Lead Technical Architect

The Digital Workplace team at DSIT is responsible for shaping how colleagues work, collaborate, and use technology securely and effectively. We are looking for a Digital Workplace Technical Architect to provide senior technical leadership and architectural assurance across our Digital Workplace services. This role will set direction for end user computing and collaboration platforms, ensuring solutions are secure by design, user-centred, resilient, and sustainable at scale.

You will operate at organisational and cross-government level, influencing strategy, shaping standards, and assuring complex solutions across multiple teams and programmes.

As a Lead Technical Architect, you’ll:

• set the technical architecture direction for Digital Workplace services, aligned to departmental and cross-government strategy
• lead and assure the design of complex solutions covering end user computing, collaboration platforms, identity and security, and integration with legacy systems
• define and maintain architecture principles, standards and patterns, providing clear guidance to delivery teams and suppliers
• act as a senior technical authority, offering challenge, assurance and risk management on architectural decisions
• build strong relationships across DSIT, wider government and industry, contributing to cross-government communities and promoting reuse and common approaches
• provide technical leadership, mentoring and coaching to architects and senior technologists, A reserve list will be held for a period of 12 months, from which further appointments can be made.

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan and the Civil Service D&I Strategy.

Please note that this role requires SC clearance, which would normally need 5 years’ UK residency in the past 5 years. This is not an absolute requirement, but supplementary checks may be needed where individuals have not lived in the UK for that period. This may mean your security clearance (and therefore your appointment) will take longer or, in some cases, not be possible.

For meaningful checks to be carried out, you will need to have lived in the UK for a sufficient period of time, to enable appropriate checks to be carried out and produce a result which provides the required level of assurance. Whilst a lack of UK residency in itself is not necessarily a bar to a security clearance, and expectation of UK residency may range from 3 to 5 years. Failure to meet the residency requirements needed for the role may result in the withdrawal of provisional jobs offers.

Sponsorship

DSIT cannot offer Visa sponsorship to candidates through this campaign. DSIT holds a Visa sponsorship licence but this can only be used for certain roles and this campaign does not qualify. Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check .

See our vetting charter . People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks., * UK nationals

• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

• considerable experience providing technical architecture leadership for large-scale, user-facing platforms or services, working to support wider organisational objectives beyond your immediate goals
• experience setting and delivering technology strategies that align with organisational objectives
• strong experience creating technical designs characterised by high risk, impact and complexity within Digital Workplace or End User Computing technologies
• experience designing and assuring architectural solutions operating at enterprise or multi-team scale and managing risks at the appropriate level
• experience actively engaging with others, such as suppliers and commercial colleagues, including architectural input to procurement and assurance and adapting your feedback to ensure its effective and lasting
• the ability to communicate complex technical issues clearly to senior technical and non-technical stakeholders
• advanced expertise in one or more of the following; end user computing and device management, collaboration and productivity platforms (for example Microsoft 365), identity and access management, security, compliance and information governance, and integration and interoperability, * seeing the bigger picture
• working together
• making effective decisions
• developing self and others

We’ll also be assessing your experience and specialist technical skills against the following skills defined in the Government Digital and Data Capability Framework for the Lead Technical Architect role:

• Architect for the whole context
• Community collaboration
• Architecture communication
• Strategy design

1 Horse Guards Road, London Hybrid work Permanent, Full-time, Pulled from the full job description

• Childcare
• Annual leave
• Employee discount
• Employee assistance programme
• Company pension
• Paid volunteer time
• Cycle to work scheme, £72,825 - £91,855, There are many benefits of working at GDS, including:
• flexible hybrid working with flexi-time and the option to work part-time or condensed hours
• a Civil Service Pension with an average employer contribution of 28.97%
• 25 days of annual leave, increasing by a day each year up to a maximum of 30 days
• an extra day off for the King’s birthday
• an in-year bonus scheme to recognise high performance
• career progression and coaching, including a training budget for personal development
• a focus on wellbeing with access to an employee assistance programme
• job satisfaction from making government services easier to use and more inclusive for people across the UK
• advances on pay, including for travel season tickets
• death in service benefits
• cycle to work scheme and facilities
• access to an employee discounts scheme
• 10 learning days per year
• volunteering opportunities (5 special leave days per year)
• access to a suite of learning activities through Civil Service learning

Any move to Government Digital Service from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax Free Childcare. Determine your eligibility at https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk

Office attendance The Department operates a discretionary hybrid working policy, which provides for a combination of working hours from your place of work and from your home in the UK. The current expectation for staff is to attend the office or non-home based location for 40-60% of the time over the accounting period. DSIT does not normally offer full home working (i.e. working at home); but we do offer a variety of flexible working options (including occasionally working from home).

The Government Digital Service (GDS) is the digital centre of government. We are responsible for setting, leading and delivering the vision for a modern digital government.

Our priorities are to drive a modern digital government, by:

• joining up public sector services
• harnessing the power of AI for the public good
• strengthening and extending our digital and data public infrastructure
• elevating leadership and investing in talent
• funding for outcomes and procuring for growth and innovation
• committing to transparency and driving accountability

We are home to the Incubator for Artificial Intelligence (I.AI), the world-leading GOV.UK and at the forefront of coordinating the UK’s geospatial strategy and activity. We lead the Government Digital and Data function and champion the work of digital teams across government.

We’re part of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) and employ more than 1,000 people all over the UK, with hubs in Manchester, London and Bristol.

The Government Digital Service is where talent translates into impact. From your first day, you’ll be working with some of the world’s most highly-skilled digital professionals, all contributing their knowledge to make change on a national scale.

Join us for rewarding work that makes a difference across the UK. You’ll solve some of the nation’s highest-priority digital challenges, helping millions of people access services they need