Architecture firms across the country are facing an unusual hiring problem.
There are talented young designers entering the profession. There are experienced principals and senior leaders with decades of experience. But when firms begin searching for the architects in between — experienced Project Architects, Project Managers and emerging leaders who can independently run projects — the candidate pool can suddenly become very small.
Where did all the mid-career architects go?
It’s a question we hear frequently from architecture firms searching for talent, and the answer is more complicated than simply saying there aren’t enough architects.
The Architecture Talent Shortage Is Real
Recent industry data helps illustrate what’s happening.
According to the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB), the number of U.S. architects fell approximately 4% to 116,000 in 2024, a decline NCARB attributed largely to baby-boomer architects beginning to retire.
At the same time, the pipeline entering the profession is improving. Nearly 40,000 candidates were actively pursuing architectural licensure in 2024, and the number of licensed architects increased again in 2025.
That’s encouraging for the long-term health of the profession.
But it doesn’t necessarily solve the problem architecture firms are facing right now.
Many firms don’t simply need another architectural designer. They need someone who can immediately manage projects, coordinate consultants, communicate with clients, mentor younger staff, understand construction and keep projects moving.
Those professionals take years to develop.
And right now, they are among the most difficult people in architecture to recruit.
The Missing Middle in Architecture
The most challenging architecture searches frequently fall somewhere between junior staff and senior firm leadership.
Think about the typical job description:
- Licensed architect preferred or required
- Strong Revit experience
- Able to manage projects independently
- Experience producing and reviewing construction documents
- Comfortable coordinating consultants
- Knowledge of construction administration
- Strong client communication skills
- Experience mentoring junior staff
- Specific market-sector experience
Individually, none of those requirements seems unreasonable.
Combine all of them, however, and the potential candidate pool becomes dramatically smaller.
Then add geography, compensation expectations, work-from-home preferences and competition from other firms, and what initially appeared to be a straightforward Project Architect search can become extremely difficult.
What Happened to Mid-Career Architects?
There isn’t one single explanation.
Several forces have been developing for years.
1. The Great Recession Disrupted the Architecture Career Pipeline
The 2008–2010 recession hit architecture and construction particularly hard.
Architecture graduates entered one of the worst employment markets the profession had experienced in decades. Firms reduced staff, projects were canceled or delayed, and many younger professionals struggled to find stable architecture positions.
Some eventually left the profession entirely.
Fast-forward more than 15 years, and that generation should now represent a significant portion of today’s senior Project Architects, Project Managers and emerging firm leaders.
Instead, many firms are discovering that the bench isn’t nearly as deep as they expected.
2. Experienced Architects Have More Career Options
Mid-career architects aren’t limited to traditional architecture firms.
Professionals with strong design, construction and project-management experience can move into development companies, construction firms, owner’s-representative positions, corporate real estate, facilities management and other areas of the AEC industry.
Some of those positions can offer higher compensation, different advancement opportunities or a different work-life balance.
Every architect who leaves traditional practice further reduces an already limited experienced candidate pool.
3. Baby-Boomer Architects Are Retiring
Architecture is also experiencing a generational transition.
Experienced architects and firm leaders who built their careers during the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s are increasingly reaching retirement age.
That creates openings at the top while simultaneously increasing demand for the generation immediately behind them.
Firms aren’t simply trying to replace production capacity. They’re trying to replace decades of institutional knowledge, client relationships and leadership.
That makes experienced mid-career architects even more valuable.
The Problem Isn’t Necessarily a Shortage of People
One of the most important things architecture firms should understand is that a recruiting problem isn’t always a talent shortage.
Sometimes the available talent exists — but the firm’s hiring criteria have reduced the candidate pool to almost zero.
Consider a firm looking for a licensed Project Architect with healthcare experience, advanced Revit skills and 10+ years of experience who must work five days per week from a particular office.
That may sound perfectly reasonable internally.
From a recruiting standpoint, however, each requirement eliminates another group of candidates.
If the geographic market is already small, the search becomes even more difficult.
Geography Has Become a Major Recruiting Issue
Architecture remains heavily influenced by geography.
Large markets such as New York, Washington, Chicago, Dallas, Atlanta and Los Angeles have significant concentrations of architectural talent.
Smaller markets naturally have fewer candidates.
Historically, firms could often convince candidates to relocate for the right opportunity.
That has become harder.
Many professionals established new expectations around flexibility and remote work following the pandemic. Even candidates willing to work primarily in an office may be reluctant to relocate their families for a new position.
