IT architects stay longer in their roles and switch less than developers, so an architect vacancy reaches few people. Those who can do the work are almost all employed, and they are halfway through a programme they do not want to leave. Hiring an architect therefore starts with approaching one, and with a longer lead time than most employers plan for.
Who counts as an architect
We measured the market in LinkedIn Talent Insights using a fixed set of standardised architect titles: enterprise, solution, business, data, cloud, integration, domain and software architect among them. A wider keyword search in LinkedIn finds a clearly larger group, because many architects carry a title such as lead engineer, consultant or IT adviser. Our own estimate of the market sits between those measurements. CBS counts architects within the much larger group of system analysts and ICT advisers, which gives context but no separate figure.
Architects stay put
Compared with developers, architects change roles less often and stay in a role for longer. The reason is in the work. An architect carries a programme that runs for years: a core system replacement, a move to the cloud, a data platform for the whole organisation. Leaving halfway costs the architect credibility and the employer momentum, so both try to avoid it. Employers also hold on to their architects, because knowledge of the existing landscape is hard to replace.
The result is a market with a stable core and a thin edge. At any moment only a small part of the architects is open to a move, and those who are tend to wait until a programme reaches a natural end.
A vacancy reaches few
Architect vacancies are not rare, but they compete for a small pool of people who are actively looking at the market. An advertisement mostly reaches architects who are between programmes or unhappy where they are. The architect who is building something now, and who is often the one you want, does not read job ads. That architect moves only after a conversation about a better programme, a clearer mandate or a larger landscape.
What this does not show
Talent Insights counts profiles and depends on how people describe themselves; titles in architecture are loose and overlap with consultancy and senior engineering. Our estimate of the market size is a judgement between measurements, not a count. Mobility differs between enterprise and solution architects and between sectors, and a broad average hides that. A wave of reorganisations, or a fall in large IT programmes, would loosen this market and change the advice.
What you can do
- Start early. Plan the hire around the end of programmes elsewhere, not around the moment your own need becomes urgent.
- Approach architects directly, by the landscapes they have worked on rather than by their title.
- Describe the mandate: which decisions the architect owns, who they report to and what the programme has to deliver.
- Put the decision maker in the first conversation. Architects decide on the substance, and they want to hear it from the person who sets the direction.
- Be specific about the existing landscape, including its debt. Architects respect an honest picture more than a polished one.
- Expect a long notice period and a handover, and agree the start date with that in mind.
More on this field: Business & IT Architectures and Information Architecture.