Lead Data Architect

Crown Prosecution Service

Hybrid

Expires: Expiring in less than 2 weeks

Full time

£58,330 - £73,520 per year

Job summary

Join the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) as a Lead Data Architect and be a vital part of the criminal justice system in England and Wales. Operating independently, the CPS’ work upholds the rule of law and ensures that justice is served fairly and impartially for victims, witnesses, and defendants.

This is a unique opportunity for you to contribute to the UK's justice system through the development and maintenance of a modern data platform.

As part of the Data Platform team, you will engage with both technical colleagues and business stakeholders to understand requirements, advise on data solutions, and ensure that the systems you build are both functional and user focused.

Your expertise as a Lead Data Architect will help shape a data-driven culture within the CPS, ensuring that the organisation remains responsive and effective in a rapidly evolving data landscape.

The Crown Prosecution Service is based in England and Wales. If you’re applying for this role and live in Scotland or Northern Ireland, you must let us know when accepting this offer as you need permission to work from your home address if hybrid working is part of your role. There’s no guarantee that we will grant this approval.

You must be aged 16 before starting in this role. The start date is expected to be 8-12 weeks after the application deadline.

Job description

Your roles and responsibilities:

you deliver data products and services that meet the needs and expectations of users and stakeholders, ensuring alignment with organisational objectives and priorities.
you establish and maintain clear communication channels with users and stakeholders, soliciting feedback and managing expectations throughout the data lifecycle.
you inspire and guide the team by setting a clear vision for the data platform, aligning it with the organisation's strategic goals, and fostering a culture of innovation and continuous improvement.
you ensure compliance with data policies, standards, and regulations, applying quality assurance methods and tools to monitor and improve data quality and integrity.
you engage with senior stakeholders and users throughout the decision-making process, ensuring that their views and needs are understood and considered, and that they are informed of the outcomes and implications.
you manage data risks and issues effectively, escalating and resolving them in a timely manner, and implementing mitigation strategies to prevent recurrence
you monitor and assess the impact and outcomes of decisions, using feedback and data to measure performance and identify areas for improvement and innovation.

A copy of the full job description is attached.

Person specification

To be eligible to apply, you need:

experience in designing conceptual, logical, and physical data models.
expert in turning business problems into data design, with hands-on experience with orchestration tools.
experience in designing end-to-end data platforms including data lakes, warehouses, and lakehouses.
experience in implementing data governance frameworks, including data cataloguing, metadata management, data governance and anonymisation.
experience with role-based access control (RBAC) in data systems.

It is desirable that you have the below experience, but this is not required to apply:

Experience with Azure Cloud, Databricks, Azure Data Factory and Python language.

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

Managing a Quality Service

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £58,330, Crown Prosecution Service contributes £16,898 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Join the Crown Prosecution Service and find your purpose.

The Crown Prosecution Service is passionate about ensuring that we're a top performing organisation and a great place to work. We're a committed equal opportunities employer, creating a culture where you can bring your whole self to work, and individuality is truly appreciated.

This culture of inclusion is underpinned by our staff networks covering disability, faith and belief, LGBTQI+, race, social mobility alongside our mental health first aiders programme and wellbeing sessions.

The Crown Prosecution Service commits to offer its employees the following experience.

You can do impactful, purposeful work that’s making a difference to your local communities.
You are able to learn and grow, with access to the right opportunities and resources.
We care about your wellbeing.
We want you to feel valued, trusted and included.

We also offer the following range of benefits:

Civil Service contributory pension of up to 28.9%
25 days’ leave, increasing to 30 days after 5 years
£350 each year to spend on personal development
lawyer training programme for all new prosecutors
an extra privilege day to mark the King's birthday
competitive maternity, paternity and parental leave
flexible working including flexitime, and a family friendly approach to work
Cycle2Work scheme, employee savings.

Diversity at the Crown Prosecution Service is about inclusion, embracing differences and ensuring our workforce truly reflects the communities we serve. We want you to feel that you belong and can thrive, whatever your background, identity or culture. As a Disability Confident employer, we're happy to support requests for reasonable adjustments and improve your recruitment experience. If you'd like any reasonable adjustments made to our recruitment process, let us know within your application or contact benjamin.ross-russell@cps.gov.uk

We want to ensure our employees can thrive at work and home and offer a range of support to achieve a balance. This includes flexibility of working hours, flexibility to support caring responsibilities and a flexible approach to deployment. We offer a hybrid working policy. You must spend at least 40% of your contracted hours over a four-week period at court, in an office or another official workplace depending on business need and the kind of work you're doing.

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

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

Recruitment process

The recruitment process consists of an online application, interview and assessment. These are expected to take place on w/c 6 April 2026.

