Principal Architect Job Trends

Principal Architect
UK

The median Principal Architect salary in the UK is £93,500 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 21 June 2026.

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

6 months to
21 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 568 610 697
Rank change year-on-year +42 +87 +134
Permanent jobs requiring a Principal Architect 185 51 215
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.20% 0.11% 0.20%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.21% 0.13% 0.21%
Number of salaries quoted 115 40 67
10th Percentile £64,809 £68,173 £70,000
25th Percentile £72,500 £72,918 £74,759
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £93,500 £83,401 £80,500
Median % change year-on-year +12.11% +3.60% -23.33%
75th Percentile £100,000 £100,000 £95,000
90th Percentile £110,000 £117,500 £122,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £95,000 £81,764 £78,273
% change year-on-year +16.19% +4.46% -25.45%

All Permanent IT Job Roles
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 88,632 40,228 103,596
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 93.99% 89.47% 94.75%
Number of salaries quoted 60,836 22,885 74,815
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,750 £28,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £38,750 £38,603
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £57,500 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year -4.35% +9.52% -12.50%
75th Percentile £75,000 £77,500 £70,000
90th Percentile £95,000 £98,474 £90,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £50,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year - - -6.54%

Principal Architect
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Principal Architect job vacancy trend in the UK

Principal Architect
Salary Trend

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

Salary distribution trend for Principal Architect job vacancies in the UK

Principal Architect
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing Principal Architect over the 6 months to 21 June 2026.

Salary histogram for Principal Architect in the UK

Principal Architect
Top 16 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Principal Architect within the UK over the 6 months to 21 June 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
England +20 138 £93,500 +10.00% 31
UK excluding London -4 94 £95,000 +16.19% 22
London +37 68 £90,000 -21.74% 12
Work from Home +14 34 £89,391 +9.33% 8
North of England -7 32 £100,000 +15.61% 2
North West +20 21 £100,000 +19.90% 1
Wales -34 17 £95,000 +16.19% 1
South East - 13 £95,000 - 3
Scotland +14 12 £85,000 +3.96%
East of England - 9 - - 2
Yorkshire -32 8 £100,000 - 1
Midlands -19 7 £50,000 -35.33% 6
East Midlands -24 5 £50,000 -35.33% 1
South West -64 4 £100,000 +45.93% 8
North East -45 3 £85,000 +3.96%
West Midlands -23 2 £80,000 +8.25% 5

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

For the 6 months to 21 June 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 featuring Principal Architect in the job title.

1 45 (24.32%) Azure
2 44 (23.78%) AWS
3 40 (21.62%) Roadmaps
4 31 (16.76%) Agile
5 29 (15.68%) Security Cleared
6 27 (14.59%) AI
7 26 (14.05%) Technical Leadership
8 22 (11.89%) Analytics
9 21 (11.35%) Enterprise Architecture
10 19 (10.27%) Cybersecurity
10 19 (10.27%) Security Architecture
11 18 (9.73%) CI/CD
11 18 (9.73%) Python
12 17 (9.19%) GCP
13 16 (8.65%) Cisco Certification
13 16 (8.65%) Customer Experience
13 16 (8.65%) DV Cleared
13 16 (8.65%) SC Cleared
13 16 (8.65%) Strategic Thinking
13 16 (8.65%) Technology Roadmap
14 15 (8.11%) Continuous Improvement
14 15 (8.11%) DevOps
14 15 (8.11%) Mentoring
15 14 (7.57%) Integration Patterns
15 14 (7.57%) Presales
15 14 (7.57%) TOGAF
16 13 (7.03%) Data Architecture
16 13 (7.03%) Infrastructure as Code
16 13 (7.03%) IT Strategy
16 13 (7.03%) Line Management

