Technical Architect

Central Digital and Data Office

Apply before 11:55 pm on Sunday 24th November 2024

 
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Details

Reference number

378442

Salary

£58,063 - £89,880
£65,163 - £89,880 (London) / £58,063 - £79,094 Based on capability. The base salary of this grade is £61,005 for London, and £55,403 for other locations. Offers made above this will be made up with a specialist pay allowance.

Job grade

Grade 7

Contract type

Permanent

Business area

CDDO - Other

Type of role

Digital
Information Technology

Working pattern

Flexible working, Full-time, Job share, Part-time, Compressed hours

Number of jobs available

1

Contents

Bristol, London, Manchester

Job summary

A part of the Cabinet Office, the Central Digital and Data Office leads the Government Digital and Data function for government. We put the right conditions in place to achieve government digital and data transformation at scale by working with departments, and other government functions like commercial, project delivery and security professionals.

We are responsible for:

You will be joining the Service Transformation team which aims to improve services across government that people depend on every day. Digital and Data create opportunities to change how citizens interact with government, making services faster, simpler and fairer. By redesigning services around the needs of users, whether they are individuals or businesses, government can save people time and money, often when they’re needed most.

Our work currently centres around:

  • end-to-end service transformation - working across departmental boundaries create, incubate and improve services to achieve impactful outcomes in the best way possible
  • improving priority services - partnering with digital, policy and operational delivery colleagues across government to improve specific services and test new ideas
  • service performance measurement - improving how government’s 7000+ services are measured and supported to drive improvements and create clear accountability
  • service standards & guidance - expanding the Service Standard and guidance to help public organisations create and run great public services
  • designing inclusive services - exploring how to make services work for all users who need them and support those that unable to access them online

Job description

As a Technical Architect, you will be responsible for defining and driving modern, scalable, secure and effective technology across Government. Influencing design, nurturing best practice and reducing technical debt, you will play a key role in simplifying, structuring and defining technical solutions and innovation across Government.

As a technical architect you will:

  • develop a deep technical understanding of the Government’s priority services, sufficient to provide technical advice and guidance to help them transform. Review the services to identify problems, opportunities and potential solutions to improve the technical design 
  • lead in designing and implementing technology solutions that meet the digital and business strategy, industry trends, standards and government requirements
  • provide expert technical leadership to departments on architecture relating to technical domains (such as Infrastructure. Networking, Channel strategy and systems Integration)
  • oversee and proactively shape the implementation of new innovative solutions, using in-depth industry knowledge and identifying opportunities to maximise cost savings and business benefits
  • understand the issue of legacy technology and assist with the prioritisation and remediation of critical systems
  • articulate ideas, solutions and recommendations across all levels of the organisation and have a proactive approach to work at pace to deliver technology transformation
  • identify new technologies which can make a material impact on the sector and competitive advantage
  • lead and participate in technical design and development to evaluate and recommend optimal solutions designed for high levels of data quality, integrity, performance, availability and reliability. Identify and measure key factors in product selection during solution options appraisal creation
  • work with the architecture community to design, implement, embed and evaluate best practice architecture across Government
  • work with third-party vendors in a collaborative way to ensure supplier-delivered solutions meet business needs and organisation / industry best practice

Person specification

This role requires:

  • demonstrable experience in the design, implementation and operation of solutions to provide government services. Awareness of full development software development lifecycle.  Requirements gathering (including NFR's), agile delivery, testing, DevOps and production release
  • being responsible for identifying, managing and influencing relevant stakeholders and external partners, working with them proactively to solve problems, lead and drive business outcomes. Key stakeholders to include: service owners, vendors, architecture teams, delivery partners
  • experience across a broad range of technologies in delivering services. Some experience with key common technologies associated with cloud services such as AWS and Azure, for example resilient database design, secrets management, compute
  • the ability to proactively find design improvements and opportunities with current services and technologies that would benefit users
  • the ability to conduct and lead analyses of technology and associated operational processes, with a view to recommending both high-level and low-level technical designs and strategies that will improve the service, lower costs, and prevent unforeseen operational issues

The benefits of working at CDDO

There are many benefits including:

  • flexible hybrid working with flexi-time and the option to work part-time or condensed hours
  • a Civil Service Pension with an 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
  • paid volunteering leave 
  • 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 children's holiday play schemes across different locations in central London
  • 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

CDDO offers hybrid working for all employees. This means that everyone does some working from home and also spends some time in their local office. You’ll agree to your hybrid working arrangement with your line manager in line with your preferences and business needs.

Any move to the Central Digital and Data Office 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

Selection process details

The standard selection process for roles at CDDO consists of:

  • a simple application screening process - We only ask for a CV and for you to answer 3 application questions
  • a 60 minute video interview - as part of the interview process you will be asked to prepare and deliver a presentation. Details around the presentation will be provided to shortlisted candidates.

Whilst we value the use of AI technology to enhance our daily work, we also value the personal touch and urge applicants to write responses without the use of AI to emphasise their own unique experiences.

Depending on how many applications we get, there might also be an extra stage before the video interview, for example a phone interview or a technical exercise.

In the event we receive a high volume of applications, we will conduct the initial sift against the lead criteria which is:

  • Please detail your previous experience designing and delivering new services/solutions for external users/customers (e.g. members of the public)

In the Civil Service, we use Success Profiles to evaluate your skills and ability. This gives us the best possible chance of finding the right person for the job, increases performance and improves diversity and inclusivity. We’ll be assessing your technical abilities, skills, experience and behaviours that are relevant to this role.

For this role we’ll be assessing you against the following Civil Service Behaviours:

  • changing and improving
  • making effective decisions
  • communicating and influencing
  • managing a quality service

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

  • Architecture for the whole context
  • Architecture communication
  • Community collaboration
  • Making architectural decisions
  • Strategy design
  • Technical design throughout the life cycle

Recruitment Timeline

Role Closes - 24th November 2024

Sift completion: 29th November 2024

Panel interviews: week commencing 9th December 2024

Candidates that do not pass the interview but have demonstrated an acceptable standard may be considered for similar roles at a lower grade.

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.

You may be aware that there are plans for the Government Digital Service (GDS) & the Central Digital & Data Office (CDDO) to move into the Department of Science, Innovation & Technology (DSIT). This move is to bring together the digital transformation of public services into one core department. The move itself will offer huge opportunities whilst allowing DSIT to lead the way and drive forward the new Government's digital agenda. 

As the announcement is relatively new, we are awaiting more detailed information. Therefore, we encourage you to apply for this role, and will keep you informed with updated information throughout the application process.



Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.
People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

  • 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) (opens in a new window)
  • 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
Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).
The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

Diversity and Inclusion

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 (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).
This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.
The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. Read more about prison leaver recruitment (opens in new window).
Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job contact :

  • Name : gds-recruitment@digital.cabinet-office.gov.uk
  • Email : gds-recruitment@digital.cabinet-office.gov.uk

Recruitment team

  • Email : gds-recruitment@digital.cabinet-office.gov.uk

Further information

If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with the Recruitment Principles and you wish to make a complaint, you should contact gds-recruitment-complaints@digital.cabinet-office.gov.uk in the first instance.
If you are not satisfied with the response you receive you can contact the Civil Service Commission by email:
info@csc.gov.uk Or in writing: Civil Service Commission, Room G/8 1 Horse Guards Road, London, SW1A 2HQ.

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