About the job

Job summary

This position is based Nationally

Job description

We encourage applications from people from all backgrounds and aim to have a workforce that represents the wider society that we serve. We pride ourselves on being an employer of choice. We champion diversity, inclusion and wellbeing and aim to create a workplace where everyone feels valued and a sense of belonging. To find out more about how we do this visit: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ministry-of-justice/about/equality-and-diversity.

Senior Service Architect

Location: National*

Closing Date: Monday 25th March

Interviews: w/c 8th April

Grade: 7

(MoJ candidates who are on a specialist grade, will be able to retain this grade on lateral transfer)

Salary: London: £58,847-£73,875 (which may include an allowance of up to £15,028). National: £54,358-£69,150 (which may include an allowance of up to £14,792).

Working pattern: Full time, Part time, Job Share, Flexible Working

Contract Type: Permanent

Vacancy number: 85212

*We offer a hybrid working model, allowing for a balance between remote work and time spent in your local office. Office locations can be found ON THIS MAP

The Role

We’re recruiting for Service Architects at various levels at Justice Digital  to join our expanding team.

As a Service Architect, through the creation of Service and Product Designs, you’ll define how we support our technology. Working with multidisciplinary teams, you’ll document how we do what we do, making sure that our systems are correctly supported with the flexibility to be quickly transformed.

With user needs at the heart of everything, you will help us transform Government for the future.

Our Service Architects need to have a good understanding of a broad range of technologies and can converse easily with and translate between non-technical stakeholders and technical teams.

In this exciting and fast paced environment, you’ll simultaneously work across multiple projects and technologies, defining and designing support artefacts before championing the designs through the formal approval stages.

To help picture your life at MoJ Justice Digital please take a look at our blog and our Digital and Technology strategy 2025

Key Responsibilities:

Working as part of a team, the role holder is responsible for the production of Service & Product Design across different technologies.

• Produce High Level Service Designs to ensure that proposed service solutions arising from any new/changed service requirements are aligned to the overall Technology Services service architecture and end-to-end service model. 
• Ensure that the service design deliverables (e.g. Product Designs, Operational Working Agreements, Operational Level Agreements) are consistent with and aligned to the wider Technology Services service architecture and end-to-end service model.  
• Own and deliver end to end packages with the view of ‘what do we need to operate’; this will involve engagement at the conception of a project through to testing and supporting Operational Acceptance/Live Service Criteria.
• Exercising strong stakeholder management skills to drive completion of a service design, including brokering decisions and bridging technical and business disputes by weighing up risk, complexity impact and deliverability. 
• Ensure Service management solutions being proposed for the programme are fit for purpose, meeting related business and regulatory requirements.
• Define appropriate monitoring and reporting required for the various services being defined and managed by IT. 
• Ensure the plans for the delivery of Service management is fit for purpose. 
• Provide challenge into the design and delivery process in regard to detailed Design and solution. 
• Attend the Technical Design authority and follow the governance associated with it.
• Comfortable with technology to a level where they can question and quickly gain a good working understanding allowing them to define the constructs for new or evolving services and for mapping customer requirement to our services.

If this feels like an exciting challenge, something you are enthusiastic about, and want to join our team please read on and apply!

Benefits

• 37 hours per week and flexible working options including working from home, working part-time, job sharing, or working compressed hours.
• We are committed to nurturing our staff and provide lots of training and development opportunities with learning platforms such as: Linux Academy, O’Reilly, Pluralsight, Microsoft Learning, Civil Service Learning etc.
• 10% dedicated time to learning and development with a budget of £1000 a year per person
• Generous civil service pension based on defined benefit scheme, with employer contributions of 28.97% from April 1st 2024 (Contribution Rates)
• 25 days leave (plus bank holidays) and 1 privilege day usually taken around the Kings’ birthday. 5 additional days of leave once you have reached 5 years of service.
• Compassionate maternity, adoption, and shared parental leave policies, with up to 26 weeks leave at full pay, 13 weeks with partial pay, and 13 weeks further leave. And maternity support/paternity leave at full pay for 2 weeks, too!
• Wellbeing support including access to the Calm app.
• Nurturing professional and interpersonal networks including those for Carers & Childcare, Gender Equality, PROUD and SPIRIT
• Bike loans up to £2500 and secure bike parking (subject to availability and location)
• Season ticket loans, childcare vouchers and eye-care vouchers.
• 5 days volunteering paid leave.
• Free membership to BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT.
• Some offices may have a subsidised onsite Gym.

 Person Specification

Essential

• Demonstrable experience of writing Service Design Packages aligned to the ITIL Framework with a strong understanding of all aspects of service management with the ability to deliver new services and products as well as improving existing offerings.
• Detailed knowledge of Service Management concepts and techniques
• A strong operational understanding of service supply chains
• Working to tight timescales within a team environment
• Ability to lead teams both virtual and co-located.
• Ability to influence senior stakeholders.
• Experience of service operating model design, as well as creating and negotiating SLA’s.
• Service Management qualifications (eg ITIL, ISO20000) or relevant operational experience

Willingness to be assessed against  the requirements for SC clearance.

We welcome the unique contribution diverse applicants bring and do not discriminate based on culture, ethnicity, race, nationality or national origin, age, sex, gender identity or expression, religion or belief, disability status, sexual orientation, educational or social background or any other factor.

Our values are Purpose, Humanity Openness and Together. Find out more here about how we celebrate diversity and an inclusive culture in our workplace.

Person specification

Please refer to Job Description

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £54,358, Ministry of Justice contributes £15,165 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

Candidates must submit a CV and optional cover letter which describes how you meet the requirements set out in the Person Specification above.

In Justice Digital, we recruit using a combination of the Government Digital and Data Profession Capability and Success Profiles Frameworks. We will assess your Experience, Technical Skills and the following Behaviours during the assessment process:

• Working Together
• Leadership
• Communicating and Influencing

A diverse panel will review your application against the Person Specification above.

Successful candidates who meet the required standard will then be invited to a 1-hour panel interview held via video conference.

Should you be unsuccessful in the role that you have applied for but demonstrate the capability for a role at a lower level, we reserve the right to discuss this opportunity with you and offer you the position without needing a further application.

A reserve list may be held for up to 12 months, from which further appointments may be made.

Terms & Conditions

Please review our Terms & Conditions which set out how we recruit and provide further information related to the role and salary arrangements.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact recruitment@digital.justice.gov.uk

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.