DDAT – Lead Technical Architect

Defence Digital ensures our Armed Forces remain among the most technologically advanced in the world. We do this by putting innovative and effective technology into the hands of over 200,000 users, from the boardroom to the front line.

We lead on cutting-edge data science, automation, and cyber security at scale. Our mission goes beyond the battlefield by leading humanitarian efforts and driving digital innovation that impacts lives across the globe.

Defence Digital forms part of Strategic Command which manages the MOD’s joint capabilities for the Army, RAF, and Royal Navy.

Working at Defence Digital 

Passionate about using your skills to make a critical difference? Your next career move could be here!

This position is advertised at 37 hours per week.

Job description

A lead technical/solution architect for this post will play a high-level role in working with multiple projects or teams within the Missions Information Exploitation (MIX) team, specifically supporting the Imagery and Geospatial Intelligence Team, on problems that require broad architectural thinking.

They will be responsible for leading the design and delivery of systems and services, justifying and communicating design decisions as well as supporting the service owners in your capacity as a technical subject matter expert for the IMaGE service owner.

The lead technical architect, you also be responsible for ensuring the quality of services and systems, aligning technical work with the government's overall strategy. You will also explore opportunities for cross-government collaboration. Additionally, you will manage, coach, and mentor junior Technical and Solution Architects within the Mission Exploitation Applications and Integration team.

Responsibilities

• Lead a team to deliver the architecture outputs required by the programme, using optimal technical reference architecture and patterns, aligning key factors such as user need, system requirements, security, and organisational objectives, to support Defence’s Digital Backbone and Common Technology Architecture (CTA).
• Coordinate the end-to-end design and delivery of technical/solution architecture programmes and services, from mapping of user and business service solution requirements through to leading the implementation of those solutions into technology agnostic service management solutions. Responsible for ensuring that delivery timescales, dependencies and risks are effectively managed by the Service Executive within Defence Digital delivery.
• Present to senior management, wider stakeholders, the Technical Design Authority (TDA) and relevant Architecture Reference Authority architectural solution designs and recommendations which uphold architecture principles, policies, standards and promote good practices, including use of relevant Architecture tooling.
• Contribute to the development of architectural practice, collaborating with other areas of the business to deliver solutions which are coherent and consistent with strategies developed across business, leading the assurance and scrutiny of designs within MIX and ensuring design work is compliant with technical policy, rules, standards and patterns for coherence across other Service areas.
• Provide Subject Matter Expert (SME) guidance and support to the TDA, work with Solution Architects to establish and promote Defence Enterprise Architectures whilst also making sure engineering teams are supported with questions and requests.
• Collate and coordinate delivery feedback and experiences from MIX into Solution, Technical and Enterprise Architecture Leadership for the purposes of enhancing reference architectures standards and artefacts to support existing and future delivery programmes and operations.

For more information on Technical Architects please see the Government Digital and Data Framework;

Lead Technical Architect

Person specification

To be successful in this role you would need experience of the following;

• Deep understanding of technical and solution architectures, design principles, and methodologies.
• Extensive experience in leading the design and delivery of complex systems and services.
• Strong knowledge of government IT strategies and standards.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, including the ability to present complex technical concepts to a variety of audiences.
• Proven ability to manage and mentor technical teams.
• Strong problem-solving and analytical skills.
• Experience with architecture frameworks and tools (e.g., TOGAF, DoDAF).
• Familiarity with Agile development methodologies. .

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

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

Technical skills

We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

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

Benefits

• An environment with flexible working options
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
• 25 days annual leave rising (1 day per year) to 30 days upon completion of 5 years’ service
• Ability to roll over up to 10 days annual leave per year
• In addition to 8 public holidays per year you will also receive leave for HM The King's birthday
• Minimum of 15 Days Special Leave in a rolling 12-month period to for volunteer military or emergency service reserve commitments
• Special Paid Leave for volunteering up to 6 days a year
• Enhanced parental and adoption leave
• Employee Assistance Programme to support your wellbeing
• Most sites have good travel links with free car parking; many also have other facilities such as a Sports & Social Club and Gyms
• A highly competitive pension scheme.
Discover my benefits for more information

This post is eligible for a Digital Skills Allowance of up to £15,300 per annum. Eligibility for this allowance will be assessed at interview and reviewed annually in line with departmental policy.