Solution Architect outside IR35 jobs
An outside IR35 Solution Architect job is a contract the client says sits beyond the off-payroll rules, so you can invoice through your own limited company. The work itself is still the design of one solution across applications, integration and the constraints of the estate. The status is a tax determination, not a description of the skill.
Updated 1 November 20264 min read
What outside IR35 means on a Solution Architect contract
Outside IR35 means the engagement is treated as a business-to-business supply of Solution Architect, not as employment in all but name. You invoice your company rate. You do not have the client's holiday, pension or employment rights, and you carry the admin of a limited company. That trade is why contractors filter for outside roles first.
The client, or the agency where the client is a small company, makes the determination and should be able to show it. A sentence in an advert is a signal. It is not the status determination statement. How IR35 status is decided walks through what you can ask for.
How often Solution Architect roles are outside
Most Solution Architect contracts are inside IR35 and paid through an umbrella or agency PAYE. Outside roles do appear, usually where the client wants a defined outcome rather than a seat, and they are worth filtering for because the take-home gap is large. If the only offers you can see are inside, the day rate has to be higher to leave you in the same place.
Programmes in banking, government, health and any transformation that has more than one supplier do not share one policy. Two Solution Architect adverts in the same week can land on opposite sides because the working practices differ, or because one client blankets a programme and the other does not. Filter the claim, then confirm it.
What to check before you accept
Look at substitution, control and whether you are part and parcel of the organisation. A Solution Architect contractor who is told the hours, the method and the laptop, and who cannot send someone else, is harder to defend as outside even if the advert says it. The inside and outside IR35 guide is the short version of that difference.
Price the rate on both sides with the IR35 calculator. A move from outside to inside halfway through a renewal is a pay cut unless the day rate moves with it. Solution Architect day rates has the band clients are advertising.
Where to find them
Outside IR35 jobs is every live contract on the board that states outside, across every skill. Solution Architect contract jobs is the wider market, including inside and unstated roles. The apply link on each job is for members, so the original advert is not sitting open on the public page.
Geography follows the rest of the Solution Architect market: London, Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds and Edinburgh. Remote outside IR35 roles exist and are competed for harder than a hybrid seat in one city.
Live roles on the board
These Solution Architect contracts are on the board now. The day rate and IR35 status are public. The link to the original advert is for members.
- IFS Solution Architect Outside IR35 — UK, £800-£1,200/day Outside
- IFS Solution Architect — London, £1,000-£1,200/day Outside
- IFS Solution Architect Outside IR35 — UK, £800-£1,000/day Outside
- Solutions Architect - Integration — Birmingham, West Midlands (County), £450-£500/day Outside
- Solutions Architect (Networks) — Edinburgh (EH1), £500-£525/day Outside
- Solutions Architect (Networks) — Edinburgh, Midlothian, £500-£525/day Outside
- Solution Architect — Southampton (SO14), £680/day Outside
- Solution Architect — Southampton, Hampshire, £680/day Outside
See live Solution Architect contracts · Membership unlocks apply links and the first 48 hours