About the job

Job summary

About us 

The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) is the department for economic growth. The Digital, Data and Technology (DDaT) directorate develops and operates tools and services to support businesses to invest, grow and export, creating jobs and opportunities across the country. 

 

About the role  

We’re a small collaborative, supportive team and as we look to grow and deliver more services, we are looking for two experienced technical architects with a strategic mindset to lead the design of services within one of our portfolios. In this role you will have influence at a high level to guide the design of these services through both Alpha and Omega, and the opportunity to step up to a portfolio level. We code in the open (see our code here: http://github.com/uktrade) and our primary tech stack is Python/Django, Nodejs/React, running on AWS. DBT optimises the architecture for change. We are aware that we don’t know all the future needs of our users and this needs to be reflected in the service architecture.    

  

Job description

Main responsibilities  

You will be: 

• Provide technical leadership and mentoring to the development team.   
• Design services & system integration, selecting technologies to meet user needs.    
• Build and maintain technical roadmaps.   
• Facilitate integrations and reuse with other development teams.   
• Rapidly build prototypes to demonstrate and test architectural patterns.    
• Document, communicate and manage the evolution of services and infrastructure through architecture decision records.   
• Advise product managers on the estimated effort and technical implications of user stories.   
• Form relationships with external suppliers.    
• Be accountable for the technical strategy of a portfolio.   

Person specification

Skills and experience 

It is essential that you have: 

• Leadership within a fast-changing environment.  
• Designing services used at scale using modern back & front-end technologies.   
• Being responsible for technical teams and delivering user-focused services in multi-disciplinary agile teams.    
• An ability to build consensus between diverse and often conflicting interests, to achieve agreement on technical plans.   
• Introducing practices such as TDD, continuous integration, continuous delivery, and DevOps to teams.   
• Working with cloud infrastructure and services.   
• Knowledge of open-source principles and technologies.  
• Designing secure systems and awareness of emerging security issues.    
• Communicating with both technical and non-technical audiences.   

 It is desirable that you have: 

• View of technology as an enabler of great digital services.    
• Working in a dynamic organisation with changing requirements.    

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £67,000, Department for Business and Trade contributes £18,090 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 

As part of the application process you will be asked to upload a 2-page CV which outlines your experience, skills and fit for the role. Inspire People will assess your application against the essential criteria listed above to compile a longlist of applications, which will then be sifted by DBT. Successful candidates at this stage may be invited straight to interview or asked to complete a short, pre-recorded video screening interview (alternately provide written answers to questions). These applications will then be sifted by DBT hiring managers. If you are successful, you will be invited to interview.   

 DBT sift will be from Thursday 6th June 

Interviews will be from week commencing 10th June 

Please note these dates are indicative and may be subject to change. 

 

How we interview 

At the interview stage for this role, you will be asked to demonstrate relevant Technical Skills and Behaviours from the Success Profiles framework. These are role specific and in line with the DDaT Capability Framework. 

Technical Skills 

• Availability and Capacity Management   
• Bridging the Gap between the Technical and Non-technical   
• Governance   
• Information Security    
• Making and Guiding Decisions    
• Strategy    
• Turning Business Problems into Technical Design    
• Understanding the Whole Context    

 Behaviours  

• Leadership    
• Changing and Improving    
• Making Effective Decisions    
• Delivering at Pace    

 You will also be asked to deliver a presentation and will be informed on the topic following the sift. 

 

How we offer 

Offers may be made in merit order based on location preferences. If you pass the bar at interview but are not the highest scoring you will be held on a 12-month reserve list in case a role becomes available. If you are judged a near miss at interview, you may be offered a post at the grade below the one you applied for. 

This role requires SC clearance. DBT’s requirement for SC clearance is to have been present in the UK for at least 3 of the last 5 years. Failure to meet this requirement will result in your application being rejected and your offer will be withdrawn. 

Checks will also be made against: 

• departmental or company records (personnel files, staff reports, sick leave reports and security records) 
• UK criminal records covering both spent and unspent criminal records 
• your credit and financial history with a credit reference agency 
• security services record 
• location details 

More about us 

This role can only be worked from within the UK, not overseas. If you are based in London, you will receive London weighting. DBT employees work in a hybrid pattern, spending 2-3 days a week (pro rata) in the office on average.  Travel to your primary office location will not be paid for by DBT, but costs for travel to an office which is not your main location will be covered. 

You can find out more about our office locations, how we calculate salaries, our diversity statement and reasonable adjustments, the Recruitment Principles, the Civil Service code and our complaints procedure on our website. 

Find out more about life at DBT, our benefits and meet the team by watching our video or reading our blog! 

 

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.