Technical Architect

On behalf of DWP, we are looking for a Technical Architect for a 12 month contract (Inside IR35) based hybrid in Newcastle, Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham or Blackpool 3 days per week.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is responsible for welfare, pensions, and child maintenance policy. As the UK's biggest public service department, it administers the State Pension and a range of working age, disability and ill health benefits to around 20 million claimants and customers. As such, we operate on a scale that is almost unmatched anywhere in Europe and most people in Britain come into contact with us at some point in their lives.

Working with DWP, you will be helping us to drive our priorities to:
. Help people to move into work and support those already in work to progress, with the aim of increasing overall workforce participation
. Help people to plan and save for later life, while providing a safety net for those who need it now
. Provide effective, efficient, and innovative services to the millions of claimants who rely on us every day, including the most vulnerable in society
. Improve experience of our services while maximising value for money for the taxpayer.

As a Technical Architect, your main responsibilities will be:
. Lead, deliver and support technical design of a product or part of a shared platform to meet user needs and business objectives.
. Lead on ensuring high quality of technical design, and adherence to enterprise architecture principles and roadmaps
. Build relationships and work collaboratively with Digital professions in agile delivery teams to create VFM solution designs that meet user needs
. Support development of the DWP Architecture practice by sharing best practice and reference architectures to ensure consistency and coherence of DWP architecture design across DWP.
. Engage with Enterprise Architects, Domain Architects, Lead Solution Architects and engineering teams to implement the solutions according to agreed and approved architecture designs.
. Deliver product solutions and be accountable for product architecture in alignment with engineering.
. Identify, capture, share and iterate architecture patterns to ensure consistent and coherent architecture design, contributing to the Enterprise Architecture.
. Implement architecture patterns creating reference architectures as real-world working examples of successful architecture design.

Essential:
. Demonstrable ability to engage with technical and business stakeholders, accurately capture requirements, and translate between business needs and technical solutions. Proven capability to communicate complex technical concepts clearly and to influence decisions through proactive and responsive communication.
. Proven experience designing systems of medium complexity, risk, and impact, using recognised architecture standards, methods, and tools (eg ArchiMate, UML). Ability to review, assure, and challenge the designs of others to ensure appropriate technology selection, effective integration, and efficient use of resources.
. Evidence of designing technical solutions that span multiple business areas, services, or a single large and complex service. Ability to identify common patterns, dependencies, and opportunities for reuse to deliver coherent, scalable, end-to-end solutions.
. Strong technical breadth across software, application, integration, data, cloud, and infrastructure architecture. Proven experience with microservices, API-led integration, SOA/ESB technologies, Agile and DevOps delivery practices, and CI/CD pipelines, applied within complex enterprise environments.
. Proven experience designing and supporting solutions using cloud platforms such as AWS and/or Microsoft Azure. Demonstrable knowledge of SaaS, PaaS, Serverless, and IaaS deployment models, including cloud networking, hosting, and scalability design patterns and best practice.
. Demonstrable experience embedding security into architectural design, with strong knowledge of cybersecurity threats, secure communication and encryption technologies, and identity and access management (eg OAuth 2.0, OIDC, SAML, TLS). Ability to assess, prioritise, and mitigate technical and security risks while working with and challenging senior stakeholders.

Please be aware that this role can only be worked within the UK and not Overseas.

Disability Confident

As a member of the Disability Confident Scheme, DWP guarantees to interview all candidates who have a disability and who meet all the essential criteria for the vacancy. In cases where we have a high volume of candidates who have a disability who meet all the essential criteria, we will interview the best candidates from within that group. This scheme encourages candidates with a disability and/or neurodivergence to apply. In exceptional circumstances, we may also need to apply the desirable criteria in our shortlisting process which may include holding active security clearance.

Armed Forces Covenant

DWP guarantees to interview veterans or spouses/partners of military personnel who meet all the essential criteria for the vacancy. In cases where we have a high volume of ex-military candidates/military spouses or partners, who meet all of the essential criteria, we will interview the best candidates from within that group. In exceptional circumstances, we may also need to apply the desirable criteria in our shortlisting process which may include holding active security clearance.

In applying for this role, you acknowledge the following "this role falls in scope of the Off Payroll Working in the Public Sector legislation. Any rates of payment quoted will reflect the gross rate per day for the assignment and will be subject to appropriate taxes and statutory costs. As such the payment to the intermediary and your income resulting from this contract will be different".