For firms in smaller or highly competitive markets, flexibility can dramatically change the size of the available candidate pool.
Allowing hybrid work, considering candidates from nearby markets or providing meaningful relocation assistance can turn an extremely difficult search into a manageable one.
Compensation Matters — But It Isn’t Everything
When firms struggle to attract candidates, salary is often the first thing they examine.
And compensation absolutely matters.
Experienced architects know their market value, particularly when several firms may be competing for the same person.
But compensation isn’t the only factor.
Mid-career professionals are often evaluating opportunities based on:
Career advancement. Is there a realistic path toward leadership or ownership?
Project quality. Will they work on interesting projects or simply manage production?
Flexibility. Is hybrid work available?
Leadership. Do they respect the people they will be working for?
Workload. Is the firm adequately staffed, or will they inherit an impossible workload?
Culture. Does the firm have a reputation for retaining people?
At this stage of someone’s career, another $5,000 or $10,000 in salary may not be enough to overcome concerns in these other areas.
Architecture Firms Are Competing for Passive Candidates
Another mistake firms make is assuming the best candidate is actively looking for a job.
Often, they aren’t.
Many of the strongest Project Architects and Project Managers are already employed and reasonably satisfied.
They aren’t spending their evenings searching job boards.
But that doesn’t mean they wouldn’t consider the right opportunity.
This is where architecture recruiting has changed significantly.
Finding experienced architectural talent increasingly requires identifying professionals who aren’t actively applying for positions, approaching them confidentially and giving them a compelling reason to consider making a move.
Posting a job and waiting for applications may generate candidates.
It doesn’t necessarily generate the right candidates.
Firms May Need to Rethink the “Perfect Candidate”
Architecture firms naturally want someone who checks every box.
The problem is that the perfect candidate may already be happily employed by another firm — and may have five other firms trying to recruit them.
Successful hiring often requires determining which qualifications are truly essential and which can be learned.
Does the candidate absolutely need experience in your exact project type?
Could an architect with strong multifamily experience transition successfully into hospitality?
Does someone need 12 years of experience if a highly capable candidate with eight can perform the job?
Does the position truly require five days in the office?
Those questions can dramatically expand the candidate pool without lowering hiring standards.
The Next Generation Is Coming
There is encouraging news for architecture firms.
The pipeline of future architects is becoming stronger and more diverse.
NCARB reported nearly 40,000 active licensure candidates in 2024, the highest level since 2018. The organization has also reported significant growth in the diversity of the licensure pipeline.
In 2025, 47% of licensure candidates were women and 49% identified as people of color.
Those numbers suggest the architecture profession has a healthy group of professionals moving toward licensure and leadership.
But developing an architectural designer into an experienced Project Architect or Project Manager takes time.
The industry can’t manufacture ten years of project experience overnight.
What Architecture Firms Can Do Today
Firms struggling to hire experienced architects should consider widening the candidate pool rather than simply waiting for more applicants.
That may mean reconsidering geographic restrictions, offering hybrid flexibility, evaluating adjacent project experience, accelerating the interview process or creating a clearer path toward leadership.
It also means recognizing that experienced architecture professionals are frequently being recruited by multiple firms.
A hiring process that takes six weeks and requires five interviews can easily lose a strong candidate to a competitor willing to make a decision.
The firms that recruit successfully tend to know what they need, move quickly when they find it and clearly communicate why someone should want to join their organization.
The Architecture Talent Shortage Isn’t Going Away Overnight
The architecture profession isn’t running out of architects.
But it is experiencing a significant transition.
Retirements are removing experienced professionals from the workforce. Career changes have pulled some architects into other areas of the AEC industry. The Great Recession disrupted the development of a generation of professionals. And firms are now competing aggressively for the experienced architects who remain.
Meanwhile, a promising new generation is moving through the profession and toward licensure.
The challenge is the gap in between.
For architecture firms, that means recruiting mid-career talent may continue to be difficult for the foreseeable future.
The firms that adapt — by expanding where they look, reconsidering unnecessary requirements and creating opportunities that experienced architects actually want — will have a significant advantage in the competition for talent.
Looking for Architecture Talent?
Leadmark Group specializes in recruiting architecture and design professionals for firms throughout the United States.
If your firm is struggling to find experienced Project Architects, Project Managers, Senior Architects or other architecture professionals, we can help identify and recruit candidates who may never respond to a traditional job posting.
Contact Leadmark Group to discuss your architecture hiring needs.
Matt Anderson
240-409-8600
manderson@leadmarkgroup.com
www.leadmarkgroup.com