Lead Technical Architect (Solutions) - Infected Blood Compensation Authority - G7

Location

Glasgow, Newcastle-upon-Tyne

About the job

Job summary

The Infected Blood Compensation Authority (IBCA) is responsible for delivering a compensation scheme that has been long awaited by the infected blood community to provide financial compensation to victims of infected blood on a UK-wide basis. We are looking for an experienced Lead Technical Architect who can blend knowledge of Data Platforms with data security, governance and strategic thinking. You will be confident at working in a complex and pressured data delivery environment across products where you’ll be supporting the strategic objective of IBCA to pay compensation to those impacted by the infected blood scandal seamlessly.

You will collaborate across the architecture function in data and digital to support the delivery of solutions, creating options and recommendations, and providing expert advice to drive technology choices. Working at IBCA gives you a huge opportunity to make an impact on those who deserve compensation, and this role will shape and support the development of safe and secure data solutions that provide a single source of truth for those going through their compensation journey.

Successful applicants will join the Civil Service Pension Scheme.

Please note that the mission of IBCA means that it is likely to be operational for a period of approximately 5 to 7 years. When IBCA’s work begins to wind down, IBCA employees will receive support and practical guidance to find a new role, whether in the Civil Service, another Arms Length Body (ALB), or an external employer.

Job description

As a Lead Technical Architect (Solutions) you will work on multiple projects across the data delivery programme on problems that require broad architectural thinking.

This post is within a data delivery setting, especially one focussed on AWS, Quantexa and Databricks.

You will:

Be responsible for leading the technical solution design of data systems and services, justifying and communicating design decisions;
Assure data services and system quality, ensuring the technical work fits into the data platform and wider IBCA technology strategy;
Drive continuous improvement in system reliability, performance, and security;
Regularly collaborate and find agreement with senior stakeholders, providing direction and challenge;
Be proactive in working with Product Managers and Engineers to identify problems and translating these into scalable technical solutions;
Participate in architecture reviews, and technical workshops.

Responsibilities

Secure Cloud & Platform Architecture (AWS Focus): You will lead and optimise the design of resilient, high-availability AWS environments, ensuring that every infrastructure component is built with a "security-by-design" approach to protect against evolving threats;
Architecture Patterns & Standards: You will establish and uphold the technical standards for the organisation, creating reusable patterns and governance frameworks that ensure consistency and quality across all engineering squads;
Comprehensive Data Management Design: This involves architecting the end-to-end lifecycle of data systems and services, ensuring the underlying infrastructure supports high-performance analytics and robust data sovereignty;
Digital Service Integration & API Management: You will oversee the connectivity of modern digital services by designing scalable API layers and integration strategies that allow internal and external systems to communicate securely and efficiently;
Agile Delivery & Stakeholder Translation: You will bridge the gap between complex technical roadmaps and strategic business goals, communicating technical trade-offs to non-technical stakeholders to ensure smooth, iterative delivery.

Person specification

Essential

Architecture design of highly scalable and secure Data Platforms hosted on AWS. This includes expertise in configuring and integrating data management systems like Databricks and Quantexa;
Architecture design informed through use of principles, patterns, technical radars, practices and standards;
Data Storage Design & Management – expertise across diverse storage technologies including SQL, NoSQL and Data Lakehouse;
Data Architecture Design - Data Modelling (conceptual to physical), Master Data Management (MDM), Metadata Management, Data Lineage and Data Governance;
API Management - designing and implementing robust integration patterns (including end-to-end secure API management and gateways) that reliably connect Data Platforms to wider digital services and consuming tech systems;
Service Architecture Design – monitoring, logging and observability including patching, business continuity and disaster recovery;
Experience of working within and across product teams within Agile environments throughout the full delivery lifecycle of inception to go-live;
Translating business requirements into tangible, compliant, technical solutions with traceability to the user value that can be demonstrated to stakeholders.

Desirable

You will have experience of working on architecture design for the Quantexa Decision Intelligence Platform;
Security Architecture Design – Data Security, Identity & Access Management, Cloud Security, Network Security and DevSecOps;
Strong knowledge of DevOps practices and Infrastructure-as-Code.