Lead Technical Architect

We re recruiting for a Lead Technical Architects here at Justice Digital, to be part of our warm and collaborative HM Prison & Probation Service team.

This role aligns against Lead Technical architect from the Government Digital and Data Framework

Our Lead Technical Architects work with and oversee multiple projects or teams on problems that require broad architectural thinking. They are responsible for defining and championing the strategy, leading the technical design of systems and services and justifying and communicating their design decisions.

They assure other services and system quality, making sure the technical work fits into the broader strategy for their agencies. They provide mentoring within teams and provide peer support to other architects.

They have a good understanding of a broad range of technologies, can switch between different problems and responsibilities and are able to converse easily with and translate between non-technical stakeholders and technical practitioners.

At Justice Digital, you ll be working on our acclaimed open-source public services, with user needs at the heart of everything we do, helping us to transform government for the future.

We are a flexible organisation and we understand that people can't always work 5 days a week or might have responsibilities that sometimes clash with standard office hours. We work as flexibly as we can, including offering part time hours, so if in doubt please do get in touch. If you're the right candidate we will do our best to work around you.

To help picture your life at MoJ Justice Digital please take a look at our blog and our Digital and Technology strategy 2025, * Work with the Principal Technical Architects to define, maintain and own the technical strategy and roadmap for services of various sizes and complexity, defining how they integrate with other services and teams, and how they evolve over time

• Collaborate and find agreement with senior stakeholders, providing both technical and non-technical direction and challenge
• Mentor, coach, and line manage senior and mid-level technical architects
• Guide technical teams, influence technical choices and seek out opportunities for digital transformation
• Undertake structured evaluation of technical concepts, translating this into technical designs that describe a solution
• Look for opportunities to collaborate and reuse common components, communicating with both technical and non-technical people
• Assure other services and system quality, ensuring the technical work fits into the broader strategy for the agency
• Align your team's work with departmental and wider government technology strategy
• Support hiring, taking part in recruitment for both Technical Architects and other professions such as Software Developers

Our Tech Stack

• Programming languages such as TypeScript/Node, Kotlin/Java.
• AWS, using infrastructure as code such as Terraform, CloudFormation, or ARM templates
• Container orchestration tools such as Kubernetes.
• Public GitHub repositories for our work
• Modern development practices such as domain-driven design, test-driven development, continuous integration and continuous delivery
• Mac laptops
• Plus other tools such as Prometheus, Grafana, AppInsights, GitHub Actions, CircleCI, and more

If this feels like an exciting challenge, something you are enthusiastic about, and want to join our team please read on and apply!, * Experience in designing software architecture for multi-tier web solutions, including micro-services, API management, event-driven processing, databases, and pub/sub patterns. (250 words)

• Can communicate technical concepts for multidisciplinary teams and stakeholders, ensuring mutual understanding and fostering strong relationships, particularly with senior leadership. (250 words)
• Demonstrates technical leadership, successfully guiding cross-discipline teams to deliver complex outcomes, while ensuring alignment with wider strategic priorities and influencing future direction. (250 words)

Your statement of suitability will not be read beyond the first 750 words. Failure to provide either of these documents will result in a rejection of your application.

Should we receive a high volume of applications, a pre-sift based on Experience in designing software architecture for multi-tier web solutions, including micro-services, API management, event-driven processing, databases, and pub/sub patterns will be conducted before the sift.

Application Guidance

Please access the following link for guidance on how to apply and how to complete a Personal Statement

Application Guidance

In Justice Digital, we recruit using a combination of the Government Digital and Data Profession Capability and Success Profiles Frameworks. We will assess your Experience, Technical Skills and the following Behaviours during the assessment process:

• Leadership
• Communicating and Influencing
• Seeing the Big Picture
• Making Effective Decisions

A diverse panel will review your application against the Person Specification above.

Successful candidates who meet the required standard will then be invited to a 1.5 hr interview held via video conference which will comprise of a panel of 3 people and will include a short in-person technical task.

Should you be unsuccessful in the role that you have applied for but demonstrate the capability for a role at a lower level, we reserve the right to discuss this opportunity with you and offer you the position without needing a further application.

A reserve list may be held for up to 12 months, from which further appointments may be made.

Use of 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 for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Terms & Conditions

Please review our Terms and Conditions which set out how we recruit and provide further information related to the role and salary arrangements.

• Proven experience in a technical or solution architecture role, acting as a recognised expert to guide, critique, and support teams in delivering outcomes aligned with business needs.
• Practical knowledge of modern cloud-first architectures, leveraging cloud capabilities to design secure, scalable applications, while mitigating security risks in public cloud environments.
• Experience in designing software architecture for multi-tier web solutions, including micro-services, API management, event-driven processing, databases, and pub/sub patterns.
• Experience in introducing and championing best practices such as TDD, continuous integration, continuous delivery, and DevOps, fostering high-quality engineering culture within teams.
• Can communicate technical concepts for multidisciplinary teams and stakeholders, ensuring mutual understanding and fostering strong relationships, particularly with senior leadership.
• Experience making and guiding effective technical decisions by analysing trends and organisational practices, while consulting where necessary to ensure diverse user needs are met.
• Capable of identifying deeper problems and opportunities, making bold, unbiased decisions, and clearly communicating the rationale behind recommendations.
• Demonstrates technical leadership, successfully guiding cross-discipline teams to deliver complex outcomes, while ensuring alignment with wider strategic priorities and influencing future direction.

Willingness to be assessed against the requirements for SC clearance

• 37 hours per week and flexible working options including working from home, working part-time, job sharing, or working compressed hours.

• A 1k per person learning budget is in place to support all our people, with access to best in class conferences and seminars, accreditation with professional bodies, fully funded vocational programmes and e-learning platforms

• Staff have 10% time to dedicate to develop & grow

• Generous civil service pension based on defined benefit scheme, with employer contributions of 28.97% from April 1st 2024 (Contribution Rates)

• 25 days leave (plus bank holidays) and 1 privilege day usually taken around the King s birthday. 5 additional days of leave once you have reached 5 years of service.

• Compassionate maternity, adoption, and shared parental leave policies, with up to 26 weeks leave at full pay, 13 weeks with partial pay, and 13 weeks further leave. And maternity support/paternity leave at full pay for 2 weeks, too!

• Wellbeing support including access to the Calm app.