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 25 June 2026.

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

6 months to
25 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 572 619 686
Rank change year-on-year +47 +67 +123
Permanent jobs requiring a Principal Architect 186 52 212
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 114 41 68
10th Percentile £64,778 £68,525 £69,625
25th Percentile £72,500 £72,918 £74,759
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £93,500 £84,000 £79,136
Median % change year-on-year +11.31% +6.15% -25.52%
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 89,296 40,583 101,492
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 94.03% 89.54% 94.74%
Number of salaries quoted 61,271 23,147 73,313
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,750 £28,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £38,750 £38,734
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 £98,000 £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 25 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 25 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% 33
UK excluding London -2 95 £95,000 +16.19% 23
London +12 68 £91,750 -20.22% 12
Work from Home -1 34 £89,391 +8.64% 10
North of England -15 32 £100,000 +15.61% 4
North West +14 21 £100,000 +19.90% 3
Wales -29 18 £95,000 +16.19% 1
South East - 13 £95,000 - 1
Scotland +19 12 £85,000 +3.96%
East of England - 9 - - 2
Yorkshire -27 8 £100,000 - 1
Midlands -22 7 £50,000 -35.33% 7
East Midlands -30 5 £50,000 -35.33% 1
South West -62 4 £100,000 +45.93% 8
North East -44 3 £85,000 +3.96%
West Midlands -19 2 £80,000 +8.25% 6

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

For the 6 months to 25 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 44 (23.66%) AWS
1 44 (23.66%) Azure
2 39 (20.97%) Roadmaps
3 31 (16.67%) Agile
4 29 (15.59%) Security Cleared
5 27 (14.52%) AI
6 26 (13.98%) Technical Leadership
7 22 (11.83%) Analytics
8 20 (10.75%) Cybersecurity
8 20 (10.75%) Enterprise Architecture
8 20 (10.75%) Security Architecture
9 18 (9.68%) CI/CD
9 18 (9.68%) Python
10 17 (9.14%) GCP
11 16 (8.60%) Cisco Certification
11 16 (8.60%) Customer Experience
11 16 (8.60%) DV Cleared
11 16 (8.60%) SC Cleared
11 16 (8.60%) Strategic Thinking
12 15 (8.06%) Continuous Improvement
12 15 (8.06%) DevOps
12 15 (8.06%) Mentoring
12 15 (8.06%) Technology Roadmap
13 14 (7.53%) Integration Patterns
13 14 (7.53%) Presales
13 14 (7.53%) TOGAF
14 13 (6.99%) Data Architecture
14 13 (6.99%) Infrastructure as Code
14 13 (6.99%) IT Strategy
14 13 (6.99%) Software Engineering

