Architecture roles - which to some companies meant spending time coding (yay) and to other companies spending time on non-coding activities; aligning teams, strategy, planning, managing stakeholders, slide decks etc...
For what duration are these contracts usually agreed upon?
In which case they get me to work remotely and bill directly to the project, whilst funnelling communications through the project manager or tech lead. That way regular employees don’t see me, and they still get the work done.
Never had an initial 6 month contract turn out to be "just" 6 months. Shortest duration during my stints was 18 months (2 renewals).