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Principal Technical Architect

  • Public sector
  • 05/04/2024
  • £65,302.00 - £78,805.00 /yearly
  • Full Time & Permanent
Job expired!

Job Overview

Job Type

Full Time & Permanent

Salary

£65,302 - £78,805 yearly

Date Posted:

05/04/2024

Expiration date:

15/04/2024

Additional Detail

Job ID

4759

Job Description

National

Job summary

Job title Principal Technical Architect

Profession- Development & Operations  

Directorate Technology

Full Time equivalent - 37.5 hours

No of Roles 1

Contract Type Permanent

Location  Hybrid

UKHSA operates a hybrid working model where business needs allow.  This provides us with greater flexibility about how and where we work, to get the best from our workforce. As a hybrid worker, you will be expected to spend a minimum of 60% of your contractual working hours (approximately 3 days a week pro rata,(averaged over a month) working at one of UKHSA's locations (Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool, and London).  Specialist or regional roles will be based at the appropriate UKHSA site. For certain roles, some additional flexibility may be possible, which will be agreed upon with the hiring manager based on individual requirements and business needs.

Working Pattern Full Time /Hybrid Working/ Flexible Working

Grade & Salary Grade 6. National banding - £65,302 - £75,129 per annum. Outer London - £67,288- £76,967 per annum. Inner London - £69,275 - £78,805 per annum

This role comes with a Market Pay Supplement of up to £15,000

The internal roles rules apply to existing Civil Servants, i.e. level transfers move on current salary or the pay range minimum, transfers on promotion move to new pay range minimum or receive 10% increase. Either case is determined by whichever is the highest.

This role is to be appointed under Civil Service Terms & Conditions. Full details on the T&Cs are found https://www.ukhsa.reed.com/.

Closing Date 14/04/2024. 23:55pm. Unfortunately, late applications will not be considered

Interview Date W/C 29/04/2024 Please note, these dates are subject to change.

Job description

 

The Principal Technical Architect will lead a small team of Technical Architects working across multiple projects or teams on problems that require broad architectural thinking. They will provide leadership in establishing UK Health Security Agencys approach to technical architecture and guide projects in using principles, standards and tooling to deliver new systems and services for citizens.

As Principal Technical Architect, you will provide assurance for architectural designs across the agency, making sure that technical designs fit into the broader strategy for the agency and wider government. You will be responsible for leading the production of technical designs in-line with appropriate government standards including the service standard and the technology code of practice. You will also explore the benefits of cross-government alignment of systems and services.

You will support the delivery of the UKHSA Technology Strategy, and feed into sub-strategies including our Integration and Platform strategies. You will be responsible for producing designs through a defined governance structure, leading the identification of best practice, and promoting the use of reusable patterns and standards. You will build effective partnerships with diverse teams across multiple locations and technologies and provide mentoring and leadership to other architects.

 

Main Duties of the Job

Your main day to day activities will be:

  • Leading a small, specialist team of technical architects
  • Creating technical designs and identifying appropriate technical solutions aligned to user needs and UKHSA/government standards.
  • Working closely with product managers, business analysts, delivery managers and others as part of cross-functional agile delivery teams
  • Overseeing or leading the technical evaluation of proposals from third party suppliers, as part of UKHSAs procurement processes
  • Working closely with external suppliers to ensure that their architectures are robust, scalable, open and secure and meet other internal standards
  • Ensuring that new products and services are secure by design
  • Working with and across other areas of DDaT and the business to develop and document technical designs for the integration and implementation of any solution
  • Presenting and championing recommendations to senior stakeholders across the agency, communicating complicated technical concepts concisely to non-technical users.
  • Anticipating and advising on future technology that presents opportunities for the organisation
  • Managing, coaching and mentoring other technical architects and members of the wider technology team
  • Forging close working relationships across other government and health technical architecture communities, exploring the benefits of cross-government alignment

We pride ourselves as being an employer of choice, where Everyone Matters promoting equality opportunity to actively encourage applications from everyone, including groups currently underrepresented in our workforce.

UKHSA ethos is to be an inclusive organisation for all our staff and stakeholders. To create, nurture and sustain an inclusive culture, where differences drive innovative solutions to meet the needs of our workforce and wider communities. We do this through celebrating and protecting differences by removing barriers and promoting equity and equality of opportunity for all.

