Security Architect Contract Job Trends

Security Architect
UK

The median Security Architect daily rate in the UK is £634, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 16 June 2026.

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

6 months to
16 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 243 223 216
Rank change year-on-year -20 -7 +37
Contract jobs requiring a Security Architect 524 351 470
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.04% 1.18% 1.08%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.13% 1.28% 1.16%
Number of daily rates quoted 345 234 286
10th Percentile £483 £530 £500
25th Percentile £525 £600 £625
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £634 £675 £700
Median % change year-on-year -6.07% -3.57% -
75th Percentile £775 £775 £775
90th Percentile £844 £832 £825
UK excluding London median daily rate £650 £663 £663
% change year-on-year -1.89% - -2.57%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4 2 19
10th Percentile - £84.25 £81.86
25th Percentile - £86.88 £81.88
Median hourly rate £83.00 £92.50 £87.46
Median % change year-on-year -10.27% +5.76% +24.94%
75th Percentile £83.25 £96.88 £87.50
90th Percentile £83.70 £98.75 £87.53
UK excluding London median hourly rate £83.00 £92.50 £87.46
% change year-on-year -10.27% +5.76% +24.94%

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 46,390 27,334 40,477
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.40% 92.27% 92.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 28,221 17,578 25,945
10th Percentile £325 £288 £280
25th Percentile £413 £402 £408
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £515 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +3.00% -4.76% -2.33%
75th Percentile £623 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £488
% change year-on-year +5.26% -2.56% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,091 1,160 2,956
10th Percentile £15.25 £13.85 £12.86
25th Percentile £20.79 £17.75 £16.30
Median hourly rate £43.61 £27.45 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +58.85% -26.80% -16.67%
75th Percentile £67.50 £57.50 £62.01
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £73.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £40.00
% change year-on-year +78.93% -37.13% -2.55%

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 16 June 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 15 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 16 June 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 -23 446 £650 -3.70% 191
London -46 219 £634 -6.07% 84
UK excluding London -14 213 £650 -1.89% 125
Work from Home +7 176 £600 -14.29% 122
South East -3 85 £645 +5.31% 35
North of England -43 55 £701 +4.09% 21
Midlands -28 49 £625 -18.03% 19
West Midlands -32 46 £625 -18.03% 17
North West -20 43 £712 +5.48% 11
South West -43 16 £660 +1.54% 24
Yorkshire -46 10 £575 +4.55% 5
Scotland -11 5 £700 -15.15% 3
East Midlands - 3 £438 - 2
East of England -29 2 £750 - 8
Channel Islands - 1 £575 -

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

For the 6 months to 16 June 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.

1 250 (47.71%) Security Architecture
2 243 (46.37%) Security Cleared
3 190 (36.26%) Cybersecurity
4 166 (31.68%) SC Cleared
5 151 (28.82%) Threat Modelling
6 149 (28.44%) Azure
7 140 (26.72%) Cloud Security
8 128 (24.43%) AWS
9 115 (21.95%) NIST
10 97 (18.51%) Zero Trust
11 93 (17.75%) Network Security
12 92 (17.56%) CISSP
13 78 (14.89%) ISO/IEC 27001
14 76 (14.50%) Architectural Patterns
15 72 (13.74%) Risk Management
16 67 (12.79%) Stakeholder Engagement
17 65 (12.40%) Identity Access Management
18 64 (12.21%) GCP
19 62 (11.83%) DV Cleared
19 62 (11.83%) TOGAF
20 59 (11.26%) SABSA
21 58 (11.07%) Application Security
22 56 (10.69%) Stakeholder Management
23 52 (9.92%) AI
24 51 (9.73%) CISM
25 50 (9.54%) NCSC
26 49 (9.35%) Microsoft
26 49 (9.35%) Vulnerability Management
27 46 (8.78%) Cisco Certification
27 46 (8.78%) DevSecOps

