About the job

Job summary

Are you a dedicated person who is passionate about making a difference?

Would you like to work for the Ministry of Defence? 

Defence Business Services (DBS) is one of the largest shared service organisations in Europe that provides a wide range of corporate services, to over 1.2 million end users, including serving and past military and families, as well as MoD civil servants and industry. DBS delivers large scale administration and smaller specialist services to enable the wider MOD to focus on its core aims, maintaining the UK’s Defence and Security. Services include Human Resources, Pay, Veterans, Finance and Procurement.

• Our Vision - To support UK defence customers with outstanding service every time.
• Our Mission - Together we will proudly support Defence, continuously improving and delivering flexible, timely, sustainable and value for money services that underpin the whole force and enhance operational capability. 

DBS is committed to creating a great place to work for all our colleagues. We are building an inclusive culture and respectful environment that reflects the diversity of the society. We want to maximise the potential of everyone who chooses to work for us through opportunities to develop your skills and experience. We also offer a range of flexible working patterns and support to make a fulfilling career accessible to you and offer a Civil Service pension with an average employer contribution of 27%. Where your role permits, we support a blended working approach alternatively known as hybrid working.

Where business needs allow, some roles may be suitable for a combination of office and home-based working.  This is a non-contractual arrangement where all office-based employees will be expected to spend a minimum of 60% of their working time in office, subject to capacity and any required workplace adjustments.  Requirements to attend other locations for official business, or work in another MOD office, will also count towards this level of attendance. Applicants can request further information regarding how this may work in their team from the Vacancy Holder (see advert for contact details). Defence Business Services cannot respond to any questions about working arrangements

DBS has recently undertaken a review of its operational locations in the North West, and have consolidated all activities in Norcross, Blackpool. A further move, to the new Government Hub at Talbot Gateway in Blackpool, is scheduled to take place in 2026.

Come and join the DBS community today!

Job description

You will join a team in DBS Digital, Information and Technology responsible for translating Civilian HR business needs into digital solutions. Working closely with business analysts, cloud architects, cloud engineers and the wider Civilian People Change Delivery Services, your focus will be on recommending and designing solutions to modernise legacy applications and meet new business needs through cloud technology, exploiting the Oracle Software-as-a-Service HR, Payroll and Expenses system MyHR where possible.

You will carry out the duties of a Senior Technical Architect as defined by the Government Digital, Data and Technology framework, with an emphasis on business engagement. At Senior Executive Officer level, you are expected to identify opportunities to create business value and lead on their realisation, escalating risks and issues as appropriate.
 
Role Specific Responsibilities

• Ensure that solutions identified to meet business needs are interoperable, reusable and align with Government Digital Strategy
• Create baseline (‘as is’) and target (‘to be’) Information System architectures, ensuring designs and diagrams are kept up to date and gaps are articulated as technical requirements
• Provide technical oversight to projects and DevOps Change Requests, ensuring the solution is technically feasible, user-friendly and aligns with business processes, engaging with business and technical stakeholders where appropriate
• Bridge the gap between technical and non-technical, detailing technical concepts in straightforward terms and emphasising business benefit and impact on business processes
• Identify opportunities for technology led business transformation to provide business benefit, including innovation or automation. 
• Embrace and adhere to Enterprise Architecture principles, standards, policies and solution governance for DBS by engaging in the Technical Design Authority (TDA) process
• Understand the business goals and drivers of DBS and recognise these in all technology planning activities
• Ensure security policies and procedures are in place during the development of applications and systems

Person specification

Strong written and oral communication skills:

• Proactive and confident in engagement with business stakeholders, customers and technical colleagues 
• Can clearly articulate recommendations in writing
• Can lead and focus meetings with a diverse range of stakeholders
• Able to persuade stakeholders to embrace recommendations where appropriate, whilst respecting their views and decisions

Technical understanding:

• Working knowledge of application integration techniques including database connections, REST APIs and file transfers
• Awareness of common data and technology components, for example database objects, networks, and servers
• Able to convey technical information to non-technical stakeholders and confirm understanding of risks, issues and benefits
• You will have an interest in technology and be proactive in identifying opportunities to improve the way DBS DIT meets the needs of its customers 

Desirable criteria:

• Previous experience in Solution or Technical Architecture
• TOGAF 9.2 certification (the successful candidate can obtain this in-role if not)

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £43,080, Ministry of Defence contributes £11,631 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Things you need to know

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Experience and Technical skills.

