Principal Technologist - GDS - G6

The Principal Technologists in GDS’s Office of the Government CTO function exist to make building great technology easier in the UK Public Sector. In this role you can help central and local government, the NHS, Police, as well as 1,000+ agencies and other bodies. By setting strategies, principles, standards and identifying best practice, as well as supporting the adoption and embedding of these into the public sector, you’ll help your 100,000+ digital and data colleagues in these organisations deliver transformational change.

Our Principal Technologists are currently focussed on Artificial Intelligence, Engineering Excellence, Cloud & Platforms, Technology Management and Digital Workplace, making these easier for organisations of all sizes. They create strategy and identify opportunities for these technologies for the UK Public Sector.

You will manage and mentor a Lead Technologist aligned to you and your team, who can support you when you need to rapidly deep-dive into a topic to achieve your team’s outcomes.

As Principal Technologist you will be leading a team including lead technologists, engagement leads and a delivery manager to:

1. Set a 10-year intent and strategy for the field you are aligned to, and gain endorsement for this
2. Identify and develop existing principles, standards and best practice and promote them, or form and lead a group of technologists from across UK Public Sector to create these
3. Work with vendors to maximise their offer to UK Public Sector, and with Government Commercial Function in commercial engagements with vendors
4. Build a network of peers across UK Public Sector to regularly engage with
5. Promote your work through content written for GOV.UK, speaking engagements and hosting community events
6. Help upskill others across UK Public Sector in your specialist area

The above list of job duties is not exclusive or exhaustive and the post holder will be required to undertake such tasks as may reasonably be expected within the scope and grading of the post.

These roles have a scale and impact unlike many others: we are routinely involved in commercial engagements worth £billions, respond to pan-Government technology questions from ministers, and provide advice to other international governments.

Please don’t let this sound intimidating; if you could see yourself in this role, we’d like to hear from you.

Person specification

We're interest in people who:

• have experience setting a vision and leading digital and data change
• have experience designing and building technology and be able to use this to build credibility with others, evaluate proposals and decide an execution approach
• have experience engaging with suppliers/vendors both formally and informally
• are comfortable in creating written content and presenting to senior stakeholders, both technical (such as CTOs / CDOs across Government) and non-technical (including ministers and permanent secretaries)
• ensure learning is embedded in the way you approach your working week, and you should be keen to share your learning with those around you through coaching and mentoring
• are at the top skill levels in your Digital & Data specialism, most likely from the Architecture, Data, IT Operations or Software Development groups
• hold relevant industry certifications for your technical specialism.