Location
Cardiff, Croydon, Glasgow, Manchester, Sheffield, Southport
About the job
Job summary
As a Principal Technical Architect, you will serve as a senior design authority, responsible for setting and governing the technical strategy across complex, high-impact programs. Your role will involve leading the architectural vision, proactively identifying opportunities for digital transformation, and optimising solutions to address both organisational and cross-government needs.
You will collaborate with senior stakeholders, both technical and non-technical, to facilitate discussions that balance risk, complexity, and outcomes. Additionally, you will mentor other architects in this leadership position, ensuring that technology choices align with broader strategies and emerging best practices. With a genuine passion for next-generation technologies, you will drive innovation, security, and scalability, helping to shape the future of public services on an enterprise scale.
Due to business requirements this post is available on a full time/flexible working basis. Where business needs allow, some roles may be suitable for a combination of office and home-based working. Where this is the case, employees will be expected to spend a minimum of 60% of their working time in the office. Applicants can raise any queries to the email address at the bottom of the advert.
We value diversity and inclusion and welcome applications from the widest diversity of backgrounds, cultures, and experiences. We encourage applications from women, people with disabilities and LGBT+ as they are currently under-represented in the Home Office at this grade level. Appointments will be made on merit based on fair and open competition.
Job description
As Principal Technical Architect, you will define and execute the technical strategy for your responsibility, collaborating with senior leadership and diverse teams to ensure alignment with organisational, cross-departmental, and government-wide objectives. You will proactively seek opportunities to leverage emerging technologies such as cloud, AI, and IoT, and ensure that technical solutions are secure, user-focused, and capable of adapting to evolving business needs.
You will lead the design and review processes for complex systems and infrastructure, championing architectural best practices and governance. By bridging technical and business perspectives, you will resolve high-risk issues and shape initiatives that drive transformation. Your role includes guiding and inspiring other architects, facilitating professional growth, and establishing an environment where innovative thinking thrives.
Person specification
Key Responsibilities:
Own and deliver the overarching technical strategy, guiding architectural decisions that balance risk, complexity, and delivery timelines.
Lead governance and assurance processes, ensuring solutions remain secure, robust, and aligned with enterprise architecture principles.
Collaborate with senior stakeholders to advocate for digital transformation initiatives, influencing decisions through clear, data-driven insights.
Mentor and guide architects and engineering teams, nurturing a culture of excellence, innovation, and continuous learning.
Oversee integration of new systems, developing detailed plans that align with broader organisational and cross-government strategies.
Assess current systems to identify areas for improvement, analyse potential risks, and promote emerging best practices in the field.
Facilitate stakeholder discussions, serving as the key escalation point for complex or high-risk design challenges.
Drive continuous improvement, incorporating lessons learned into future strategies and ensuring consistency in architecture across multiple domains.
Essential Skills:
The essential skills are used to assess your demonstrable passion for Technical Architecture, with the following skills or shown experience expected to be highlighted in your CV and personal statement:
Shown leadership in delivering complex, innovative technical architectures at scale, inspiring technical excellence and forward-thinking design.
Strategic foresight to anticipate future technologies and identify opportunities for transformation or optimisation.
Experience managing diverse technology landscapes, including third-party suppliers, cloud environments, and cross-departmental teams.
Deep knowledge of engineering principles, agile methods, DevOps, and secure-by-design approaches, ensuring robust, resilient solutions.
Track record of delivering solutions on time and within scope, balancing budget, security, and quality considerations.
Strong communication and stakeholder engagement skills, translating complex technical concepts into clear, actionable insights.
Ownership of technical roadmaps and strategies, ensuring solutions align with enterprise objectives and evolving user needs.
SFIA capability framework
Skills for the Information Age (SFIA) is the technical framework that sets the standard capability and development of all levels in the Home Office. This is a link to the capability framework: All skills A - Z English (sfia-online.org)
We use set SFIA technical skills to form our interview questions and we will assess you against these technical skills during the selection process at interview.
The essential skills listed above are reflective of the Home Office Government Digital and Data Profession Career Framework (based on the industry standard SFIA framework- Use the SFIA Levels of responsibility to understand what would be expected for each technical skill listed). Please see below for the relevant skills for your role:
SFIA Technical skills:
We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:
Strategy & Architecture:
Strategy and Planning
Strategic Planning (ITSP) – Level 4
Innovation (INOV) – Level 4
Enterprise and Business Architecture (STPL) – Level 4
Solution Architecture (ARCH) – Level 5
Advice & Guidance
Consultancy (CNSL) – Level 5
Specialist Advice (TECH) – Level 4
Technical skills
We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:
Strategic Planning (ITSP) – Level 4
Innovation (INOV) – Level 4
Enterprise and Business Architecture (STPL) – Level 4
Solution Architecture (ARCH) – Level 5
Consultancy (CNSL) – Level 5
Specialist Advice (TECH) – Level 4
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