Principal Architect Job Trends in England

Principal Architect
UK > England

The median Principal Architect salary in England is £100,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 14 January 2026.

The table below compares current salary benchmarking and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
14 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 575 616 593
Rank change year-on-year +41 -23 +217
Permanent jobs requiring a Principal Architect 42 63 87
As % of all permanent jobs in England 0.079% 0.13% 0.18%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.087% 0.14% 0.19%
Number of salaries quoted 26 46 28
10th Percentile £71,625 £60,000 £67,327
25th Percentile £81,438 £70,000 £80,688
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £100,000 £83,500 £110,000
Median % change year-on-year +19.76% -24.09% +10.00%
75th Percentile £116,875 £99,375 £120,000
90th Percentile £132,500 £115,000 £134,125
UK median annual salary £100,000 £83,500 £102,500
% change year-on-year +19.76% -18.54% +2.50%

All Permanent IT Job Roles
England

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent IT job vacancies in England. 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 permanent jobs in our overall sample.

Permanent vacancies in England with a recognized job title 48,032 44,628 46,871
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 90.90% 92.71% 95.12%
Number of salaries quoted 30,380 23,318 36,700
10th Percentile £28,750 £33,750 £31,000
25th Percentile £37,500 £45,000 £41,670
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £57,500
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +4.35% -6.50%
75th Percentile £75,000 £80,000 £77,500
90th Percentile £95,000 £98,750 £97,500
UK median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £57,500
% change year-on-year -8.33% +4.35% -4.17%

Principal Architect
Job Vacancy Trend in England

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

Principal Architect job vacancy trend in England

Principal Architect
Salary Trend in England

Salary distribution trend for Principal Architect job vacancies in England.

Salary distribution trend for Principal Architect job vacancies in England

Principal Architect
Salary Histogram in England

Salary distribution for jobs citing Principal Architect in England over the 6 months to 14 January 2026.

Salary histogram for Principal Architect in England

Principal Architect
Job Locations in England

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Principal Architect within the England region over the 6 months to 14 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
Permanent
IT Job Ads
Median Salary
Past 6 Months
Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
London +57 15 £103,750 +3.75% 1
South West +11 6 £100,000 +11.11%
Midlands +8 6 £135,000 +92.86% 4
North of England -1 6 £79,000 +58.00% 1
Yorkshire -11 5 £79,000 +58.00%
East of England +27 4 - - 3
East Midlands -23 4 £110,000 +57.14%
South East +32 3 £112,500 +25.00% 3
North West +13 1 £84,000 -9.92% 1
West Midlands - 1 £150,000 - 4
Principal Architect
UK

Principal Architect Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in England

For the 6 months to 14 January 2026, Principal Architect 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 permanent job ads across the England region featuring Principal Architect in the job title.

1 17 (40.48%) Azure
2 14 (33.33%) Roadmaps
3 12 (28.57%) Enterprise Architecture
4 10 (23.81%) Technology Roadmap
5 9 (21.43%) IT Strategy
5 9 (21.43%) Line Management
5 9 (21.43%) Technology Strategy
6 8 (19.05%) Analytics
6 8 (19.05%) CRM
6 8 (19.05%) Customer Experience
7 7 (16.67%) AI
7 7 (16.67%) Data Security
7 7 (16.67%) Machine Learning
7 7 (16.67%) Microsoft
8 6 (14.29%) Agile
8 6 (14.29%) Architectural Patterns
8 6 (14.29%) AWS
8 6 (14.29%) Databricks
8 6 (14.29%) Kubernetes
8 6 (14.29%) Mentoring
8 6 (14.29%) Python
8 6 (14.29%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 6 (14.29%) Stakeholder Management
8 6 (14.29%) TOGAF
9 5 (11.90%) Architecture Governance
9 5 (11.90%) Broadband
9 5 (11.90%) Customer Engagement
9 5 (11.90%) Decision-Making
9 5 (11.90%) GDPR
9 5 (11.90%) Java

