Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Principal Solution Architect
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Bristol, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Reading, Warrington, York
Job Summary
Defra is the UK government department responsible for safeguarding our natural environment, supporting our world-leading food and farming industry, and sustaining a thriving rural economy. Our broad remit means we play a major role in people's day-to-day life, from the food we eat, and the air we breathe, to the water we drink.
Digital, Data, Technology and Security (DDTS) is the trusted team for digital across the entire Defra Group.
We have around 1000 colleagues across DDTS and our ambition is to make it easier and faster than ever for people to interact with Defra. If you are ready to drive innovation and push boundaries, we want to hear from you. Join us and together we will create a great place for living, and a green and healthy future for all.
Find Out More About DDTS
- Defra digital, data and technology blog
- Defra Jobs
We are Government Digital and Data Candidate Information Pack V3 - 1
Job Description
Working as a Principal Solution Architect at DEFRA means supporting delivery of digital services that handle some of the most pressing issues our society faces, including climate change, sustainability, biodiversity and farming.
As well as working on meaningful projects, you can expect some great benefits such as a Civil Service pension with an average employer contribution of 28.97% and flexible working options such as condensed hours, part-time and flexi time.
You will guide multi-disciplinary architects in one or more Outcome Delivery Groups, resolving complex problems and reporting to the Chief Architect. You will lead a team of Lead and Solution Architects, providing vision and direction while balancing competing priorities.
You will manage vendor and supplier relationships to optimise DEFRA’s use of technology, data, and digital skills. This includes public-facing systems, internal platforms, scientific and analytical tools, geospatial systems, cloud services, and mobile operations.
The Delivery Architecture team is responsible for the IT solutions provided to DEFRA group and its executive agencies and arm’s length bodies. You will lead architecture in one or more Outcome Delivery Groups, supporting multiple programmes. You will define and deliver roadmaps in collaboration with stakeholders, ensuring successful delivery of complex systems while managing risk, cost, and strategic alignment.
Please note for this role you will require SC Clearance. To gain SC clearance all applicants are required to have been a UK resident for a minimum of 5 years. If this requirement is not met, the individual will not be able to progress their application further.
Responsibilities
- Ensure solutions align with enterprise architecture, digital strategy, and policy goals while meeting business needs.
- Act as a senior technical advisor to policy, service owners, delivery managers, and executives.
- Chair the local Solution Design Authority (SDA) to align decisions with government principles and strategic priorities.
- Oversee technology choices, integration, and data flows to ensure quality and compliance with DEFRA and government standards.
- Support the Chief Architect in managing governance within the Delivery Group.
- Represent DEFRA to external bodies (e.g., GDS) to ensure its needs shape UK Government digital services.
- Act as a senior technical ambassador at cross-government forums to align with broader strategies.
- Update roadmaps for key domains based on business fit, risk, sustainability, and strategic direction.
- Provide leadership to architects and coordinate across teams to manage dependencies across business and technical domains.
- Anticipate future needs, mitigate risks, and balance competing priorities.
- Collaborate with innovation teams to explore and adopt emerging technologies through pilots and proofs of concept.
- Communicate delivery goals, investment priorities, and strategic direction to architects and stakeholders.
- Assure third-party and internal work meets DEFRA standards and practices.
- Champion architectural best practices and drive holistic architecture maturity.
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Skills And Experience
- Extensive experience of working with and influencing suppliers and dependencies.
- Communicating with internal and external senior stakeholders.
- Extensive experience of estimating and contributing to project planning, dependency and risk maps from a technical perspective.
- Experience of successfully leading and delivering technological change within large organisations.
- Experience of analysing future technology needs from the proposals for user/digital services.
- Experience of producing roadmaps, business cases and other corporate investment plans.
- Experience of significant application modernisation/transformation.
- Management of multiple technical domains at senior level, delegation of detail working to others, and management of dependencies.
- Agile orientated delivery mindset.
- Ability to plan, budget, forecast and estimate resources, time and costs.
- Ability to implement, own and lead governance and assurance activities.
Selection process
The Civil Service marks each element of the selection process on a merit basis. You can visit the gov.uk website for further information on the Civil Service rating scale.
Ensure you have tailored your CV and Personal Statement to the 'skills and experience' section of the job advert by providing examples on how you are suitable for the role using the STAR method.
Please ensure you demonstrate clearly, within your personal statement, how you meet these requirements, as the information you provide will form a key part when the panel is scoring your application.
For further information on STAR, you can check out our Hints and Tips document.
Application process
As Part Of The Application Process, You Will Be Assessed On Your Experience. This Will Be Evaluated By Looking At Your CV And Personal Statement, So Please Provide The Following And Ensure Your Experience Is Clearly Demonstrated
- A CV
- A 750 word Personal Statement: Referring to the'skills and experience' sections of the job advert, please demonstrate how you are suitable for the role by providing relevant examples.
Further details around what this will entail are listed on the application form.
Sift
Sift will begin shortly after the advert closes.
Should there be a large number of applications, an initial sift will be conducted using your personal statement. Candidates who pass the initial sift may be progressed to a full sift, or progressed straight to assessment or interview.
Interview
If successful at sift, you will be invited to an interview where you will be assessed on the Behaviours and Technical Skills listed below.
For further information the Technical skills please refer to the framework.
Interview dates are to be confirmed. Please note that these may be subject to change.
Interviews will be held face to face at our London office, further details to follow if successful at sift.
Get help with your application
Your very own career expert that helps elevate your application to the next level.
For further information on Success Profiles, you can visit the links below and watch our videos on DefraJobs.
Behaviours
We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
- Leadership
- Technical skills
Technical Skills
We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:
- Architect for the whole context - Level: Expert
- Architecture communication - Level: Expert
- Commercial Perspective - Level: Practitioner
- Making Architectural Decisions - Level: Expert
- Problem definition and shaping - Level: Expert
- Strategy design - Level: Expert
Salary
Alongside your salary of £67,730, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs contributes £19,621 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).
Benefits
- 25 days leave (rising to 30 days over 5 years) plus bank holidays.
- A Civil Service pension with an average employer contribution of 28.97%.
- A day off per year for the King's birthday.
- Access to a range of retail discounts (these include supermarket, tech, gym, holiday, phone and more).
- Flexible working options such as condensed hours, part-time and flexi time.
- 3 paid volunteering days per year.
- Funding for professional membership of a recognised professional body.
- Learning and development tailored to your role and budget for training or qualifications.
- A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity.
- Cycle to work scheme.
- Health cash plan to help you manage health costs for a reduced monthly fee.
- Access to the Employee Assistance Programme open 24 hours, 7 days a week, that provides support to you during any times of stress or difficulty.
- Free access to Headspace for wellbeing.
- Season ticket loan for public transport.
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.
For further information on the selection process for this role, please refer to the person specification section of the job advert.
Location
As part of the pre-employment process for this post, successful candidate(s) will be able to agree a contractual workplace from those locations listed in this advert. The agreed contractual workplace is then the substantive and permanent place of work for the successful candidate(s).
Where the location is ‘National’ the successful appointee should discuss and agree an appropriate contractual location in line with both Defra’s location policy and site capacity, prior to proceeding with pre-employment processes.
The agreed amount of time spent at a workplace for this post will reflect the requirement for Civil Servants to spend at least 60% of their working time in an organisation workplace with the option to work the remaining time flexibly from home. Working time
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