Software Architect Job Trends

Software Architect
UK

The median Software Architect salary in the UK is £85,700 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 17 October 2025.

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

6 months to
17 Oct 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 615 442 633
Rank change year-on-year -173 +191 +327
Permanent jobs requiring a Software Architect 61 347 114
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.12% 0.50% 0.20%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.14% 0.52% 0.21%
Number of salaries quoted 41 151 91
10th Percentile £73,000 £65,000 £61,250
25th Percentile £75,000 £75,000 £68,734
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £85,700 £80,000 £85,000
Median % change year-on-year +7.13% -5.88% -
75th Percentile £93,750 £85,625 -
90th Percentile £100,000 £92,500 £93,750
UK excluding London median annual salary £85,700 £80,000 £85,000
% change year-on-year +7.13% -5.88% -

All Permanent IT Job Vacancies
UK

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

Permanent vacancies in the UK with a recognized job title 43,926 66,553 53,917
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 89.92% 95.33% 95.59%
Number of salaries quoted 25,797 38,156 41,676
10th Percentile £28,000 £31,250 £32,000
25th Percentile £35,000 £41,250 £43,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £53,000 £56,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -5.36% -6.67% -
75th Percentile £73,750 £75,000 £80,000
90th Percentile £95,000 £95,000 £97,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £45,750 £50,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year -8.50% -4.76% -

Software Architect
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Software Architect job vacancy trend in the UK

Software Architect
Salary Trend

Salary distribution trend for Software Architect job vacancies in the UK.

Salary distribution trend for Software Architect job vacancies in the UK

Software Architect
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing Software Architect over the 6 months to 17 October 2025.

Salary histogram for Software Architect in the UK

Software Architect
Top 15 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Software Architect within the UK over the 6 months to 17 October 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
Permanent
IT Job Ads
Median Salary
Past 6 Months
Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
England -134 51 £85,700 +3.88% 91
UK excluding London -160 50 £85,700 +7.13% 86
Work from Home +2 17 £80,000 +6.67% 88
South East -47 13 £73,000 -2.67% 48
London +50 10 £90,000 - 8
South West +41 9 £95,000 +26.67% 9
North of England -79 9 £75,000 - 3
Scotland -18 8 £85,700 +20.70% 3
Midlands +40 7 £100,000 +11.11% 8
Yorkshire +8 7 £76,250 +1.67% 2
East Midlands +9 6 £100,000 +11.11% 8
East of England -33 3 £90,000 +5.88% 15
North West -78 2 £75,000 -0.53% 1
West Midlands +48 1 - -
Wales +14 1 - -

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

For the 6 months to 17 October 2025, 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 featuring Software Architect in the job title.

1 31 (50.82%) Degree
2 30 (49.18%) DevOps
2 30 (49.18%) Mentoring
3 29 (47.54%) SDLC
4 26 (42.62%) Agile
4 26 (42.62%) Computer Science
4 26 (42.62%) Computer Science Degree
5 25 (40.98%) Continuous Improvement
6 23 (37.70%) Open Source
7 22 (36.07%) Design Patterns
7 22 (36.07%) UML
8 21 (34.43%) BPSS Clearance
8 21 (34.43%) Chartered Engineer
8 21 (34.43%) Configuration Management
8 21 (34.43%) ISO/IEC 12207
8 21 (34.43%) Middleware
8 21 (34.43%) Waterfall
9 20 (32.79%) AWS
10 14 (22.95%) Azure
11 10 (16.39%) C#
11 10 (16.39%) Microservices
11 10 (16.39%) Python
12 8 (13.11%) Problem-Solving
12 8 (13.11%) Software Engineering
12 8 (13.11%) Stakeholder Management
13 7 (11.48%) C++
13 7 (11.48%) CI/CD
13 7 (11.48%) Containerisation
13 7 (11.48%) Security Cleared
13 7 (11.48%) Software Architecture