Principal Architect Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in England 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 2 (4.76%) Apache Spark
Cloud Services
1 17 (40.48%) Azure
2 6 (14.29%) AWS
3 5 (11.90%) Snowflake
4 4 (9.52%) SaaS
5 3 (7.14%) Azure Data Factory
5 3 (7.14%) GCP
5 3 (7.14%) Kong
5 3 (7.14%) Microsoft Purview
5 3 (7.14%) OpenShift
6 1 (2.38%) Cloud Computing
6 1 (2.38%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 5 (11.90%) Broadband
2 1 (2.38%) Internet
2 1 (2.38%) Kerberos
Database & Business Intelligence
1 5 (11.90%) Metadata
2 3 (7.14%) Data Warehouse
3 2 (4.76%) Apache Hive
3 2 (4.76%) Big Data
3 2 (4.76%) Hadoop
3 2 (4.76%) NoSQL
4 1 (2.38%) Data Lake
4 1 (2.38%) Power BI
4 1 (2.38%) Tableau
General
1 12 (28.57%) Social Skills
2 6 (14.29%) Finance
3 5 (11.90%) Games
3 5 (11.90%) Telecoms
4 4 (9.52%) Public Sector
5 2 (4.76%) Banking
5 2 (4.76%) Influencing Skills
5 2 (4.76%) Presentation Skills
6 1 (2.38%) Documentation Skills
6 1 (2.38%) Manufacturing
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (11.90%) Kafka
2 3 (7.14%) Apollo GraphQL
2 3 (7.14%) GraphQL
2 3 (7.14%) Node.js
2 3 (7.14%) PySpark
2 3 (7.14%) React
3 2 (4.76%) JDBC
3 2 (4.76%) LDAP
3 2 (4.76%) OAuth
3 2 (4.76%) OAuth2
3 2 (4.76%) ODBC
Miscellaneous
1 4 (9.52%) Management Information System
2 3 (7.14%) Cloud Native
3 2 (4.76%) Distributed Systems
3 2 (4.76%) Enterprise Software
3 2 (4.76%) NHS
4 1 (2.38%) Distributed Architecture
4 1 (2.38%) Industrial Internet of Things
4 1 (2.38%) Industry 4.0
4 1 (2.38%) IoT
Operating Systems
1 2 (4.76%) Linux
1 2 (4.76%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 14 (33.33%) Roadmaps
2 12 (28.57%) Enterprise Architecture
3 10 (23.81%) Technology Roadmap
4 9 (21.43%) IT Strategy
4 9 (21.43%) Line Management
4 9 (21.43%) Technology Strategy
5 8 (19.05%) Analytics
5 8 (19.05%) CRM
5 8 (19.05%) Customer Experience
6 7 (16.67%) AI
6 7 (16.67%) Data Security
6 7 (16.67%) Machine Learning
7 6 (14.29%) Agile
7 6 (14.29%) Architectural Patterns
7 6 (14.29%) Mentoring
7 6 (14.29%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 6 (14.29%) Stakeholder Management
7 6 (14.29%) TOGAF
8 5 (11.90%) Decision-Making
8 5 (11.90%) Strategic Thinking
Programming Languages
1 6 (14.29%) Python
2 5 (11.90%) Java
3 3 (7.14%) SQL
3 3 (7.14%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 3 (7.14%) TOGAF Certification
2 2 (4.76%) CISSP
2 2 (4.76%) Computer Science Degree
2 2 (4.76%) Degree
2 2 (4.76%) Master's Degree
3 1 (2.38%) (ISC)2 CCSP
3 1 (2.38%) AWS Certification
3 1 (2.38%) Azure Certification
3 1 (2.38%) CCSP
3 1 (2.38%) Cisco Certification
3 1 (2.38%) CISM
3 1 (2.38%) DV Cleared
3 1 (2.38%) SC Cleared
3 1 (2.38%) Security Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 5 (11.90%) GDPR
2 4 (9.52%) NIST
3 2 (4.76%) PMO
4 1 (2.38%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 1 (2.38%) NCSC
System Software
1 2 (4.76%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 6 (14.29%) Kubernetes
2 3 (7.14%) Terraform
3 2 (4.76%) Ansible
Vendors
1 7 (16.67%) Microsoft
2 6 (14.29%) Databricks
3 3 (7.14%) Adobe
3 3 (7.14%) Informatica
3 3 (7.14%) MuleSoft
3 3 (7.14%) Salesforce
3 3 (7.14%) SAP
4 2 (4.76%) Dell
5 1 (2.38%) Alteryx