Principal 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 (1.62%) Apache Airflow
2 2 (1.08%) SAS
3 1 (0.54%) Apache Spark
Business Applications
1 3 (1.62%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
2 1 (0.54%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.54%) Exchequer
Cloud Services
1 45 (24.32%) Azure
2 44 (23.78%) AWS
3 17 (9.19%) GCP
4 11 (5.95%) SaaS
5 9 (4.86%) Power Platform
6 8 (4.32%) OCI
7 6 (3.24%) Azure Data Factory
8 5 (2.70%) Dynamics 365
8 5 (2.70%) PowerApps
9 4 (2.16%) Serverless
10 3 (1.62%) dbt
10 3 (1.62%) Snowflake
11 2 (1.08%) Azure Cognitive Services
11 2 (1.08%) Azure Functions
11 2 (1.08%) Azure Logic Apps
11 2 (1.08%) Azure Synapse Analytics
11 2 (1.08%) Power Automate
12 1 (0.54%) Azure Storage
12 1 (0.54%) Collibra
12 1 (0.54%) Microsoft Purview
Communications & Networking
1 12 (6.49%) Firewall
1 12 (6.49%) Network Security
1 12 (6.49%) SD-WAN
1 12 (6.49%) WAN
2 9 (4.86%) Broadband
3 7 (3.78%) LAN
3 7 (3.78%) Software-Defined Networking
3 7 (3.78%) Wireless
4 3 (1.62%) MQTT
Database & Business Intelligence
1 6 (3.24%) GIS
2 4 (2.16%) Data Lake
2 4 (2.16%) Metadata
2 4 (2.16%) PostgreSQL
3 3 (1.62%) BigQuery
3 3 (1.62%) ClickHouse
3 3 (1.62%) Data Vault
3 3 (1.62%) Elasticsearch
3 3 (1.62%) Power BI
3 3 (1.62%) Semantic Layer
4 2 (1.08%) Amazon RDS
4 2 (1.08%) Db2
4 2 (1.08%) MongoDB
4 2 (1.08%) Neo4j
4 2 (1.08%) Pinecone
4 2 (1.08%) SQL Server
5 1 (0.54%) Azure SQL Database
5 1 (0.54%) Big Data
Development Applications
1 2 (1.08%) ERwin
General
1 32 (17.30%) Social Skills
2 29 (15.68%) Public Sector
3 26 (14.05%) Finance
4 13 (7.03%) Telecoms
5 10 (5.41%) Retail
6 7 (3.78%) Games
7 6 (3.24%) Financial Institution
8 5 (2.70%) Analytical Skills
9 4 (2.16%) Aerospace
9 4 (2.16%) Banking
10 3 (1.62%) Automotive
10 3 (1.62%) Influencing Skills
10 3 (1.62%) Legal
10 3 (1.62%) Police
11 2 (1.08%) Health Technology
11 2 (1.08%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 2 (1.08%) Law
11 2 (1.08%) Pharmaceutical
12 1 (0.54%) Documentation Skills
12 1 (0.54%) Military
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 6 (3.24%) .NET
2 3 (1.62%) Backbone.js
2 3 (1.62%) Node.js
2 3 (1.62%) React
3 2 (1.08%) HTML5 Canvas
3 2 (1.08%) Model Context Protocol
3 2 (1.08%) pgvector
4 1 (0.54%) GraphQL
4 1 (0.54%) gRPC
4 1 (0.54%) Kafka
4 1 (0.54%) MACH
4 1 (0.54%) OAuth
4 1 (0.54%) OpenID
4 1 (0.54%) RabbitMQ
4 1 (0.54%) REST
4 1 (0.54%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 13 (7.03%) Cloud Native
2 11 (5.95%) Distributed Systems
3 9 (4.86%) Data Centre
3 9 (4.86%) IoT
4 6 (3.24%) Graphic Design
5 4 (2.16%) Enterprise Software
5 4 (2.16%) Legacy Systems
6 3 (1.62%) Management Information System
6 3 (1.62%) Robotics
7 2 (1.08%) AI Agents
7 2 (1.08%) Low-Code
7 2 (1.08%) Onboarding
7 2 (1.08%) Replication
8 1 (0.54%) Data Structures
8 1 (0.54%) Enterprise Cloud
8 1 (0.54%) Hedge funds
8 1 (0.54%) Operational Technology
Operating Systems
1 2 (1.08%) Linux
1 2 (1.08%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 40 (21.62%) Roadmaps
2 31 (16.76%) Agile
3 27 (14.59%) AI
4 26 (14.05%) Technical Leadership
5 22 (11.89%) Analytics
6 21 (11.35%) Enterprise Architecture
7 19 (10.27%) Cybersecurity
7 19 (10.27%) Security Architecture
8 18 (9.73%) CI/CD
9 16 (8.65%) Customer Experience
9 16 (8.65%) Strategic Thinking
9 16 (8.65%) Technology Roadmap
10 15 (8.11%) Continuous Improvement
10 15 (8.11%) DevOps
10 15 (8.11%) Mentoring
11 14 (7.57%) Integration Patterns
11 14 (7.57%) Presales
11 14 (7.57%) TOGAF
12 13 (7.03%) Infrastructure as Code
12 13 (7.03%) Software Engineering
Programming Languages
1 18 (9.73%) Python
2 8 (4.32%) C#
3 4 (2.16%) JavaScript
3 4 (2.16%) SQL
3 4 (2.16%) TypeScript
4 2 (1.08%) Java
5 1 (0.54%) C
5 1 (0.54%) C++
5 1 (0.54%) Embedded C
5 1 (0.54%) Embedded C++
Qualifications
1 29 (15.68%) Security Cleared
2 16 (8.65%) Cisco Certification
2 16 (8.65%) DV Cleared
2 16 (8.65%) SC Cleared
3 12 (6.49%) CCIE
3 12 (6.49%) CCNP
3 12 (6.49%) Degree
4 11 (5.95%) Azure Certification
5 7 (3.78%) AWS Certification
5 7 (3.78%) CCIE Security
5 7 (3.78%) CCSA
5 7 (3.78%) CCSE
5 7 (3.78%) JNCIE
5 7 (3.78%) JNCIP
6 5 (2.70%) VCAP
7 4 (2.16%) (ISC)2 CCSP
7 4 (2.16%) CCSP
7 4 (2.16%) CITP
7 4 (2.16%) Computer Science Degree
7 4 (2.16%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 4 (2.16%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 4 (2.16%) NIST
2 2 (1.08%) Data Quality
2 2 (1.08%) GDPR
2 2 (1.08%) PMO
3 1 (0.54%) Accessibility
3 1 (0.54%) NCSC
3 1 (0.54%) QA
System Software
1 3 (1.62%) Firmware
2 1 (0.54%) Docker
Systems Management
1 10 (5.41%) Terraform
2 7 (3.78%) Ansible
Vendors
1 10 (5.41%) Microsoft
2 7 (3.78%) CheckPoint
2 7 (3.78%) Cisco
2 7 (3.78%) Fortinet
2 7 (3.78%) Palo Alto
3 4 (2.16%) Databricks
3 4 (2.16%) Oracle
4 3 (1.62%) Sparx
5 2 (1.08%) BiZZdesign
5 2 (1.08%) Meraki
6 1 (0.54%) Salesforce
6 1 (0.54%) SAP