About the job

Job summary

We’re looking for an exceptional Principal Technical Architect to help us make a difference to our planet.

Our Principal Technical Architect, this job may be suitable for hybrid working, which is where an employee works part of the week in the office and part of the week from home. This is a voluntary, non-contractual arrangement and the location advertised will be your contractual place of work.

Why join us?

The Met Office is accredited as a 'Great Place to Work UK 2023' and in addition has achieved a place on both the UK's 'Best Workplaces in Tech' and 'Best Workplaces for Women' lists

We invest in our people to unlock their full potential. We will support you to develop and thrive to be the best you can be.  We champion positive physical and mental health in the workplace and are committed to being an inclusive organisation, providing a working culture that actively values an equal and diverse workforce.

Who we are:

We provide critical weather services and world-leading climate science, to help people make better decisions to stay safe and thrive.

Together:

• We’re a force for good - focusing on our environmental and social impact
• We’re experts by nature - always learning and developing to do things better
• We live and breathe it - putting our purpose at the heart of decision-making
• We’re better together - understanding partnerships and inclusivity make us greater
• We keep evolving - pushing boundaries to make tomorrow better for our customers

Find out more about our values - https://bit.ly/3fokaRD

Job description

The Met Office is fundamentally dependent on its technology to support delivery of services to customers and stakeholders. Within the Products & Services domain, cutting edge technologies enable the development and delivery of innovative products and services for our customers, helping them make better decisions to stay safe and thrive.

Reporting directly to the CTO, the Principal Technical Architect will lead the overall technical design and delivery across the Products & Services domain, ensuring technical coherence whilst identifying and resolving gaps that may risk ultimate achievement of benefits or threaten longer term sustainability. The post holder will work with Lead Technical Architects and delivery teams, including external partners, in the delivery of the projects and programmes evolving the domain, ensuring alignment to our strategy, relevant standards and the overarching enterprise architecture as set out by the Enterprise Design function.

As our Principal Technical Architect , the key duties are:

• Lead the overall design approach for Products & Services that are at the core of delivering Met Office strategy
• Design and evolve future state technical capability roadmaps for achievement of programme outcomes aligned to business capability roadmaps
• Deliver design assurance across services and systems developed within the domain to ensure quality and alignment to relevant roadmaps, government, industry and organisational standards
• Contribute to the development of organisational design guardrails drawing on insight from industry and Government standards and policies
• Lead and participate in the architecture community to share knowledge and practice, mentoring Lead Technical Architects and aspiring Lead Technical Architects to support skills and career development

Collaborate with other external organisations including other government organisations to share and develop best practice, fostering a culture of learning

Person specification

Essential Qualifications, Skills & Abilities:

1. We are experts by nature. You design solutions characterised by high levels of risk, impact and business or technical complexity. You ensure adherence to relevant technical strategies, policies, standards and practices, sharing best practice and coaching others.
2. We keep evolving. You are able to think of new and innovative ways of working to deliver the right outcomes, advocating those approaches to stakeholders.
3. You are able to broker relationships with stakeholders at all levels internally and externally including suppliers, partners and customers. You are able to facilitate discussions across high-risk or complex topics, or under constrained timescales, managing stakeholder expectations.
4. You are able to make and justify decisions characterised by high levels of risk, impact and complexity, guiding the decision-making process by articulating risk at a strategic level. You build consensus between services, highly independent stakeholders and organisations.
5. You have a thorough grasp of technical governance, can co-ordinate and deliver appropriate assurance across multiple services and understand how technical governance works with wider organisational governance. You advocate for good design practice.
6. We are better together. You contribute to the work of the community, giving and receiving feedback thereby facilitating the feedback loop. You facilitate conflict resolution within the community, ensuring teams are transparent in their interactions.

You are an accomplished and credible leader with demonstrable experience of leading successful delivery of technical projects at scale. You understand how to leverage your leadership skills to engage and motivate teams.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £59,754, Met Office contributes £16,133 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

How to apply:

If you share our values, we’d love to hear from you. Apply below using your CV and Cover Letter/Supporting Statement (which must bullet point how you meet each of the essential criteria).

Closing date 14/03/2024 at 23:59 with interviews commencing from 01/04/2024 . You will hear from us once the closing date has passed. Our interviews are taking place remotely via Microsoft Teams.

If successful, please note we are unable to offer expenses for travel to your normal place of work. Please ask at interview if you would like extra clarity on how often this requirement is likely to be.

How we can help:

If you are considering applying and need assistance to do so, please contact us via Careers@metoffice.gov.uk. You can request adjustments either within your application or by contacting us. Should you be offered an interview, please be aware there may be a selection exercise which could include a presentation, written test or a scenario-based activity.

You can select in your application to be considered under the Disability Confident (Guaranteed Interview) Scheme. To be invited to interview/assessment under this scheme, your application must meet the essential criteria for the role.

We are an equal opportunities employer, welcoming applications from those with all protected characteristics. We recruit on merit, fairness, and open competition in line with the Civil Service Code.

We can only accept applications from those eligible to live and work in the UK - please refer to GOV.UK for information. We require Security clearance, for which you need to have resided in the UK for at least 3 of the last 5 years to be eligible. You will need to achieve full security clearance within your first 6 months with us.

Additional information:

We operate an on-call roster in Technology to provide 24/7/365 support to respond to operational service requirements. This post may be part of an on-call roster and the postholder would be required to participate in an on-call roster where in operation.

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

Security

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.