Senior Technical Architect (up to £83,918)

Job summary

These are exciting times in the Department for Education.

Our digital services have been migrated onto public cloud and we’re on a journey of maturing our technology, and how we work, to take full advantage of cloud-native and network technologies. Our goal is to make our digital delivery faster, cheaper and more secure.

Our diverse and inclusive culture in DfE reflects the society we live in - this helps us to achieve better outcomes for all our users. We typically work in Agile teams, so we can innovate and radically improve services that: raise education standards and provide the best start in life for children; support disadvantaged and vulnerable children and young people; and drive economic growth.

If you are successful, you will be working in the Schools Digital portfolio. Our aim is to support schools and teachers to have the best environment, tools and support so that every child can achieve and thrive. We work with Schools Group to deliver Manifesto commitments on recruiting and retaining teachers, including the 6.5k manifesto commitment, SEND reform and helping schools improve.

This is an exciting time to join the portfolio with significant reform programmes underway for SEND and schools, which will have a direct impact on the outcomes on the teaching landscape and help every child achieve and thrive.

We work in multi-disciplinary teams using Agile methods to innovate and radically improve services that:

• Support schools to manage and improve their performance
• Support teachers and teacher trainee mentors to provide the best start in life for children
• Support children to get the best SEND support
• Drive economic growth

Job description

As a Senior Technical Architect, your main responsibilities will include:

• Defining, maintaining, and championing the technical strategy for a service or group of services - keeping up to date with the latest technologies and trends, whilst delivering working software early and often.
• Leading technical specialists in multiple projects and services, on problems that require broad architectural thinking.
• Defining how to build and operate user-centred, open-source web systems in an agile environment, to serve a variety of citizen and government needs.
• Being responsible for the technical design and development of services in your programme, including how they interact with their surroundings, and how they evolve over time.
• Challenging entrenched practices and influencing decision-makers, looking for deeper underlying problems to solve, and larger opportunities for digital transformation.
• Communicating the vision for government services to developers and non-developers alike, working in multi-disciplinary teams that bring policy and delivery together.
• Playing an active role in the DfE architecture community, where you will share knowledge of tools and techniques, as well as joining related communities of practice and events where appropriate, such as product, user research, design, platforms, security, etc.
• Helping to build a diverse, inclusive culture across the technical architecture community.
• Working with your Lead Technical Architect, colleagues and peers on profession-based activities (and cross-profession), such as defining standards and guidance around best practice.

Person specification

Essential criteria:

Applications will be assessed against the following criteria:

Assessed at application and both interview stages:

• Experience working and coaching in technical teams and delivering user-centred services in an agile environment.
• Experience working with cloud-first architectures and how to build applications that take advantage of the opportunities they offer.
• Experience of software development in C# .Net (or similar), and introducing modern software engineering practices, such as Test-Driven Development (TDD), continuous integration/development (CI/CD), automated deployment pipelines and version control with Git and DevOps.

Assessed at application and second interview stage:

• The ability to work with technical and non-technical stakeholders to achieve agreement on technical plans.
• The ability to look beyond immediate technical problems and identify the wider implications.
• Practical knowledge at many levels of the web stack, from front-end code, down to infrastructure and networking.

Desirable criteria:

The following criteria are desirable. Applicant’s evidence against these criteria will be used at interview in the event of a tie break situation, to make an informed decision:

• Experience using automated tests to continuously validate your work.
• Experience of applying the UK Government Service Standard and service assessment.
• Experience of mentoring and supporting colleagues in multi-disciplinary teams, one-to-one or in groups.
• Ability to work with stakeholders to produce effective strategies for technology choices, using the most appropriate languages, frameworks and tools to meet user and business needs.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £60,222, Department for Education contributes £17,446 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).

Applicants currently holding a permanent post in the Civil Service should note that, if successful, their salary on appointment would be determined by the Department’s transfer / promotion policies.

As a member of the DfE, you will be entitled to join the highly competitive Civil Service Pension Scheme, which many experts agree is one of the most generous in the UK.

You will have 25 days leave, increasing by 1 day every year to a maximum of 30 days after five years’ service. In addition, all staff receive the King’s Birthday privilege holiday and 8 days’ bank and public holidays.

We offer flexible working arrangements, such as job sharing, term-time working, flexi-time and compressed hours.

Most DfE employees will be working a hybrid pattern, spending at least 60% of their time in an office or work setting. Changes to these working arrangements are available in exceptional circumstances but must be agreed with the line manager and in line with the requirements of the role.

Travel to your primary office location will not be paid for by DfE, but costs for travel to an office which is not your main location will be covered.

As an organisation, which exists to support education and lifelong learning, we offer our staff excellent professional development opportunities.

Things you need to know

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

Application/sift:

At application you will be asked to provide your CV and a statement of suitability. Both should be anonymised (all personal inform