Enterprise Architect Ref. 3658

Salary

£71,889 to £80,079 comprising a basic salary of £68,745 and a concessionary payment of £3,144. The exact salary offered within this range will depend on your skills and experience. An additional Skills Payment is available once your skills level is confirmed: £3,822 for Level 1 or £8,190 for Level 2. Once in role, there may also be opportunities to qualify for further allowances and additional skills related payments.

Flexible Working

We recognise the importance of a healthy work life balance and offer a range of working patterns, including full time, part time, and compressed hours. Home/hybrid working may be possible depending on business needs, but it is limited due to the nature of our work. We also support flexible start and finish times to help you manage your personal and professional commitments.

About us

GCHQ is an intelligence, cyber and security agency with a mission to keep the UK safe. We use cutting edge technology, ingenuity and partnerships to identify, analyse and disrupt threats. Working with our intelligence partners, we protect the UK from terrorism, cyber attacks and espionage. At GCHQ, you'll do varied and fascinating work in a supportive and inclusive environment that puts the emphasis on teamwork.

The role

As an Enterprise Architect, you'll lead and support other Architects in shaping and embedding GCHQ's enterprise architecture. With responsibility for a defined remit of one or more departments, you'll work across teams to design and guide architectures, influence decision making and manage risk. You'll be a trusted advisor, communicating complex architectural topics to a wide range of stakeholders. You'll work on cutting edge, unique technology, applying your skills to interesting challenges and growing your career in a purposeful way.

You will design and maintain artifacts for programmes and services within your departments, balancing organisational priorities and practical delivery. You'll work with senior colleagues to ensure alignment with our long term strategic goals, user needs and industry best practice. Once established, you'll also take on line management responsibilities for a small team, supporting them with their work and careers.

You'll collaborate with delivery teams, engineers and business colleagues, and work extensively with senior leaders, external partners and industry bodies to shape shared direction and manage dependencies. Occasional travel to sites across the UK will be required to enable close working with colleagues from across the organisation.

About you

• Practical experience working as an Enterprise Architect, including leading teams or line managing others.
• Experience translating organisational goals into actionable architectural strategies, leading design initiatives, proactively identifying risks, and optimising environments across technology, data and processes to deliver impactful solutions.
• Confidence in architecture standards and frameworks such as ArchiMate, TOGAF, Zachman and MODAF, and in principles and governance models.
• Ability to mentor less senior colleagues and provide guidance.
• Strong communication skills, able to explain decisions and technical concepts to senior stakeholders from technical and non technical backgrounds.
• Collaborative, adept at influencing and negotiating, comfortable working across different teams.
• Adaptable and able to manage own time effectively as priorities shift.

Training and development

We offer a full induction into GCHQ, formal and on the job training. You'll receive support to thrive and are encouraged to invest 20 % of your time in professional development. We cover costs and provide time for professional qualifications and certifications. Mentors and subject matter experts will be available from day one. We support a structured development and career plan.

Rewards and benefits

• 25 days' annual leave, automatically rising to 30 days after 5 years' service, plus an additional 10.5 days of public and privilege holidays
• Opportunities to be recognised through our employee performance scheme
• Interest free season ticket loan (travel and parking)
• Excellent pension scheme
• Cycle to work scheme
• Facilities such as a gym, restaurant and on site coffee bars (at some locations)
• Paid parental and adoption leave

Equal opportunities

At GCHQ diversity and inclusion are critical to our mission. We welcome and encourage applications from everyone, including those from groups that are under represented in our workforce such as women, ethnic minorities, people with disabilities and those from low socio economic backgrounds.

We're Disability Confident

GCHQ is proud to have achieved Leader status within the Department for Work & Pensions' Disability Confident scheme. We aim to offer a fair and proportionate number of person to person interviews to any candidate who self identifies as disabled and meets the essential criteria for the role.

Application process

Our recruitment process is fair, transparent and based on merit. The stages are: application sift, virtual interview assessing technical and organisational competencies, conditional offer of employment. The process may take 6 9 months including vetting.

Applicants must be British citizens or hold dual British nationality and must hold Developed Vetting (DV) clearance. Prior to applying, please review the eligibility criteria and the vetting process. Candidates are expected to refrain from recreational drug use and to declare any previous drug usage. Travel costs for in person appointments during the recruitment process are reimbursed within policy limits.

Before you apply

The role is based in Cheltenham; you must live within commutable distance and cannot rely on relocation costs. Candidates should consider personal and financial implications before submitting an application.