Software 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 3 (4.92%) Apache Airflow
2 1 (1.64%) CMS
2 1 (1.64%) Headless CMS
Applications
1 1 (1.64%) Simulink
Business Applications
1 1 (1.64%) Dynamics CRM
1 1 (1.64%) Magento
Cloud Services
1 20 (32.79%) AWS
2 14 (22.95%) Azure
3 4 (6.56%) Serverless
4 3 (4.92%) Azure DevOps
4 3 (4.92%) Azure Machine Learning
4 3 (4.92%) dbt
4 3 (4.92%) GCP
4 3 (4.92%) GitHub
4 3 (4.92%) SaaS
4 3 (4.92%) Snowflake
5 1 (1.64%) Google Gemini
Communications & Networking
1 1 (1.64%) Broadband
1 1 (1.64%) DHCP
1 1 (1.64%) DOCSIS
1 1 (1.64%) DSL
1 1 (1.64%) GPON
1 1 (1.64%) IPv4
1 1 (1.64%) IPv6
1 1 (1.64%) PPP
1 1 (1.64%) RTP
1 1 (1.64%) TCP/IP
1 1 (1.64%) VoIP
1 1 (1.64%) WAN
1 1 (1.64%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (3.28%) Big Data
1 2 (3.28%) PostgreSQL
1 2 (3.28%) SQL Server
2 1 (1.64%) MongoDB
Development Applications
1 3 (4.92%) MLflow
2 1 (1.64%) GitLab
2 1 (1.64%) JIRA
General
1 15 (24.59%) Social Skills
2 4 (6.56%) Finance
2 4 (6.56%) Law
3 3 (4.92%) Games
4 1 (1.64%) Analytical Skills
4 1 (1.64%) Automotive
4 1 (1.64%) Retail
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 21 (34.43%) Middleware
2 6 (9.84%) .NET
3 3 (4.92%) AngularJS
4 2 (3.28%) Node.js
4 2 (3.28%) React
Miscellaneous
1 5 (8.20%) Enterprise Software
2 4 (6.56%) Algorithms
3 2 (3.28%) Cloud Native
3 2 (3.28%) Mobile App
4 1 (1.64%) Augmented Reality
4 1 (1.64%) Embedded Systems
4 1 (1.64%) Infotainment
4 1 (1.64%) Legacy Systems
4 1 (1.64%) Robotics
4 1 (1.64%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 6 (9.84%) Linux
2 1 (1.64%) Android
2 1 (1.64%) Embedded Linux
2 1 (1.64%) OpenWrt
2 1 (1.64%) Robot Operating System
Processes & Methodologies
1 30 (49.18%) DevOps
1 30 (49.18%) Mentoring
2 29 (47.54%) SDLC
3 26 (42.62%) Agile
3 26 (42.62%) Computer Science
4 25 (40.98%) Continuous Improvement
5 23 (37.70%) Open Source
6 22 (36.07%) Design Patterns
6 22 (36.07%) UML
7 21 (34.43%) Configuration Management
7 21 (34.43%) Waterfall
8 10 (16.39%) Microservices
9 8 (13.11%) Problem-Solving
9 8 (13.11%) Software Engineering
9 8 (13.11%) Stakeholder Management
10 7 (11.48%) CI/CD
10 7 (11.48%) Containerisation
10 7 (11.48%) Software Architecture
11 6 (9.84%) AI
11 6 (9.84%) Data Modelling
Programming Languages
1 10 (16.39%) C#
1 10 (16.39%) Python
2 7 (11.48%) C++
2 7 (11.48%) TypeScript
3 5 (8.20%) JavaScript
4 4 (6.56%) Java
5 2 (3.28%) C
6 1 (1.64%) Go
6 1 (1.64%) Kotlin
6 1 (1.64%) MATLAB
6 1 (1.64%) PHP
6 1 (1.64%) SQL
Qualifications
1 31 (50.82%) Degree
2 26 (42.62%) Computer Science Degree
3 21 (34.43%) BPSS Clearance
3 21 (34.43%) Chartered Engineer
4 7 (11.48%) Security Cleared
5 6 (9.84%) DV Cleared
6 3 (4.92%) AWS Certification
6 3 (4.92%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
6 3 (4.92%) Azure Certification
6 3 (4.92%) Master's Degree
6 3 (4.92%) Microsoft Certification
6 3 (4.92%) PhD
6 3 (4.92%) TOGAF Certification
7 1 (1.64%) SC Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 21 (34.43%) ISO/IEC 12207
2 2 (3.28%) QA
System Software
1 4 (6.56%) Docker
2 3 (4.92%) Embedded Firmware
2 3 (4.92%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 3 (4.92%) Kubernetes
1 3 (4.92%) Terraform
Vendors
1 3 (4.92%) Databricks
1 3 (4.92%) Microsoft
2 1 (1.64%) OpenAI
2 1 (1.64%) QNX