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 (1.61%) Apache Airflow
2 2 (1.08%) SAS
3 1 (0.54%) Apache Spark
Business Applications
1 3 (1.61%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
2 1 (0.54%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.54%) Exchequer
Cloud Services
1 44 (23.66%) AWS
1 44 (23.66%) Azure
2 17 (9.14%) GCP
3 10 (5.38%) SaaS
4 9 (4.84%) Power Platform
5 8 (4.30%) OCI
6 6 (3.23%) Azure Data Factory
7 5 (2.69%) Dynamics 365
7 5 (2.69%) PowerApps
8 4 (2.15%) Serverless
9 3 (1.61%) dbt
9 3 (1.61%) Snowflake
10 2 (1.08%) Azure Cognitive Services
10 2 (1.08%) Azure Functions
10 2 (1.08%) Azure Logic Apps
10 2 (1.08%) Azure Synapse Analytics
10 2 (1.08%) Power Automate
11 1 (0.54%) Azure Storage
11 1 (0.54%) Collibra
11 1 (0.54%) Microsoft Purview
Communications & Networking
1 12 (6.45%) Firewall
1 12 (6.45%) Network Security
1 12 (6.45%) SD-WAN
1 12 (6.45%) WAN
2 9 (4.84%) Broadband
3 7 (3.76%) LAN
3 7 (3.76%) Software-Defined Networking
3 7 (3.76%) Wireless
4 3 (1.61%) MQTT
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (3.76%) GIS
2 4 (2.15%) Data Lake
2 4 (2.15%) Metadata
2 4 (2.15%) PostgreSQL
3 3 (1.61%) BigQuery
3 3 (1.61%) ClickHouse
3 3 (1.61%) Data Vault
3 3 (1.61%) Elasticsearch
3 3 (1.61%) Power BI
3 3 (1.61%) 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 (17.20%) Social Skills
2 29 (15.59%) Public Sector
3 25 (13.44%) Finance
4 13 (6.99%) Telecoms
5 10 (5.38%) Retail
6 7 (3.76%) Games
7 6 (3.23%) Financial Institution
8 5 (2.69%) Analytical Skills
9 4 (2.15%) Aerospace
9 4 (2.15%) Banking
10 3 (1.61%) Automotive
10 3 (1.61%) Influencing Skills
10 3 (1.61%) Legal
10 3 (1.61%) 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 (3.23%) .NET
2 3 (1.61%) Backbone.js
2 3 (1.61%) Node.js
2 3 (1.61%) 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 (6.99%) Cloud Native
2 11 (5.91%) Distributed Systems
3 9 (4.84%) Data Centre
3 9 (4.84%) IoT
4 7 (3.76%) Graphic Design
5 4 (2.15%) Legacy Systems
6 3 (1.61%) Enterprise Software
6 3 (1.61%) Robotics
7 2 (1.08%) AI Agents
7 2 (1.08%) Low-Code
7 2 (1.08%) Management Information System
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 39 (20.97%) Roadmaps
2 31 (16.67%) Agile
3 27 (14.52%) AI
4 26 (13.98%) Technical Leadership
5 22 (11.83%) Analytics
6 20 (10.75%) Cybersecurity
6 20 (10.75%) Enterprise Architecture
6 20 (10.75%) Security Architecture
7 18 (9.68%) CI/CD
8 16 (8.60%) Customer Experience
8 16 (8.60%) Strategic Thinking
9 15 (8.06%) Continuous Improvement
9 15 (8.06%) DevOps
9 15 (8.06%) Mentoring
9 15 (8.06%) Technology Roadmap
10 14 (7.53%) Integration Patterns
10 14 (7.53%) Presales
10 14 (7.53%) TOGAF
11 13 (6.99%) Infrastructure as Code
11 13 (6.99%) Software Engineering
Programming Languages
1 18 (9.68%) Python
2 8 (4.30%) C#
3 4 (2.15%) JavaScript
3 4 (2.15%) SQL
3 4 (2.15%) 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 (15.59%) Security Cleared
2 16 (8.60%) Cisco Certification
2 16 (8.60%) DV Cleared
2 16 (8.60%) SC Cleared
3 12 (6.45%) CCIE
3 12 (6.45%) CCNP
3 12 (6.45%) Degree
4 11 (5.91%) Azure Certification
5 7 (3.76%) AWS Certification
5 7 (3.76%) CCIE Security
5 7 (3.76%) CCSA
5 7 (3.76%) CCSE
5 7 (3.76%) JNCIE
5 7 (3.76%) JNCIP
6 5 (2.69%) VCAP
7 4 (2.15%) (ISC)2 CCSP
7 4 (2.15%) CCSP
7 4 (2.15%) CITP
7 4 (2.15%) Computer Science Degree
7 4 (2.15%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 4 (2.15%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 4 (2.15%) NIST
2 2 (1.08%) Data Quality
2 2 (1.08%) PMO
3 1 (0.54%) Accessibility
3 1 (0.54%) GDPR
3 1 (0.54%) NCSC
3 1 (0.54%) QA
System Software
1 3 (1.61%) Firmware
2 1 (0.54%) Docker
Systems Management
1 10 (5.38%) Terraform
2 7 (3.76%) Ansible
Vendors
1 10 (5.38%) Microsoft
2 7 (3.76%) CheckPoint
2 7 (3.76%) Cisco
2 7 (3.76%) Fortinet
2 7 (3.76%) Palo Alto
3 4 (2.15%) Databricks
3 4 (2.15%) Oracle
4 3 (1.61%) Sparx
5 2 (1.08%) BiZZdesign
5 2 (1.08%) Meraki
6 1 (0.54%) Salesforce
6 1 (0.54%) SAP