Software Architect Job Trends in the South East

Software Architect
England > South East

The median Software Architect salary in the South East is £90,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 22 January 2026.

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

6 months to
22 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 249 267 295
Rank change year-on-year +18 +28 +93
Permanent jobs requiring a Software Architect 21 33 13
As % of all permanent jobs in the South East 0.20% 0.37% 0.13%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.21% 0.41% 0.14%
Number of salaries quoted 9 12 8
10th Percentile £83,560 £65,000 £66,750
25th Percentile £85,700 £76,250 £67,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £90,000 £90,000 £80,000
Median % change year-on-year - +12.50% +39.13%
75th Percentile - £100,000 £81,250
90th Percentile - £102,250 £85,000
England median annual salary £85,700 £85,000 £80,000
% change year-on-year +0.82% +6.25% -5.88%

All Permanent IT Job Roles
South East

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent IT job vacancies in the South East. 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 South East with a recognized job title 9,786 8,081 9,583
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 92.13% 90.14% 94.91%
Number of salaries quoted 6,172 4,238 7,111
10th Percentile £28,000 £32,500 £28,000
25th Percentile £35,000 £43,750 £36,644
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £57,500 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -13.04% +15.00% -9.09%
75th Percentile £65,000 £72,500 £65,000
90th Percentile £80,000 £85,000 £78,750
England median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £56,525
% change year-on-year -8.33% +6.15% -9.56%

Software Architect
Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

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

Software Architect job vacancy trend in the South East

Software Architect
Salary Trend in the South East

Salary distribution trend for Software Architect job vacancies in the South East.

Salary distribution trend for Software Architect job vacancies in the South East

Software Architect
Salary Histogram in the South East

Salary distribution for jobs citing Software Architect in the South East over the 6 months to 22 January 2026.

Salary histogram for Software Architect in the South East

Software Architect
Job Locations in the South East

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Software Architect within the South East region over the 6 months to 22 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
Hampshire +28 11 £80,350 -10.72%
Thames Valley -3 6 £90,000 +20.00% 2
Berkshire -4 6 £90,000 +28.57%
Isle of Wight - 3 - -
Kent - 1 £85,700 -
Software Architect
England

Software Architect Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South East

For the 6 months to 22 January 2026, Software 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 South East region featuring Software Architect in the job title.

1 10 (47.62%) DevOps
2 9 (42.86%) Agile
3 8 (38.10%) BPSS Clearance
3 8 (38.10%) Chartered Engineer
3 8 (38.10%) Computer Science
3 8 (38.10%) Computer Science Degree
3 8 (38.10%) Configuration Management
3 8 (38.10%) Continuous Improvement
3 8 (38.10%) Degree
3 8 (38.10%) Design Patterns
3 8 (38.10%) ISO/IEC 12207
3 8 (38.10%) Mentoring
3 8 (38.10%) Middleware
3 8 (38.10%) Open Source
3 8 (38.10%) SDLC
3 8 (38.10%) UML
3 8 (38.10%) Waterfall
4 6 (28.57%) Security Cleared
4 6 (28.57%) Software Engineering
5 2 (9.52%) Azure
6 1 (4.76%) ArchiMate
6 1 (4.76%) Azure DevOps
6 1 (4.76%) BiZZdesign
6 1 (4.76%) C#
6 1 (4.76%) CI/CD
6 1 (4.76%) DV Cleared
6 1 (4.76%) Elasticsearch
6 1 (4.76%) Kubernetes
6 1 (4.76%) SAFe Practitioner
6 1 (4.76%) Scaled Agile Framework

Software Architect Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South East 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:

Cloud Services
1 2 (9.52%) Azure
2 1 (4.76%) Azure DevOps
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (4.76%) Elasticsearch
General
1 1 (4.76%) Finance
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 8 (38.10%) Middleware
Processes & Methodologies
1 10 (47.62%) DevOps
2 9 (42.86%) Agile
3 8 (38.10%) Computer Science
3 8 (38.10%) Configuration Management
3 8 (38.10%) Continuous Improvement
3 8 (38.10%) Design Patterns
3 8 (38.10%) Mentoring
3 8 (38.10%) Open Source
3 8 (38.10%) SDLC
3 8 (38.10%) UML
3 8 (38.10%) Waterfall
4 6 (28.57%) Software Engineering
5 1 (4.76%) ArchiMate
5 1 (4.76%) CI/CD
5 1 (4.76%) SAFe Practitioner
5 1 (4.76%) Scaled Agile Framework
Programming Languages
1 1 (4.76%) C#
Qualifications
1 8 (38.10%) BPSS Clearance
1 8 (38.10%) Chartered Engineer
1 8 (38.10%) Computer Science Degree
1 8 (38.10%) Degree
2 6 (28.57%) Security Cleared
3 1 (4.76%) DV Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 8 (38.10%) ISO/IEC 12207
Systems Management
1 1 (4.76%) Kubernetes
Vendors
1 1 (4.76%) BiZZdesign