Illustrative cost

£18,000 to £60,000 ex VAT

Typical
£33,000
Duration
About 13 weeks
Effort
40.5 to 81 days

Illustrative estimate, not a quote. Real prices vary.

Worked out from UK freelance contractor day rates in job adverts, with no consultancy or agency margin added. Consultancies and agencies usually charge more.

Source: IT Jobs Watch. Rates read on ; costs computed on .

What is included

  • Customer data preparation
  • Churn model with explanations
  • Scores written to the CRM on a schedule
  • Measuring the effect of retention actions

Deliverables

  • Churn model and validation report
  • Scheduled scoring
  • CRM fields and views
  • Measurement plan

Assumptions

  • At least a year of customer and transaction history
  • A CRM with an API
  • Cloud costs are paid by the client

Not included

  • Running retention campaigns
  • A new CRM

Project plan

Phases run one after another, about 13 weeks in all.

Phases, their length and main tasks
PhaseWeeksMain tasks
Data preparation3Extract and join data; Define churn
Modelling5Features; Model and explanations; Validation
CRM integration3Scheduled scoring; CRM fields
Adoption2Team training; Measurement plan

Who does the work

Person-days per role in each phase, low and high effort.

Days by phase and role
PhaseRoleDays (low to high)
Data preparationData engineer6 to 12 days
Data preparationData analyst6 to 9 days
ModellingData scientist15 to 30 days
CRM integrationMachine learning engineer6 to 12 days
CRM integrationAI engineer3 to 9 days
AdoptionData analyst3 to 6 days
AdoptionChange manager1.5 to 3 days

How the cost adds up

Cost by role: low, typical and high, before rounding
RoleLow (days × 25th percentile)Typical (days × median)High (days × 90th percentile)
Data engineer6 × £425 = £2,5509 × £500 = £4,50012 × £688 = £8,256
Data analyst9 × £393 = £3,53712 × £475 = £5,70115 × £625 = £9,375
Data scientist15 × £481 = £7,21522.5 × £600 = £13,50030 × £788 = £23,640
Machine learning engineer6 × £500 = £3,0009 × £564 = £5,07612 × £738 = £8,856
AI engineer3 × £488 = £1,4646 × £589 = £3,5349 × £863 = £7,767
Change manager1.5 × £458 = £6872.25 × £525 = £1,1813 × £711 = £2,133
Total, rounded£18,000£33,000£60,000

How these estimates are worked out

Effort: for each phase we estimate how many days each role works, as a low and a high case. These are our estimates for a typical project of this kind, not measured data.

Rates: each role's daily rate comes from UK contract job adverts over the last six months, as published by IT Jobs Watch. These are freelance contractor rates as advertised, not what was paid, and not what a consultancy or agency charges.

Low end: the low-effort days at each role's 25th-percentile rate. We use the 25th percentile, not the 10th, because the lowest effort at the cheapest rates gives a floor few buyers would ever meet.

Typical: the mid-point between low and high effort, at each role's median rate.

High end: the high-effort days at each role's 90th-percentile rate.

Totals are rounded to the nearest £500 below £10,000 and the nearest £1,000 above, and exclude VAT. Phases run one after another.

Not included:

  • Software licences, model and hosting fees
  • Travel and expenses
  • Your own staff's time
  • A consultancy's or agency's margin, overheads and risk

Real prices vary with the supplier, the state of your data and systems, how much of the work your own team does, where the work happens and how much risk the supplier carries. Consultancies and agencies usually charge more than these contractor rates, and a fixed price usually costs more than time and materials because the supplier takes the risk.

Sources

Source: IT Jobs Watch: UK contract job adverts quoting a daily rate, 6 months to 15 November 2026. Each role's page was read on . Published under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.

Day rate sources, one row per role, read on 15 November 2026
RoleIT Jobs Watch pageRates quoted25th percentileMedian90th percentile
Data engineerData Engineer1,275£425£500£688
Data analystData Analyst511£393£475£625
Data scientistData Scientist201£481£600£788
Machine learning engineerMachine Learning Engineer92£500£564£738
AI engineerArtificial Intelligence Engineer384£488£589£863
Change managerChange Manager193£458£525£711

Next steps