Please ensure that at the application and interview stages of the campaign you review the Success Profiles Framework to assist you in the demonstration of your skills and experience.

Your suitability for the role will be assessed using the Success Profile elements that have been chosen for this campaign. Each element will be scored accordingly, and the successful candidate will be appointed on merit.

Applications will be sifted on all Success Profile elements, but in the event of a high number of applications, an initial sift will be conducted on your

Primary: Technical - Senior technical architect - Turning business problems into technical design. Secondary: Technical - Senior technical architect - Communicating between the technical and non-technical (technical architect). In this instance the remaining elements will be tested at interview.

At application stage you will be assessed against the following:

Experience: 

• CV -  Please include, Job history, Full qualification details and Previous skills & experience
• Personal Statement : In no more than 1000 words, Please provide information of how you meet the criteria set out in the job description. You may wish to further include examples of how you have tackled similar tasks or demonstrated the skills outlines in the job advert. 

Technical: Level - Senior technical architect

• Communicating between the technical and non-technical (technical architect)
• Turning business problems into technical design
• Understanding the whole context
• Governance and Assurance

At interview 1 stage you will be assessed against the following:

Experience :

• Personal statement 

Behaviours 

• Changing and Improving 
• Seeing the bigger picture 

At interview 2 stage you will be assessed against the following:

Technical: Level - Senior technical architect

• Communicating between the technical and non-technical (technical architect)
• Turning business problems into technical design
• Understanding the whole context
• Governance and Assurance

In the rare case where individuals have exact matching scores, the order of merit will be determined based on the behaviour scores at interview in the following order:

1. Technical -  Turning business problems into technical design
2. Technical -  Communicating between the technical and non-technical (technical architect)
3. Experience -Personal statement
4. Technical - Understanding the whole context
5. Technical - Governance and Assurance
6. Behaviour - Changing and Improving
7. Behaviour - Seeing the Big Picture

If candidate scores are still exact, the merit order will then be determined on the sift score in the below order or priority:

1. Technical -  Turning business problems into technical design
2. Technical - Communicating between the technical and non-technical (technical architect)
3. Experience - CV
4. Experience - Personal statement
5. Technical - Understanding the whole context
6. Technical - Governance and Assurance

We want to offer opportunities to all who are successful at interview for our roles, but this isn’t always possible, so we do hold candidates on an active reserve list for 12 months.

Application sifting is scheduled to take place Early March 2024

Interview 1 and 2  are currently taking place Face to Face and will be conducted middle/end of March 2024

A minimum of 2 full working days’ notice will be provided for interviews.

We endeavour to stick to these dates, but these are subject to change around business needs.

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equality of opportunity. There is a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

If you need to advise us that you need additional help or reasonable adjustments for the recruitment process, please contact: DBS-EnhancedRecruitmentTeam@mod.gov.uk

MOD Recruitment Satisfaction Survey – we may contact you regarding your experience to help us improve our customer satisfaction. The survey is voluntary and anonymous. You may however be given the opportunity to provide additional information to help us improve our service which includes the collection of some personal data as defined by the United Kingdom General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR). The MOD Privacy Notice sets out how we will use your personal data and your rights.

As a result of the changes to the UK immigration rules which came into effect on 1 January 2021, the Ministry of Defence will only offer sponsorship for a skilled worker visa under the points-based system, where a role has been deemed to be business critical. 

The role currently being advertised has not been assessed as business critical and is therefore NOT open to applications from those who will require sponsorship under the points-based system. Should you apply for this role and be found to require sponsorship, your application will be rejected, and any provisional offer of employment withdrawn. 

To assist with your application please find attached -  

DBS Candidate Information Guide - Working for Defence Business Services - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) (26) UK Ministry of Defence: Life , LinkedIn 

Technical skills Framework guide - https://ddat-capability-framework.service.gov.uk/index.html

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

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window).

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window). 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. The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.