Person specification

Essential Criteria:

 

Please provide the experience/knowledge that is essential for the candidate to carry out the role

The following technical experience is essential to this role:

  • Development and application architecture experience, with good knowledge of open-source technologies and at least one programming language
  • Working with external suppliers to ensure that their system architectures are robust, scalable, open and secure, with appropriate overall system design and integration points/APIs, to deliver a high-quality user experience
  • Working in dynamic fast paced agile environments, collaboratively and openly with others using continual delivery techniques and DevOps cultures
  • Managing and delivering complex technology solutions within time, cost and quality targets
  • Designing secure and scalable services within common public cloud platforms (particularly Microsoft Azure or Amazon Web Services) and related technologies (for example, elastic scaling, platform as a service and networking architecture in the cloud)
  • Leading and influencing highly specialised technical teams, including steering decision making and improving how those decisions are made and technical systems are operated
  • Developing or directly influencing enterprise technology strategies supported by user research, balancing technology against cost, user experience, operational/support experience and strategic goals
  • Defining, owning and contributing to the technical roadmap and strategy and demonstrating a detailed knowledge of technical requirements to implement, design and manage associated technologies

 

Desirable:

  • Technology Code of Practice and the Service Standard and how these apply to enterprise IT within an organisation and across government
  • Working with senior management to define directorate priorities based on medium- long term strategies and organisational direction
Alongside your salary of £65,302, UK Health Security Agency contributes £17,631 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.
  • Learning and development tailored to your role
  • An environment with flexible working options
  • A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
  • A Civil Service pension with an average employer contribution of 27%

Selection process details

You will be required to complete an application form. This will be assessed and sifted in line with the essential criteria.

 

This vacancy is using Success Profiles, and will assess your Behaviours and Experience

Stage 1: Application & Sift

As part of the application process, you will be asked to provide a Statement of Suitability in no more than 750 words providing examples of how you meet the essential criteria. It should also detail what you and your experience can bring to the role. We suggest using the STAR (situation, task, action, result) method to demonstrate real-life examples for the specified essential criteria. Please note, only information provided within the stated word count will be considered.

If you are successful at this stage, you will progress to interview

 

Stage 2: Panel Interview

This role is a two stage interview process. The first stage will consist of a technical test if successful the second interview will test the following behaviours:

  • Managing a Quality Service
  • Leadership
  • Developing Self & Others

 

Reserve List:

Candidates who pass the interview criteria but are not offered a post will be kept on a reserve list for 12 months and may be contacted if similar roles become available.

If you are interviewed for the post and do not meet the required threshold for the specified grade, your application may be assessed against a similar, lower grade role and you may be offered the post should one be available.

Benefits

 

  • Civil Service Pension Contribution of 27%
  • Learning and development tailored to your role
  • An environment with flexible working options
  • A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
  • Range of health and wellbeing support

 

Any move to UKHSA from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax Free Childcare.

 

DBS - People working with government systems must complete Basic Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) checks which includes a disclosure and barring security check. Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed for this role is BPSS however there may be a requirement for this role to be SC cleared and you should familiarise yourself with the criteria of security clearance.

 

This role is Open to all external applicants (anyone) from outside the Civil Service (including by definition internal applicants. Appointments to roles within UKHSA will be made in accordance with the Civil Service nationality rules. These can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nationality-rules This job is broadly open to the following groups:

  • UK nationals
  • Nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
  • Nationals of the Republic of Ireland
  • Nationals from the EU, EEA or Switzerland with settled or pre-settled status or who apply for either status by the deadline of the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
  • Relevant EU, EEA, Swiss or Turkish nationals working in the Civil Service
  • Relevant EU, EEA, Swiss or Turkish nationals who have built up the right to work in the Civil Service
  • Certain family members of the relevant EU, EEA, Swiss or Turkish nationals


We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's Recruitment Principles.

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. Read more about prison leaver recruitment.

Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Government baseline personnel security standard

Its important to note that there are currently exceptions to applications being considered if your conviction relates to any of the following:

  • life sentences
  • arson
  • sexual offences
  • hate and terror offences

Some departments will also consider the specific offence against the nature of the business, i.e., a conviction for fraud may rule you out for a finance role

 

Contact Details [email protected]

 

Complaint process:

The law requires that selection for appointment to the Civil Service is on merit on the basis of fair and open competition as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's Recruitment Principles. If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with the Recruitment Principles, and you wish to make a complaint, in the first instance, you should contact UKHSA Public Accountability Unit via email: [email protected]. If you are not satisfied with the response you receive from the Department, you can contact the Civil Service Commission: Visit the Civil Service Commission website.

 

 



Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.
People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

  • UK nationals
  • nationals of the Republic of Ireland
  • nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
  • nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
  • nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
  • individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
  • Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service
Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).
The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.
Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job contact :

Recruitment team

 
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