DDAT Army Design Authority Assistant Head Information Architect - MoD - G7

The Ministry of Defence employs over 50,000 Civil Servants. Within that, the Army Top Level Budget (TLB) employs around 9,000 MOD Civil Servants located at over 300 locations. Ours is a diverse workforce, with roles ranging from trainers, human resources, teachers, firefighters and psychologists to storekeepers, financiers, project and programme managers, and policy secretariat staff. There are many different functions and professions delivering key outputs enabling the Army to meet its Defence Tasking.  

This position sits within the Army TLB specifically Army Headquarters (AHQ), working in the Directorate of Information (D Info). This is an exciting opportunity to work within the Army Chief Technology Officer (CTO) pillar in the role of Design Authority Assistant Head Information Architect (Info DA). 

We are looking for a highly motivated, personable, and passionate technical team leader to join the Information Directorate within the HQ. The Info DA is an established functional authority responsible for the governance and enablement of Digital, Data & Technology (DDaT) architecture in the British Army. The Info DA links into the Army Operating Model (AOM) providing functional assurance, enablement, and governance across the Army for the DDaT architecture domain.  

The successful incumbent will support the Army Chief Architect in managing DDaT Architecture function and supporting other DDaT functional areas within the Info DA currently comprising of Data Governance Office, Data Protection Support Team, Knowledge, and Information Management.  

If you are passionate about information architecture, digital and data and possess skills and experience in leadership within these domains specifically in the governance, operation and exploitation space we would love to hear from you! 

This role sits within the Information Design Authority (Info DA) and is responsible for the management and running of the functions within the Info DA covering Digital, Data & Technology (DDaT) Architecture and wider Data and Information governance.   

You will support the Chief Architect in the creation, evolution, and operation of the Army Info DA in support of the Army CDIO mandate, vision, and strategy. You will lead in enabling and facilitating DDaT architecture assurance, coherence, and enablement across the British Army collating, creating, publishing, and assuring methodologies, frameworks, principles, policies, and standards, leading the governance and control processes required to implement via architectures, digital transformation and digital by default to the British Army.  

This position is advertised at 37 hours per week.

Job description

This position is the mechanism by which the senior department leaders can operate as the digital functional leaders for the British Army. The organisation and information capability-portfolio requires a digital, data, information and architectural governance capability to support and control design operational outcomes and war fighting effectiveness future proofing the Army's processes, information and technology footprint for maximum operational effectiveness across organisational boundaries in a digital and data age.   

The main roles and responsibilities will be: 

• Lead/cohere and run the DDaT functions within the Info DA. 
• Create and maintain an operating model across the Info DA that docks into wider Army Architecture, Data Governance, Data Protection and KIM operating models.
• Ensuring the governance, assurance, exploitation, and overall management of these areas as the functional authority on behalf of the CTO and CDIO.  
• Communicate the vision, principles, and strategy for the DDaT functions within the Info DA.  
• Be responsible for the contract management for External assistance (EA) across the Info DA, managing the finance and contractual outputs of any EA within the Info DA. 
• Manage the Info DA leadership team across the Info DA as well as all Risks, Issues, Dependencies & Opportunities for each functional area reporting to the Chief Architect into the CTO Op model. 
• Understand the DDaT architectural wants and needs of the organisation with the Chief Architect and create an operating model and functional areas to deliver policy and governance to deliver against those needs.  
• Interact with stakeholders across organisations, teams, or communities to ensure the enablement, assurance, and governance of DDaT architecture functions across the Army and wider Defence.  
• Work with central Defence (Defence Digital, Strat Comm, DE&S) to enable a federated model for enabling architecture across defence, responsible for collating, publishing, and assuring against a range of central and federated artefacts including policy, process, technologies, and standards.   Work with central Defence (Defence Digital, Strat Comm, DE&S) to enable a federated model for enabling DDaT governance and coherence across responsible for collating, publishing, and assuring against a range of central and federated artefacts including policy, process, technologies, and standards.  

Person specification

Person Specification

We are looking for someone who can demonstrate the following experience and/or potential: 

• Experience of managing, leading and governing DDaT functional areas and teams delivering service and capability outcomes.
• Being well versed in communication and confident in explaining complex concepts and technologies to others.
• Able to prioritise tasks and work as part of a large multi-disciplined teams spanning different levels and types of stakeholders delivering digital/technology products and services.
• A genuine desire to develop, learn and contribute to the team championing an inclusive, neo-diverse and agile culture as a digital leader.
• Experience of working in a senior or middle level architecture or digital/date role, experience of working as an architect with exposures to frameworks, taxonomies, standards, and architecture repositories.
• Experience of leading or delivering an architectural or data governance model or service provision. 

Essential Criteria:

• Knowledge and Experience of TOGAF or another architectural framework
• Enterprise Architecture Experience 
• Experience in working in an Information, Data or Digital Discipline. 

Desirable:  

• Certified Information Management Principles. 
• Experience in Assurance and Governance in a Digital, Data or Technology domain 
• TOGAF Certified. 
• Knowledge or Archie, ArchiMate notation and SYSUML 
• Experience of using SPARX EA, ARCHI and Prolaborate

Behaviours

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

• Leadership
• Seeing the Big Picture
• Changing and Improving
• Managing a Quality Service
• Working Together

We only ask for evidence of these behaviours on your application form:

• Leadership
• Seeing the Big Picture

Technical skills

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

• Making Architectural Decisions at Working Level Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework - Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework
• Strategy Design at Working Level Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework - Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework
• Enterprise Architecture at Practitioner Level
• Architect for the whole context at Practitioner Level