Kafka
6 2 (0.59%) LDAP
6 2 (0.59%) Middleware
7 1 (0.29%) ARM Templates
7 1 (0.29%) Elastic Stack
7 1 (0.29%) J2EE
7 1 (0.29%) JAAS
7 1 (0.29%) JSSE
7 1 (0.29%) JWT
7 1 (0.29%) OpenTelemetry
7 1 (0.29%) REST
7 1 (0.29%) SailPoint
7 1 (0.29%) Spring
Miscellaneous
1 29 (8.53%) Cloud Native
2 28 (8.24%) Security Posture
3 16 (4.71%) Onboarding
3 16 (4.71%) Operational Technology
3 16 (4.71%) PKI
4 14 (4.12%) Management Information System
5 13 (3.82%) Data Centre
6 12 (3.53%) Product Ownership
7 11 (3.24%) Hybrid Cloud
7 11 (3.24%) Private Cloud
8 8 (2.35%) Cyber Defence
8 8 (2.35%) Cyber Threat
8 8 (2.35%) Public Cloud
9 7 (2.06%) Cloud Security Posture
9 7 (2.06%) Enterprise Software
9 7 (2.06%) Legacy Systems
9 7 (2.06%) Taxonomies
10 5 (1.47%) NHS
10 5 (1.47%) SCADA
10 5 (1.47%) Security Operations Centre
Operating Systems
1 16 (4.71%) Windows
2 11 (3.24%) Linux
3 4 (1.18%) Windows 10
3 4 (1.18%) Windows Server
4 3 (0.88%) Unix
4 3 (0.88%) Windows Server 2008
5 2 (0.59%) Android
5 2 (0.59%) Apple iOS
5 2 (0.59%) Windows Server 2019
6 1 (0.29%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 1 (0.29%) Windows 7
6 1 (0.29%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 164 (48.24%) Security Architecture
2 123 (36.18%) Cybersecurity
3 86 (25.29%) Threat Modelling
4 82 (24.12%) Cloud Security
5 66 (19.41%) TOGAF
6 65 (19.12%) Zero Trust
7 53 (15.59%) Risk Management
7 53 (15.59%) SABSA
8 52 (15.29%) Identity Access Management
9 49 (14.41%) Vulnerability Management
10 47 (13.82%) Incident Response
11 42 (12.35%) DevSecOps
12 41 (12.06%) SIEM
12 41 (12.06%) Stakeholder Engagement
13 36 (10.59%) Roadmaps
14 34 (10.00%) CI/CD
15 32 (9.41%) Architectural Patterns
15 32 (9.41%) Information Security
16 28 (8.24%) Enterprise Architecture
17 26 (7.65%) Regulatory Compliance
Programming Languages
1 7 (2.06%) Java
1 7 (2.06%) Python
2 4 (1.18%) SQL
3 3 (0.88%) PowerShell
4 2 (0.59%) Bicep
4 2 (0.59%) C
4 2 (0.59%) Kotlin
4 2 (0.59%) PL/SQL
4 2 (0.59%) Swift
5 1 (0.29%) Bash
5 1 (0.29%) JavaScript
5 1 (0.29%) Kusto Query Language
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
1 132 (38.82%) Security Cleared
2 91 (26.76%) SC Cleared
3 78 (22.94%) CISSP
4 42 (12.35%) CISM
5 32 (9.41%) DV Cleared
6 26 (7.65%) Cisco Certification
7 22 (6.47%) Degree
8 19 (5.59%) AWS Certification
9 17 (5.00%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 15 (4.41%) TOGAF Certification
11 14 (4.12%) Azure Certification
12 11 (3.24%) CCSP
13 9 (2.65%) CCNP
14 7 (2.06%) CCIE
14 7 (2.06%) Master's Degree
15 6 (1.76%) BPSS Clearance
15 6 (1.76%) GIAC
16 5 (1.47%) Microsoft Certification
16 5 (1.47%) PhD
17 4 (1.18%) Computer Science Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 94 (27.65%) NIST
2 70 (20.59%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 35 (10.29%) NCSC
4 33 (9.71%) GDPR
5 22 (6.47%) PCI DSS
6 8 (2.35%) JSP 440
6 8 (2.35%) PSD2
7 7 (2.06%) Cyber Essentials
7 7 (2.06%) EU AI Act
7 7 (2.06%) NIST 800
8 5 (1.47%) GRC
8 5 (1.47%) HMG Security Policy Framework
9 3 (0.88%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 3 (0.88%) Def Stans
9 3 (0.88%) HIPAA
10 2 (0.59%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
10 2 (0.59%) QA
10 2 (0.59%) RMADS
10 2 (0.59%) SOC 1
10 2 (0.59%) SOC 2
System Software
1 10 (2.94%) Active Directory
2 7 (2.06%) Docker
3 3 (0.88%) VMware ESXi
3 3 (0.88%) VMware Infrastructure
4 1 (0.29%) BitLocker
4 1 (0.29%) Hyper-V
4 1 (0.29%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 23 (6.76%) Terraform
2 13 (3.82%) Kubernetes
3 7 (2.06%) Ansible
3 7 (2.06%) Single Sign-On
4 4 (1.18%) SCCM
5 3 (0.88%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 3 (0.88%) OPNET
5 3 (0.88%) vCenter Server
6 2 (0.59%) FortiGate
7 1 (0.29%) Kibana
7 1 (0.29%) logstash
7 1 (0.29%) SELinux
Vendors
1 54 (15.88%) Microsoft
2 24 (7.06%) CyberArk
3 16 (4.71%) Splunk
4 13 (3.82%) BiZZdesign
4 13 (3.82%) Palo Alto
5 12 (3.53%) Cisco
6 11 (3.24%) Centrify
7 9 (2.65%) CheckPoint
8 8 (2.35%) Darktrace
8 8 (2.35%) Fortinet
8 8 (2.35%) Zscaler
9 7 (2.06%) F5
9 7 (2.06%) Virgin Media
10 6 (1.76%) Google
10 6 (1.76%) Sparx
10 6 (1.76%) VMware
11 5 (1.47%) ServiceNow
12 4 (1.18%) Juniper
12 4 (1.18%) Tenable
12 4 (1.18%) Thycotic