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In short

Of the 87 software architect roles at tech companies in the 90 days to Oct 16, 2026, 37 are senior, more than at any other level. Security engineer roles share 7 of the 11 required skills listed for software architect roles; no other role shares more.

Levels in order

Each level counts its own roles. A median shows only where 50 or more of that level’s roles state pay, and each is taken over a different set of roles.

LevelRolesMedian stated payAt least half ask for
Junior software architect1 roleNot shownNot shown
Mid-level software architect15 rolesNot shown5+ years, 7 of 13
Senior software architect37 rolesNot shown8+ years, 22 of 33
Staff software architect6 rolesNot shown8+ years, 5 of 5
Principal software architect11 rolesNot shown10+ years, 9 of 10
Lead software architect8 rolesNot shown8+ years, 5 of 8

Lead titles say who leads a team, not a step above principal, so lead is listed last and not compared with the level before it.

What rises at the next level

No two neighbouring levels have 50 or more roles whose requirements we read, so no level is compared with the next yet.

Roles closest to software architect, by shared skills

Compared over each role’s most-required skills, umbrella labels such as “Programming” left out. The more skills two roles share, the shorter the move between them.

  • Security engineer392 roles

    7 shared: AWS, Cybersecurity, Identity and Access Management, Azure, Python, GCP, Kubernetes

    Median stated pay: $197.5k a year

  • Platform engineer213 roles

    7 shared: AWS, CI/CD, Azure, Infrastructure as Code, Python, GCP, Kubernetes

    Median stated pay: $176.8k a year

  • Site reliability engineer219 roles

    6 shared: AWS, CI/CD, Distributed Systems, Infrastructure as Code, Python, Kubernetes

    Median stated pay: $184k a year

  • DevOps engineer168 roles

    6 shared: AWS, CI/CD, Azure, Infrastructure as Code, Python, Kubernetes

    Median stated pay: $152.5k a year

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How we count: 87 roles from 77 employers in the 90 days to Oct 16, 2026, each role counted once however many boards post it. Methodology