Rate premiums await contract architects – at a price

In the technology marketplace right now, clearly something is not working. But don’t just take my word for it, writes Will Jones, a director at Harvey Nash Recruitment Solutions.

Look instead at what a rather worryingly large chunk of IT leaders are saying – 78% in fact. This hefty proportion told us in our annual CIO survey that their organisation’s digital strategy is simply “ineffective.”

And just over than half of them suggest it’s maybe because things are just too higgledy-piggledy. Or to use techie parlance, 55% think the “alignment between the business and technology” is off.

With technology available as a potential solution across all aspects of business, we’re seeing organisations turning to freelance architects to overcome these challenges and successfully deliver on digital.

Unfortunately, there’s another challenge before organisations can even get there. It is that, across  a variety of disciplines including enterprise, solutions and technical, there is a growing shortage of architects. Oh, and this shortage is severely stubborn. It’s been going on for FOUR years.

The Growing Role of Contractors

Historically, IT leaders have struggled to build effective architecture functions with the necessary skills to deliver a high level of service to their organisations. Anecdotally, outsourcing the architecture function has not been an option. Despite the innovation opportunities, the overall technology roadmap, and the business/IT alignment an effective architecture strategy offers, the potential loss of intellectual property is too great a risk for most organisations to take. 

The obvious answer, then, is for businesses to grow their own teams. With such a small talent pool and fierce competition for permanent architects, we’ve seen a notable rise in demand for contractors to supplement this skills shortage and provide the level of expertise that organisations need to effectively deliver their digital strategy.

Also worth noting is that over the past eight years, we have seen the evolution of the architecture function and the roles that sit within it. There has been a significant shift away from the segregation of duties between enterprise and solutions architecture; towards the collective responsibility for enterprise architecture as a function.

Bigger Money = Bigger Expectations

The willingness of organisations to pay premiums for architectural contractors hasn’t gone unnoticed. A rising number of architects are moving away from permanent positions, instead cashing-in on the high day-rates, flexible conditions and greater job variety afforded to contracting.

Unfortunately, this has exacerbated the problem, further shrinking the already tiny talent pool that exists in the UK (and across much of the western world) and pushing budgets up.

However, it’s not all in the contractor’s favour. To justify the higher price tag, business expectations are also growing. The ‘wish list’ within the job description for an architect is expanding, with a lot more demands being placed upon the expert contractor. Take for example the rather exhaustive job description for a Solution Architect below:

We require, “An in-depth technical knowledge across a range of disciplines including:  package solutions (COTS); service orientated architecture; bespoke enterprise applications; integration, architecture; process cloud/infrastructure architecture and security architecture.”

We also require that the successful candidate will have, “The ability to introduce new technologies and innovations such as IOT, Cloud, Automation, AI, Robotic Process Automation, Blockchain.”

We further require: “Knowledge of governance, process architecture, design patterns, and defining the architecture framework and best practice.” 

The faint-hearted needn't apply

Ultimately, while the prospect of a bigger pay cheque might be appealing, the pressure on architects of all disciplines in technology is far greater than ever before. Those contractors who succeed in this field are the ones driven by a desire to provide innovation, growth opportunities and shape the technology roadmap to actually deliver on the business’s digital strategy. If you can provide an organisation with the agility, scalability and responsiveness of their technology platforms to deliver for the customer, while accepting the exhaustive demands the end-user will exert on you, then you’ve found your niche. If you can’t, then back away. Building a successful career as a contract architect is very definitely not for the faint-hearted.