Department for Work and Pensions (DWP)
Lead Technical Architect
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This role may be located in one of the following locations; Birmingham, Blackpool, Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle or Sheffield.
Please find further information on the Corporate hub locations here.
Please note that for candidates requesting to work in Newcastle, the role will initially be based at Benton Park View. It will then move to 1 Pilgrim Place in Newcastle city centre by the end of 2027.
Job Summary
This is an exciting architect career development opportunity to join the DWP Corporate Centre Services (CCS) team, part of succession planning within CCS senior leadership.
The role offers wider architecture strategy, design and management experience across the range of GDD technical skills.
CCS manages the implementation of typically Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) systems (including platform build, and integration) for Finance, Commercials, People & Place, DWP Estates and Workplace Transformation.
As the Lead Technical Architect, you will be accountable to the Deputy Director to continue to drive the design and implementation of services.
This is a key leadership role, working alongside the Senior Leadership Team. We are looking for an experienced leader that is passionate about delivering impactful solutions that touch everyone within DWP.
Job Description
A lead technical architect leads at the highest level and is responsible for making sure the strategy is agreed and followed.
At This Role Level, You Will:
- Network and communicate with senior stakeholders across organisations.
- Provides technical leadership and architectural design.
- Proactively seek opportunities for digital transformation.
- Support multiple teams, finding and using best practice and emerging technologies.
- Inspire other architects and help them understand how to deliver the goals of the organisation.
- Be responsible for governance, solving complex and high-risk issues or delivering architecture design.
- Design and issue specification of end-to-end services spanning multiple service providers.
Person specification
When Giving Details In Your Employment History And Personal Statement You Should Highlight Your Experience In Line With Essential Criteria Below:
- Architecture design across on-prem, cloud [including SaaS] and hybrid environments involving networking, security, presentation, middleware, database, and integration aspects.
- Architecture design informed through use of principles, patterns, technical radars, practices and standards.
- Architecture design working with project delivery teams within agile, waterfall and hybrid environments throughout the lifecycle - from concept to go-live.
- Translating business requirements into technical solutions with traceability that can be demonstrated to stakeholders.
- Architecture design through use of architecture modelling techniques and tools to devise and represent.
- Mentoring and/or leadership of architects, providing oversight and technical leadership across multiple projects.
- Vendor and/or technology evaluation and selection exercises, and involvement with proof of concepts.
If you would like to learn more about the role, please contact Mark.harbottle@dwp.gov.uk.
Behaviours
We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
- Leadership
- Working Together
- Communicating and Influencing
Technical skills
We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:
- Architecture Communication (Expert)
- Architect for the whole Context (Practitioner)
- Community Collaboration (Practitioner)
- Making Architectural Decisions (Expert)
- Strategy Design (Practitioner)
- Technical Design throughout the life cycle (Expert)
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Alongside your salary of £75,026, Department for Work and Pensions contributes £21,735 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).
We also have a broad benefits package built around your work-life balance which includes:
- Working patterns to support work/life balance such as job sharing, term-time working, flexi-time and compressed hours.
- Generous annual leave – at least 25 days on entry, increasing up to 30 days over time (pro–rata for part time employees), plus 9 days public and privilege leave.
- Support for financial wellbeing, including interest-free season ticket loans for travel, a cycle to work scheme and an employee discount scheme.
- Health and wellbeing support including our Employee Assistance Programme for specialist advice and counselling and the opportunity to join HASSRA a first-class programme of competitions, activities and benefits for its members (subscription payable monthly).
- Family friendly policies including enhanced maternity and shared parental leave pay after 1 year’s continuous service.
- Funded learning and development to support progress in your role and career. This includes industry recognised qualifications and accreditations, coaching, mentoring and talent development programmes.
- An inclusive and diverse environment with opportunities to join professional and interpersonal networks including Women’s Network, National Race Network, National Disability Network (THRIVE) and many more.
Hybrid Working
This role may be suitable for hybrid working, which is where an employee works part of the week in their DWP office and part of the week from home. This is a voluntary, non-contractual arrangement and your office will be your contractual place of work.
If a hybrid working arrangement is suitable for the role and for you, you will normally be required to spend a minimum of 60% of your contracted working hours from your DWP office.
If you have a disability, caring responsibilities, or other circumstances that may affect your ability to meet the minimum office attendance requirement, please discuss this with us using the contact details in this advert.
Salary Information
The role is part of the Government Digital and Data profession and utilises an enhanced Government Digital and Data Pay Framework linked to capability which provides access to a Government Digital and Data allowance.
Pay for this role is £75,026 to £80,267, subject to candidate type. In addition to this, the role can attract a Government Digital and Data allowance of up to £24,810. Please see additional info below regarding candidate type. The value of allowance awarded will be based on an assessment of your skills as demonstrated in the selection process. Government Digital and Data Allowance is a discretionary non-consolidated, non-pensionable allowance.
External applicants
Pay for this role is £75,026 plus a Government Digital and Data Allowance of up to £24,810, subject to our assessment of capability at interview.
Our offer to successful candidates will be based on our assessment of your capability based on the evidence you provide at interview against the listed Technical Skills for the role. There is no negotiation at offer stage.
Internal and OGD applicants
Pay for the role is from £75,026 to £80,267, you may also be eligible for a Government Digital and Data Allowance of up to £24,810, subject to our assessment of capability at interview.
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Existing Civil Servants who secure a new role on lateral transfer should maintain their current base salary.
Existing Civil Servants who gain promotion should either move to the bottom of the grade pay scale or receive a 10% increase to their base salary; whichever would be the greater.
In addition to your base salary a Government Digital and Data Allowance may be payable based on our assessment of your capability. Our offer to successful candidates will be based on the evidence you provide at interview against the listed Technical Skills for the role. There is no negotiation at offer stage.
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.
Selection process details
This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Experience and Technical skills.
Stage 1: Application
Your Application Will Consist Of Three Parts:
- A Personal Details application form.
- Employment history - this should contain your work experience and any skills, qualifications and accomplishments relevant to the jobs you have completed based on the essential criteria.
- Personal statement - up to 1250 words. This statement should be used to provide examples of how you meet the essential criteria listed in the Person specification.
Ensure that all examples provided in your statement are taken directly from your own experience and that you describe the examples in your own words. If you choose to use gen-AI to support your statement, you must follow the guidelines outlined in the Artificial intelligence and recruitment guide.
The sift panel will use the information in your employment history and personal statement to assess your experience, skills and knowledge against the essential criteria.
You will be provided with one combined overall assessment score for both your CV and Personal Statement.
For Hints and Tips on completing your application visit Applying for jobs at DWP Digital.
Stage 2: Interview 1
If you’re successful at sift stage you will be invited to a video interview via Microsoft Teams.
You Will Be Asked To Do a 10-minute Presentation To Further Assess Your Experience And To Assess The Technical Skill Of Skill "Architecture Communication (Expert)". Your Presentation Should Focus On The Following:
- Present an example of a cloud-based architecture design that you’ve defined and delivered, explaining how you (i) translated business requirements into technical solutions including your key decisions, (ii) applied architectural standards, patterns and modelling techniques, and (iii) worked with delivery teams through the full lifecycle. Your presentation should include at least one suitable architectural view or diagram to support your example.
Stage 3: Interview 2
Behaviours:
If you are successful at Stage 2 you will be invited to a video
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