About the job

Job summary

GDS works at the very centre of government to make user-focused digital transformation happen. We build and maintain common platforms, products and tools for others to use and create great public services that are accessible, inclusive and easy to use. We also work with departments to identify patterns, share learning and create change to make government more efficient.

Our teams are organised around delivering on our priorities, which are to:

• make it easier for people to find what they are looking for on GOV.UK
• build common service platforms to make it simpler and cheaper to build quality digital services
• promote agile, user-centred design practices both in the UK and across the world

The GOV.UK team runs the www.gov.uk website and the publishing system that powers it. GOV.UK is one of the most visited websites in the UK, with 1.4 billion visits in 2022. Our purpose is to make it simple for everyone to interact with government.

Almost all of GOV.UK's code is open source, developed in the open on GitHub.  Most applications use Ruby on Rails, and are deployed as a cluster of microservices to Amazon Web Services. Teams work in agile ways, using best practices such as continuous delivery and test driven development. You can read more about our work on the Inside GOV.UK Blog.

This particular role is in GOV.UK’s Publishing area. This part of GOV.UK is tackling some of our biggest challenges and you can expect to be involved in, amongst other things, helping to shape GOV.UK’s publishing strategy, helping us build accessible, performant and secure publishing tools for use across government and helping lead the wider GOV.UK technical community as part of our senior tech team. 

You can learn more about GOV.UK’s exciting new strategy in our recent blog post.

Job description

As a GDS Lead Technical architect, you’ll share the responsibility for the digital transformation of government. You will help design and drive the technical strategy for the area you work in while ensuring alignment with broader GDS standards and goals. You’ll hold the vision for technical architecture best practice in your area, enabling us to build resilient and reliable government services, communicating this to technical and non-technical audiences alike.

Lead Technical Architects often work across different teams and services. You’ll ensure that technical designs meet user needs and acceptance criteria, whilst conforming to time and budget constraints. You’ll thrive using agile methods and enjoy working collaboratively with departments and multidisciplinary teams. Above all, you’ll want to make government better, which may sometimes involve challenging the status quo.

As a Lead Technical Architect, you’ll:

• lead by example, be a visible leader who takes responsibility and acts as a role model
• contribute to the development and iteration of GDS architectural and engineering practices, principles and standards
• design technical services or plan system integration, selecting necessary platforms and technologies to meet project requirements and user needs
• provide technical leadership and consultancy to both internal and external development teams, ensuring designs & solutions are fit for purpose, whilst meeting time and budget restraints
• build and maintain technical roadmaps, looking ahead for future opportunities or blockers, and ensuring decisions by development teams align with the strategy
• encourage communication across multiple teams and wider organisational areas to identify strategic requirements and dependencies
• help develop services by contributing code, testing technologies and producing rapid prototypes
• advise teams on the right mix of capabilities to achieve their roadmapped goals and desired service levels
• act as a digital ambassador across government, supporting recruitment, identifying good practices for GDS to adopt and sharing experiences, e.g. through blog posts, tech talks at conferences etc
• be involved in helping recruiting technical architects and other senior technologists, where appropriate, helping sift and interview
• manage, coach and mentor more junior Technical Architects as well as others in the wider software engineering community

Person specification

We’re interested in people who have:

• a passion for technology and its delivery in building a user-centric service in an ever changing space, ensuring the right technology solutions meet outcomes for our users
• strong software development and application architecture experience, with good knowledge of cloud technologies, open source technologies, testing, and at least one programming language such as Ruby, Java, Python, Javascript or Go
• an understanding of how to influence, manage and challenge complex stakeholder relationships and communicate with both technical and non-technical audiences
• experience of developing and managing high performing, agile, technical teams and creating an inclusive, collaborative culture across boundaries and locations
• practical knowledge at all levels of the web stack, from front-end code down to infrastructure and networking
• a deep understanding of modern technology practices such as test-driven development (TDD), continuous integration, continuous delivery and DevOps
• a good knowledge of cloud security architecture, including threat modelling, analysis and operations
• experience developing and implementing technical strategy and standards
• experience defining and refining technical governance in multidisciplinary agile environments

If you meet a few of those criteria but think that you might not meet every last one then don’t let that stop you from submitting an application.

Benefits

The benefits of working at GDS

There are many benefits of working at GDS, including:

• flexible hybrid working with flexi-time and the option to work part-time or condensed hours
• a Civil Service Pension with an average employer contribution of 27%
• 25 days of annual leave, increasing by a day each year up to a maximum of 30 days
• an extra day off for The King’s birthday
• an in-year bonus scheme to recognise high performance
• career progression and coaching, including a training budget for personal development
• paid volunteering leave
• a focus on wellbeing with access to an employee assistance programme
• job satisfaction from making government services easier to use and more inclusive for people across the UK
• advances on pay, including for travel season tickets
• death in service benefits
• cycle to work scheme and facilities
• access to children's holiday play schemes across different locations in central London
• access to an employee discounts scheme
• 10 learning days per year
• volunteering opportunities (5 special leave days per year)
• access to a suite of learning activities through Civil Service learning

GDS offers hybrid working for all employees. This means that everyone does some working from home and also spends some time in their local office. You’ll agree to your hybrid working arrangement with your line manager in line with your preferences and business needs.

Any move to Government Digital Service from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax Free Childcare. Determine your eligibility at https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk

Things you need to know

Selection process details

The standard selection process for roles at GDS consists of:

• a simple application screening process - We only ask for a CV and cover letter of up to 750 words. Important tip - please ensure that your cover letter includes how you meet the skills and experience listed in the “person specification” section above
• a 30 minute phone screen where you will be asked a few role-related questions to enable us to get to know you better (may not be required depending on the volume of applications)
• a 1.5 hour face-to-face interview including a presentation exercise (conducted over video conferencing)

Depending on how many applications we get, there might also be an extra stage before the video interview, for example a phone interview or a technical exercise.

In the Civil Service, we use Success Profiles to evaluate your skills and ability. This gives us the best possible chance of finding the right person for the job, increases performance and improves diversity and inclusivity. We’ll be assessing your technical abilities, skills, experience and behaviours that are relevant to this role.

For this role we’ll be assessing you against the following Civil Service Behaviours:

• communicating and influencing
• managing a quality service
• making effective decisions
• leadership
• developing self and others
• seeing the bigger picture

We’ll also be assessing your experience and specialist technical skills against the following skills defined in the Digital, Data and Technology Profession Capability Framework for the Lead Technical Architect role: 

• Communicating between the technical and non-technical (technical architect)
• Governance and assurance
• Making and guiding decisions
• Strategy
• Turning business problems into technical design
• Understanding the whole context

Candidates that do not pass the interview but have demonstrated an acceptable standard may be considered for similar roles at a lower grade.

A reserve list will be held for a period of 12 months, from which further appointments can be made.

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, colour, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status or disability status.

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.