Your interview takes place online through Microsoft Teams. A member of our recruitment team will be in touch with guidance. If you have any queries about this, contact benjamin.ross-russell@cps.gov.uk

You should keep this week freeor notify us if you're not available. We'll make every effort to accommodate your date preferences but we can't guarantee it.

Assessment

We ask you to complete an assessment as part of the recruitment process for this role. We will provide details immediately before your interview.

Personal statement

We ask you to complete a personal statement of no more than 750 words. You need to demonstrate the following experience/technical skills required for this role:

experience in designing conceptual, logical, and physical data models.
expert in turning business problems into data design, with hands-on experience with orchestration tools.
experience in designing end-to-end data platforms including data lakes, warehouses, and lakehouses.
experience in implementing data governance frameworks, including data cataloguing, metadata management, data governance and anonymisation.
experience with role-based access control (RBAC) in data systems.

In addition, you need to demonstrate the Crown Prosecution Service or Civil Service values.

Behaviours

You are also asked to complete a statement of no more than 250 words for each behaviour setting out how you consider your personal skills, qualities and experience match the specified behaviours and requirements:

Managing a Quality Service

Interview/Assessment

We use behaviours to help us understand your experience, to see if you're a good fit for the role. You are assessed against Grade 7 in the Civil Service success profiles behaviours framework. We are assessing 1 behaviours at interview / assessment stage

Managing a Quality Service – interview

Essential Experience will also be assessed through the assessment

You’re not required to upload your CV. However, when submitting your application there is a ‘CV section’. You are required to provide information about your employment and/or academic history for the past three years, skills, and qualification details. The CV section will be assessed.

It’s your responsibility to provide the specified information in the requested format to ensure that you're considered for the post.

If you're unable to cover three years through employment or academic history, you must provide a character reference for clearance purposes.

Strengths

Strengths are tested at interview stage - the strengths tested are not shared before the interview.

Other

This is a full-time post. We do consider requests for flexible, part-time working and job share, always considering the operational needs of the department.

Please note that the CPS is unable to offer visa sponsorship. Therefore, if you require visa sponsorship to work in the UK, you will not meet the eligibility criteria for this role.

Clearance

If successful, you are required to secure Security Clearance, for which you must have a current valid UK address.

If successfully appointed, we ask you to complete a character enquiry form, nationality and immigration questionnaire, and national security vetting form.

If you're a Crown Prosecution Service member of staff, you won’t need to do a Disclosure and Barring Service check as you already hold this clearance.

The job you’re applying for is covered by Article 3(a) of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975, consequently Section 4(2) of that Act doesn’t apply.You’re required to disclose all previous convictions and cautions including spent convictions. Failing to make a full declaration will result in withdrawing your offer of employment if our checks reveal convictions that haven’t been disclosed.

To be cleared to Security Clearance level, you have to be able to meet the residency requirement in the Cabinet Office guidance. For the Crown Prosecution Service, this is three years within the last five years.

Reserve list

If you're recommended by the selection panel but not appointed to the current vacancy, you’re put on a reserve list for 12 months. You may be offered another Lead Data Architect post in CPS Digital Information Directorate if a vacancy comes up during this period. We may also approach candidates on the waiting list to fill other roles that require similar knowledge and experience.

Feedback

We only provide feedback if you attend an interview or assessment.

Fraud check

The Crown Prosecution Service provides a Fair Processing Notice to all new applicants after they’ve been successful at interview. These candidates are informed that, as one aspect of pre-employment screening, their personal details – name, National Insurance number and date of birth – are checked against the Internal Fraud Database. We won't employ anyone included on the database unless they can demonstrate exceptional circumstances.

The Strategic Resourcing team in the Crown Prosecution Service will, on behalf of the vacancy holder, inform applicants when they are refused employment because of their inclusion in the Internal Fraud Database.

Civil Service Commission

If you’re dissatisfied with the recruitment process and wish to make a complaint, please contact Strategic.Resourcing@cps.gov.uk with your concerns.

If you remain dissatisfied and wish to make a further complaint, please click on the following link to the Civil Service Commission complaints page Recruitment Complaints - Civil Service Commission

Civil Service Commission Recruitment Principles can be found at https://civilservicecommission.independent.gov.uk/recruitment/

Details of the Civil Service Nationality Rules are located at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nationality-rules

Candidates are subject to UK immigration requirements. For the most up-to-date information on the requirements of working in the UK, please go to the UK Visas and Immigration website at https://www.gov.uk/browse/visas-immigration/work-visas

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.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see theCivil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

Apply and further information

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Salary range

£58,330 - £73,520 per year