Lead Architect Job Trends in the North West

Lead Architect
England > North West

The median Lead Architect salary in the North West is £95,000 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 165 195 186
Rank change year-on-year +30 -9 +105
Permanent jobs requiring a Lead Architect 21 10 17
As % of all permanent jobs in the North West 0.33% 0.20% 0.38%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.38% 0.21% 0.40%
Number of salaries quoted 10 1 16
10th Percentile £92,500 - £65,104
25th Percentile £93,125 - £74,901
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £95,000 £70,000 £79,932
Median % change year-on-year +35.71% -12.43% -12.41%
75th Percentile £96,875 - £85,000
90th Percentile £97,500 - £90,000
England median annual salary £87,431 £95,000 £85,000
% change year-on-year -7.97% +11.76% -6.86%

All Permanent IT Job Roles
North West

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent IT job vacancies in the North West. 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 the North West with a recognized job title 5,478 4,660 4,269
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 85.98% 92.20% 95.33%
Number of salaries quoted 3,043 2,452 3,359
10th Percentile £28,250 £32,500 £29,000
25th Percentile £35,000 £40,000 £38,734
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £52,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -3.85% +4.00% -5.87%
75th Percentile £67,500 £66,113 £67,500
90th Percentile £81,250 £78,750 £80,000
England median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £57,500
% change year-on-year -8.33% +4.35% -6.50%

Lead Architect
Job Vacancy Trend in the North West

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

Lead Architect job vacancy trend in the North West

Lead Architect
Salary Trend in the North West

Salary distribution trend for Lead Architect job vacancies in the North West.

Salary distribution trend for Lead Architect job vacancies in the North West

Lead Architect
Job Locations in the North West

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Lead Architect within the North West 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
Cumbria +20 9 - - 1
Manchester +22 6 £95,000 - 3
Lancashire - 4 £95,000 - 1
Cheshire - 2 £95,000 -
Lead Architect
England

Lead Architect Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the North West

For the 6 months to 14 January 2026, Lead 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 North West region featuring Lead Architect in the job title.

1 12 (57.14%) Business Strategy
2 10 (47.62%) Enterprise Architecture
3 9 (42.86%) Agile
3 9 (42.86%) BPSS Clearance
3 9 (42.86%) CAD
3 9 (42.86%) Confluence
3 9 (42.86%) ERP
3 9 (42.86%) JIRA
3 9 (42.86%) PLM
3 9 (42.86%) SAP
3 9 (42.86%) Siemens
4 4 (19.05%) Stakeholder Management
4 4 (19.05%) Technology Strategy
5 3 (14.29%) Analytics
5 3 (14.29%) Roadmaps
5 3 (14.29%) Strategic Roadmap
5 3 (14.29%) Technical Debt
6 2 (9.52%) AWS
7 1 (4.76%) AI
7 1 (4.76%) AWS Certification
7 1 (4.76%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
7 1 (4.76%) Azure
7 1 (4.76%) Containerisation
7 1 (4.76%) Continuous Improvement
7 1 (4.76%) Cybersecurity
7 1 (4.76%) Data Protection
7 1 (4.76%) Design Thinking
7 1 (4.76%) GCP
7 1 (4.76%) Impact Assessments
7 1 (4.76%) IT Governance

Lead Architect Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the North West 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 9 (42.86%) Confluence
Cloud Services
1 2 (9.52%) AWS
2 1 (4.76%) Azure
2 1 (4.76%) GCP
2 1 (4.76%) Serverless
Development Applications
1 9 (42.86%) JIRA
General
1 9 (42.86%) Manufacturing
2 3 (14.29%) Legal
3 2 (9.52%) Banking
4 1 (4.76%) Aeronautics
4 1 (4.76%) Aerospace
4 1 (4.76%) Automotive
4 1 (4.76%) Finance
4 1 (4.76%) Influencing Skills
Miscellaneous
1 1 (4.76%) Data Protection Act
1 1 (4.76%) Distributed Systems
1 1 (4.76%) Product Ownership
1 1 (4.76%) Public Cloud
Processes & Methodologies
1 12 (57.14%) Business Strategy
2 10 (47.62%) Enterprise Architecture
3 9 (42.86%) Agile
3 9 (42.86%) CAD
3 9 (42.86%) ERP
3 9 (42.86%) PLM
4 4 (19.05%) Stakeholder Management
4 4 (19.05%) Technology Strategy
5 3 (14.29%) Analytics
5 3 (14.29%) Roadmaps
5 3 (14.29%) Strategic Roadmap
5 3 (14.29%) Technical Debt
6 1 (4.76%) Containerisation
6 1 (4.76%) Continuous Improvement
6 1 (4.76%) Cybersecurity
6 1 (4.76%) Design Thinking
6 1 (4.76%) IT Strategy
6 1 (4.76%) Stakeholder Engagement
6 1 (4.76%) Strategic Thinking
6 1 (4.76%) Technical Leadership
Qualifications
1 9 (42.86%) BPSS Clearance
2 1 (4.76%) AWS Certification
2 1 (4.76%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
Vendors
1 9 (42.86%) SAP
1 9 (42.86%) Siemens