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 8 (1.53%) Confluence
2 5 (0.95%) SharePoint
3 4 (0.76%) nginx
4 1 (0.19%) Microsoft Exchange
4 1 (0.19%) NetWeaver
4 1 (0.19%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 5 (0.95%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 1 (0.19%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.19%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 3 (0.57%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
2 1 (0.19%) SAP EHS
2 1 (0.19%) SAP EWM
2 1 (0.19%) SAP GRC
2 1 (0.19%) SAP HR
2 1 (0.19%) SAP S/4HANA
2 1 (0.19%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 149 (28.44%) Azure
2 128 (24.43%) AWS
3 64 (12.21%) GCP
4 30 (5.73%) Entra ID
5 17 (3.24%) Azure Sentinel
6 10 (1.91%) SaaS
7 7 (1.34%) Amazon GuardDuty
7 7 (1.34%) Microsoft 365
8 6 (1.15%) Amazon EKS
9 4 (0.76%) AWS CloudFormation
9 4 (0.76%) AWS Control Tower
9 4 (0.76%) AWS KMS
9 4 (0.76%) GitHub
9 4 (0.76%) Virtual Private Cloud
10 3 (0.57%) Akamai
10 3 (0.57%) Apigee
10 3 (0.57%) AWS CloudTrail
10 3 (0.57%) Azure API Management
10 3 (0.57%) Azure DevOps
10 3 (0.57%) IaaS
Communications & Networking
1 93 (17.75%) Network Security
2 38 (7.25%) Firewall
3 14 (2.67%) VPN
4 11 (2.10%) WAN
5 9 (1.72%) IPsec
5 9 (1.72%) LAN
5 9 (1.72%) SD-WAN
6 6 (1.15%) NGFW
7 5 (0.95%) BGP
7 5 (0.95%) MPLS
7 5 (0.95%) OSPF
8 4 (0.76%) Reverse Proxy
8 4 (0.76%) VLAN
9 3 (0.57%) Internet
9 3 (0.57%) Intrusion Detection
9 3 (0.57%) MQTT
10 2 (0.38%) DMZ
10 2 (0.38%) DNS
10 2 (0.38%) SSL
10 2 (0.38%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 5 (0.95%) PostgreSQL
2 3 (0.57%) Data Lake
2 3 (0.57%) Data Warehouse
3 2 (0.38%) Big Data
4 1 (0.19%) Azure SQL Database
4 1 (0.19%) BigQuery
4 1 (0.19%) Metadata
Development Applications
1 6 (1.15%) JIRA
2 4 (0.76%) Jenkins
2 4 (0.76%) Snyk
3 2 (0.38%) GitLab
4 1 (0.19%) AppScan
4 1 (0.19%) Artifactory
4 1 (0.19%) Burp Suite
4 1 (0.19%) Claude Code
4 1 (0.19%) Metasploit
General
1 90 (17.18%) Social Skills
2 73 (13.93%) Public Sector
3 59 (11.26%) Finance
4 28 (5.34%) Banking
5 23 (4.39%) Documentation Skills
6 14 (2.67%) Analytical Skills
6 14 (2.67%) Influencing Skills
7 12 (2.29%) Legal
8 11 (2.10%) Presentation Skills
9 10 (1.91%) Aerospace
10 6 (1.15%) Manufacturing
10 6 (1.15%) Military
11 5 (0.95%) Financial Institution
12 4 (0.76%) Law
12 4 (0.76%) Retail
13 3 (0.57%) Telecoms
14 2 (0.38%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 2 (0.38%) Police
14 2 (0.38%) Retail Banking
15 1 (0.19%) Aviation
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 14 (2.67%) OAuth
2 12 (2.29%) OAuth2
2 12 (2.29%) OpenID
3 10 (1.91%) SAML
4 6 (1.15%) REST
5 5 (0.95%) J2EE
5 5 (0.95%) JSP
5 5 (0.95%) JWT
5 5 (0.95%) SailPoint
6 4 (0.76%) Azure Blueprints
6 4 (0.76%) LDAP
7 3 (0.57%) .NET
7 3 (0.57%) ADO
7 3 (0.57%) FastAPI
7 3 (0.57%) Flask
7 3 (0.57%) HTML
7 3 (0.57%) Middleware
8 2 (0.38%) A2A Protocol
8 2 (0.38%) Hugging Face
8 2 (0.38%) LangChain
Miscellaneous
1 46 (8.78%) Security Posture
2 38 (7.25%) Cloud Native
3 34 (6.49%) Operational Technology
4 26 (4.96%) Management Information System
5 18 (3.44%) Onboarding
6 14 (2.67%) AI Agents
7 11 (2.10%) Data Centre
7 11 (2.10%) Data Protection Act
8 10 (1.91%) Cyber Threat
9 9 (1.72%) Enterprise Cloud
9 9 (1.72%) Hybrid Cloud
9 9 (1.72%) Legacy Systems
10 7 (1.34%) Cloud Security Posture
11 6 (1.15%) Mobile App
11 6 (1.15%) Private Cloud
12 5 (0.95%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
13 4 (0.76%) Autonomous Agent
13 4 (0.76%) Genomics
