Location
Birmingham, Liverpool, Newport (Gwent), Norwich
About the job
Job summary
Available Locations Liverpool, Newport, Norwich, Glasgow or Birmingham.
The following locations listed below are restricted to contracted GCA staff already based in one of these offices:
London, Bristol, Manchester or York.
External applicants are not eligible for these sites. If you select one of these locations as an external applicant your application will unfortunately be withdrawn.
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Ready to step up from merely managing systems to designing the future of our entire technology ecosystem? We're seeking a Senior Technical Architect to drive our next generation of scalable, resilient, and innovative solutions. You will directly translate business strategy into technical reality, ensuring every architectural decision delivers maximum value for the nation. Do you possess the deep technical mastery to mentor a high-performing engineering team while navigating the complex trade-offs between speed, cost, and quality?
Job Summary
We seek a visionary Senior Technical Architect to own, evolve, and drive our enterprise-wide DDaT technical strategy and architecture. Operating within a unified, high-performing team (scaling up to 5) that blends Enterprise and Technical Architecture expertise, you will serve as a defining authority, responsible for architecting scalable, secure, and resilient solutions that directly impact public service delivery. In this role, you will lead technical governance, mentor engineering teams, and translate national strategy into robust technical reality. While we leverage supplemental support from preferred partners, our internal architects always maintain full control—establishing the critical guardrails and steering the strategic direction of our complex digital transformation journey.
Job description
Key Accountabilities:
- Own the Technical Vision: Define the 'how' for all strategic change, ensuring solutions align with the long-term enterprise architecture.
- Lead Technical Governance: Champion and implement architectural standards, including Secure by Design, across high-impact projects.
- Mentor and Guide Teams: Provide technical leadership and guidance to engineering and architecture teams on complex design decisions.
- Manage Architectural Risk: Identify and clearly articulate technical debt and architectural risks early in the investment process.
- Ensure System Integrity: Verify that new High-Level Designs (HLDs) are scalable, secure, and fit within the broader CCS technology ecosystem.
- Drive Strategic Alignment: Collaborate with Business Architecture to translate strategic goals into practical, resilient technical blueprints.
- Review Supplier Capability: Assess the technical viability and integration methods of solutions proposed by market suppliers (e.g., for the Self-Serve programme).
- Document Architecture: Lead the creation of clear, concise architectural documentation suitable for senior leadership.
Person specification
Essential Criteria (to be assessed at application stage):
- Enterprise Architecture Governance: Proven experience in defining and enforcing architectural standards (e.g., through an Architecture Review Board or similar forum) to manage technical debt and ensure system integrity.
- Secure & Scalable Design: Deep expertise in designing and leading the implementation of highly scalable, resilient, and secure solutions, including applying Secure by Design principles to large-scale platforms (e.g., IDAM or high-volume transactional services).
- Strategic Technical Alignment: Ability to translate abstract business or policy strategy into concrete, actionable technical blueprints, and effectively articulate risks to senior stakeholders (e.g., GCF architecture presentation at 'level zero').
- Complex Integration & Trade-offs: Demonstrated experience navigating and making complex technical trade-offs (e.g., speed vs. cost vs. quality) and defining integration strategy for major enterprise systems.
- Leadership Experience in providing technical mentorship and coaching to technical teams.
