Software Architect Contracts

Software Architect
UK

The median Software Architect daily rate in the UK is £633, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 1 May 2025.

The table below provides contractor rate benchmarking and summary statistics, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 509 537 685
Rank change year-on-year +28 +148 +104
Contract jobs requiring a Software Architect 11 45 33
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.038% 0.10% 0.055%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.041% 0.11% 0.058%
Number of daily rates quoted 4 19 27
10th Percentile £574 - £485
25th Percentile £591 £550 £523
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £633 £650 £615
Median % change year-on-year -2.69% +5.69% +2.50%
75th Percentile £673 £750 £650
90th Percentile - £800 £850
UK excluding London median daily rate £600 £713 £615
% change year-on-year -15.79% +15.85% +1.65%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 17 0
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £66.25 £61.25 -
Median hourly rate £67.50 £80.00 -
Median % change year-on-year -15.63% - -
75th Percentile £68.75 £85.00 -
90th Percentile - £90.00 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £67.50 £80.00 -
% change year-on-year -15.63% - -

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
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 27,084 40,415 56,464
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.52% 92.78% 94.61%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,692 26,309 39,470
10th Percentile £300 £275 £313
25th Percentile £406 £410 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £515 £525 £540
Median % change year-on-year -1.90% -2.78% +2.86%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £650
90th Percentile £738 £750 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £492 £500
% change year-on-year -3.46% -1.60% +5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,035 2,664 1,570
10th Percentile £14.07 £12.86 £14.29
25th Percentile £18.50 £16.30 £19.50
Median hourly rate £29.00 £36.42 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -20.37% -19.07% +91.49%
75th Percentile £62.50 £60.75 £65.75
90th Percentile £75.00 £72.50 £75.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £28.00 £39.55 £42.50
% change year-on-year -29.20% -6.94% +117.95%

Software Architect
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings that featured Software Architect in the job title as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for Software Architect in the UK

Software Architect
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Software Architect.

Daily rate trend for Software Architect in the UK

Software Architect
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Software Architect.

Hourly rate trend for Software Architect in the UK

Software Architect
Top 8 Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Software Architect within the UK over the 6 months to 1 May 2025. 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 +21 9 £633 -2.69% 137
UK excluding London +37 5 £600 -15.79% 126
London +29 4 £665 +15.65% 21
Work from Home +30 3 £575 +4.55% 109
South East +44 2 - - 36
North West - 2 £600 - 10
North of England - 2 £600 - 24
South West +40 1 - - 19

Software Architect Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities

For the 6 months to 1 May 2025, Software Architect contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads featuring Software Architect in the job title.

1 6 (54.55%) Security Cleared
2 5 (45.45%) Qt
2 5 (45.45%) C++
2 5 (45.45%) SC Cleared
3 4 (36.36%) Agile
3 4 (36.36%) Data Protection Act
3 4 (36.36%) Data Protection
4 3 (27.27%) Software Engineering
4 3 (27.27%) Architectural Patterns
4 3 (27.27%) Event-Driven
4 3 (27.27%) CI/CD
4 3 (27.27%) Microservices
4 3 (27.27%) Problem-Solving
4 3 (27.27%) Technical Leadership
4 3 (27.27%) DevOps
4 3 (27.27%) Social Skills
5 2 (18.18%) Software-Defined Networking
5 2 (18.18%) BT
5 2 (18.18%) Telecoms
5 2 (18.18%) PostgreSQL
5 2 (18.18%) Python
5 2 (18.18%) AWS
5 2 (18.18%) GitHub
5 2 (18.18%) Software Architecture
6 1 (9.09%) IEC 61508
6 1 (9.09%) Amazon SQS
6 1 (9.09%) REST
6 1 (9.09%) QML
6 1 (9.09%) Analytics
6 1 (9.09%) DynamoDB

Software Architect Skill Set
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 1 (9.09%) Confluence
Cloud Services
1 2 (18.18%) AWS
1 2 (18.18%) GitHub
2 1 (9.09%) Amazon ECS
2 1 (9.09%) Amazon EKS
2 1 (9.09%) Amazon EventBridge
2 1 (9.09%) Amazon SQS
2 1 (9.09%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 2 (18.18%) Software-Defined Networking
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (18.18%) PostgreSQL
2 1 (9.09%) Amazon Aurora
2 1 (9.09%) DynamoDB
2 1 (9.09%) MySQL
General
1 3 (27.27%) Social Skills
2 2 (18.18%) Telecoms
3 1 (9.09%) Analytical Skills
3 1 (9.09%) Presentation Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (45.45%) Qt
2 1 (9.09%) .NET
2 1 (9.09%) QML
2 1 (9.09%) React
2 1 (9.09%) REST
2 1 (9.09%) SAPUI5
Miscellaneous
1 4 (36.36%) Data Protection Act
2 1 (9.09%) Cloud Native
2 1 (9.09%) Greenfield Project
Processes & Methodologies
1 4 (36.36%) Agile
1 4 (36.36%) Data Protection
2 3 (27.27%) Architectural Patterns
2 3 (27.27%) CI/CD
2 3 (27.27%) DevOps
2 3 (27.27%) Event-Driven
2 3 (27.27%) Microservices
2 3 (27.27%) Problem-Solving
2 3 (27.27%) Software Engineering
2 3 (27.27%) Technical Leadership
3 2 (18.18%) Software Architecture
4 1 (9.09%) Analytical Thinking
4 1 (9.09%) Analytics
4 1 (9.09%) Code Quality
4 1 (9.09%) Design Patterns
4 1 (9.09%) Full-Stack Development
4 1 (9.09%) Infrastructure as Code
4 1 (9.09%) Multithreading
4 1 (9.09%) Technical Architecture
4 1 (9.09%) Test Automation
Programming Languages
1 5 (45.45%) C++
2 2 (18.18%) Python
3 1 (9.09%) Ada
3 1 (9.09%) JavaScript
Qualifications
1 6 (54.55%) Security Cleared
2 5 (45.45%) SC Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 1 (9.09%) Def Stans
1 1 (9.09%) IEC 61508
1 1 (9.09%) MISRA
1 1 (9.09%) MISRA C
Systems Management
1 1 (9.09%) Terraform
Vendors
1 2 (18.18%) BT
2 1 (9.09%) Adobe
2 1 (9.09%) Atlassian
2 1 (9.09%) Google
2 1 (9.09%) SAP