Lead Technical Architect (Engineering Enablement) - GDS - G6

GDS exists to help government make brilliant public services that empower people in the UK. We work at the very centre of government to drive digital transformation, focused on users. We build and maintain common platforms, products and tools for others to use and create great public services that are accessible, inclusive and easy to use. We also work with departments to identify patterns, share learning and create change to make government more efficient.

Our teams are organised around delivering on our priorities. These are:

• making it easier for people to find what they are looking for on GOV.UK
• building common service platforms to make it simpler and cheaper to build quality digital services
• promoting agile, user-centred design practices both in the UK and across the world

This role is in the recently established GDS Engineering Enablement team which exists to ensure that GDS has the engineering tools and patterns it needs to drive efficiency, ensure security and enhance developer experience. 

The Engineering Enablement team is responsible for the management and governance of core tools in GDS, including, but not limited to, cloud hosting (AWS), code hosting & version control (GitHub) and cloud-based identity and access management. The Engineering Enablement team will be experts in these tools and work with suppliers to provide guidance, best practice expertise and training to other teams thus supporting and enhancing delivery and productivity. Working with many different teams in a large, digitally mature organisation, the team will continuously improve policy, standards and the secure and efficient use of core tools right across GDS.

The initial priority in this role will be to lead on establishing GDS's strategic Identity and Access Management solution, and to advance GDS's overall strategic approach to end user compute and tooling.

Job description

As a GDS Lead Technical architect, you’ll share the responsibility for the digital transformation of government. You will help design and drive the technical strategy for the area you work in while ensuring alignment with broader GDS standards and goals. You’ll hold the vision for technical architecture best practice in your area, enabling us to build resilient and reliable government services, communicating this to technical and non-technical audiences alike.

Lead Technical Architects often work across different teams and services. You’ll ensure that technical designs meet user needs and acceptance criteria, whilst conforming to time and budget constraints. You’ll thrive using agile methods and enjoy working collaboratively with departments and multidisciplinary teams. Above all, you’ll want to make government better, which may sometimes involve challenging the status quo.

As a Lead Technical Architect, you’ll:

• lead by example, be a visible leader who takes responsibility and acts as a role model
• contribute to the development and iteration of GDS architectural and engineering practices, principles and standards
• design technical services or plan system integration, selecting necessary platforms and technologies to meet project requirements and user needs
• provide technical leadership and consultancy to both internal and external development teams, ensuring designs & solutions are fit for purpose, whilst meeting time and budget restraints
• build and maintain technical roadmaps, looking ahead for future opportunities or blockers, and ensuring decisions by development teams align with the strategy
• encourage communication across multiple teams and wider organisational areas to identify strategic requirements and dependencies
• help develop services by contributing code, testing technologies and producing rapid prototypes
• advise teams on the right mix of capabilities to achieve their roadmapped goals and desired service levels
• act as a digital ambassador across government, supporting recruitment, identifying good practices for GDS to adopt and sharing experiences, e.g. through blog posts, tech talks at conferences etc
• be involved in helping recruiting technical architects and other senior technologists, where appropriate, helping sift and interview
• manage, coach and mentor more junior Technical Architects as well as others in the wider software engineering community

Person specification

We’re interested in people who have:

• a passion for technology and its delivery in building a user-centric service in an ever changing space, ensuring the right technology solutions meet outcomes for our users
• strong software development and application architecture experience, with good knowledge of cloud technologies, open source technologies, testing, and at least one programming language such as Ruby, Java, Python or Javascript
• an understanding of how to influence, manage and challenge complex stakeholder relationships and communicate with both technical and non-technical audiences
• experience of developing and managing high performing, agile, technical teams and creating an inclusive, collaborative culture across boundaries and locations
• practical knowledge at all levels of the web stack, from front-end code down to infrastructure and networking
• a deep understanding of modern technology practices such as test-driven development (TDD), continuous integration, continuous delivery and DevOps
• a good knowledge of cloud security architecture, including threat modelling, analysis and operations
• experience developing and implementing technical strategy and standards
• experience defining and refining technical governance in multidisciplinary agile environments

If you meet a few of those criteria but think that you might not meet every last one then don’t let that stop you from submitting an application.

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