13 4 (0.76%) Public Cloud
13 4 (0.76%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 14 (2.67%) Linux
1 14 (2.67%) Windows
2 7 (1.34%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
2 7 (1.34%) Windows Server
3 4 (0.76%) Alpine Linux
3 4 (0.76%) Ubuntu
4 3 (0.57%) Android
5 2 (0.38%) Apple iOS
6 1 (0.19%) Kali Linux
6 1 (0.19%) Unix
6 1 (0.19%) VMS
6 1 (0.19%) Windows 10
6 1 (0.19%) Windows 7
6 1 (0.19%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 250 (47.71%) Security Architecture
2 190 (36.26%) Cybersecurity
3 151 (28.82%) Threat Modelling
4 140 (26.72%) Cloud Security
5 97 (18.51%) Zero Trust
6 76 (14.50%) Architectural Patterns
7 72 (13.74%) Risk Management
8 67 (12.79%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 65 (12.40%) Identity Access Management
10 62 (11.83%) TOGAF
11 59 (11.26%) SABSA
12 58 (11.07%) Application Security
13 56 (10.69%) Stakeholder Management
14 52 (9.92%) AI
15 49 (9.35%) Vulnerability Management
16 46 (8.78%) DevSecOps
16 46 (8.78%) SIEM
17 45 (8.59%) Data Protection
18 44 (8.40%) DevOps
18 44 (8.40%) Roadmaps
Programming Languages
1 13 (2.48%) Java
2 12 (2.29%) Python
3 8 (1.53%) Bicep
4 7 (1.34%) PowerShell
5 6 (1.15%) JavaScript
6 3 (0.57%) SQL
7 2 (0.38%) Kotlin
7 2 (0.38%) Swift
8 1 (0.19%) Bash
8 1 (0.19%) Lisp
8 1 (0.19%) RPG
8 1 (0.19%) VB
8 1 (0.19%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 243 (46.37%) Security Cleared
2 166 (31.68%) SC Cleared
3 92 (17.56%) CISSP
4 62 (11.83%) DV Cleared
5 51 (9.73%) CISM
6 46 (8.78%) Cisco Certification
7 38 (7.25%) (ISC)2 CCSP
8 24 (4.58%) CCSP
9 22 (4.20%) Degree
10 16 (3.05%) AWS Certification
11 13 (2.48%) GIAC
12 12 (2.29%) CISA
13 11 (2.10%) BPSS Clearance
13 11 (2.10%) CEH
14 10 (1.91%) SANS
15 9 (1.72%) Azure Certification
16 7 (1.34%) OSCP
17 6 (1.15%) CCNP
18 5 (0.95%) ISSAP
18 5 (0.95%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 115 (21.95%) NIST
2 78 (14.89%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 50 (9.54%) NCSC
4 37 (7.06%) GDPR
5 18 (3.44%) PCI DSS
6 16 (3.05%) GRC
6 16 (3.05%) NIST 800
7 8 (1.53%) COBIT
7 8 (1.53%) EU AI Act
7 8 (1.53%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
8 6 (1.15%) ISO 19650
8 6 (1.15%) JSP 440
8 6 (1.15%) RMADS
9 5 (0.95%) HMG Security Policy Framework
9 5 (0.95%) QA
9 5 (0.95%) SOC 2
10 4 (0.76%) Cyber Essentials
10 4 (0.76%) Government Security Classifications
11 3 (0.57%) IFRS
11 3 (0.57%) IFRS 9
System Software
1 20 (3.82%) Active Directory
2 4 (0.76%) Docker
2 4 (0.76%) VMware Infrastructure
3 3 (0.57%) vSphere
4 2 (0.38%) Hyper-V
5 1 (0.19%) BitLocker
5 1 (0.19%) KVM
5 1 (0.19%) Varnish
5 1 (0.19%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 25 (4.77%) Terraform
2 20 (3.82%) Kubernetes
3 11 (2.10%) Ansible
4 5 (0.95%) Single Sign-On
5 3 (0.57%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 3 (0.57%) QRadar
6 2 (0.38%) Istio
6 2 (0.38%) Network Intrusion Detection System
7 1 (0.19%) FortiGate
7 1 (0.19%) Microsoft Intune
7 1 (0.19%) Nessus
7 1 (0.19%) Progress Chef
7 1 (0.19%) SCCM
7 1 (0.19%) SELinux
7 1 (0.19%) Suricata
Vendors
1 49 (9.35%) Microsoft
2 22 (4.20%) Splunk
3 14 (2.67%) Okta
4 13 (2.48%) SAP
5 12 (2.29%) Cisco
6 10 (1.91%) Google
6 10 (1.91%) Palo Alto
6 10 (1.91%) Tenable
7 9 (1.72%) Fortinet
7 9 (1.72%) Zscaler
8 8 (1.53%) BiZZdesign
8 8 (1.53%) Qualys
9 7 (1.34%) CrowdStrike
9 7 (1.34%) Salesforce
10 6 (1.15%) CheckPoint
10 6 (1.15%) CyberArk
11 5 (0.95%) Cribl.io
11 5 (0.95%) ServiceNow
12 4 (0.76%) Rapid7
12 4 (0.76%) VMware