Principal Solutions Architect (AI Solutions)

Job summary

DSIT is the digital centre of government. We are responsible for setting, leading and delivering the vision for a modern digital government. Our priorities are to drive a modern digital government, by:

1. joining up public sector services
2. harnessing the power of AI for the public good
3. strengthening and extending our digital and data public infrastructure
4. elevating leadership and investing in talent
5. funding for outcomes and procuring for growth and innovation
6. committing to transparency and driving accountability

People and Transformation

The People & Transformation directorate sits at the heart of shaping DSIT’s future. We are responsible for getting the fundamentals right – from pay, recruitment and casework – while also leading the organisation’s people, workforce and digital transformation. Our work brings together employee experience, organisational design, workforce planning, digital recruitment, policy, data, AI and strategic change to create a joined-up, user-centred system that is easy to access and built for impact.

We're the driving force behind the DSIT Difference, making this the home for inventiveness, expertise and impact. By attracting exceptional talent, using technology and data to simplify decisions, and building a culture that thrives on innovation and continuous improvement were ensuring DSIT is future-ready, so we can do our best work in a fast-changing world.

DSIT is building a new AI Integration team to help the department embed AI into everyday work, so teams can deliver better outcomes for citizens faster, with greater quality and confidence.

As Principal Solutions Architect, you will lead a small team working across the department to identify AI opportunities and turn them into practical applications. This is not a conventional architecture role. Your team will often work independently of each other with portfolios of stakeholders, embedding with different parts of DSIT to understand problems, spot opportunities and help teams move quickly from idea to action.

You will build the team, set direction, shape priorities and help people choose the most effective route for each opportunity. That may mean coaching colleagues to solve a problem themselves, teaching teams how to use AI well, supporting the design of a low-code solution in a short sprint, bringing in specialist contractors, or escalating more complex needs to another team. You will need to keep the team focused, unblock problems, make useful connections and build clear ways of working across a team of people who are often operating independently.

Job description

This is a role for someone entrepreneurial, credible and energising. You will need to inspire others, bring structure to ambiguity, and help a small team deliver high-impact use cases that show clear value for the department.

As a Principal Solutions Architect (AI Solutions), you will:

• set strategic direction, standards and ways of working for a distributed team that is often embedded across different parts of the organisation
• help the team and stakeholders shape demand, prioritise projects, assess value vs effort/risk, make trade-offs, and maintain focus so solutions can be created
• provide AI advice to senior leaders and non-technical stakeholders, communicating to gain support whilst managing risk and complexity
• develop prototypes and deliver lightweight solutions (most likely using Copilot Studio, Power Automate and/or wider Power Platform)
• foster a culture of learning and innovation within your team, role modelling effective and responsible use of AI

Person specification

We’re interested in people who:

• have experience setting clear strategic direction, standards and ways of working for a distributed team that is often embedded across different parts of the organisation
• have experience helping the team and stakeholders shape demand, assess value vs effort/risk, make trade-offs, and maintain focus so solutions can be created, or identifying problems and solution options
• have experience providing advice to senior leaders and non-technical stakeholders, utilising different architecture communication techniques to gain support from stakeholders for architectural initiatives with high levels of risk, impact and complexity
• can translate between user needs, operational reality, governance requirements and technical options
• have hands-on skill with Microsoft low-code tools to prototype and deliver lightweight solutions (Copilot Studio, Power Automate and/or wider Power Platform)
• have experience coaching others to identify reusable patterns and trends, and feeding them back to the wider organisation to anticipate changes to policy and build resilience through your architectural work

Benefits

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 28.97%
• 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
• 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 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

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

Office attendance
The Department operates a discretionary hybrid working policy, which provides for a combination of working hours from your place of work and from your home in the UK. The current expectation for staff is to attend the office or non-home based location for 40-60% of the time over the accounting period.
DSIT does not normally offer full home working (i.e. working at home); but we do offer a variety of flexible working options (including occasionally working from home).

Open Recruitment Session

To provide more information and context about the role, we are holding an open recruitment session on the 22nd June 2026, from 12:00 - 13:00. There will be a presentation followed by a Q&A Session. If you would like to be invited to the session, please email GDSrecruitment@dsit.gov.uk.

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

The standard selection process for roles at GDS consists of:

• a simple application screening process - We only ask for a CV and three technical application questions
• a 60 minute video interview which will feature a presentation

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 event we receive a high volume of applications, we will conduct the initial sift against the lead criteria which is: Tell us about a time you helped a team move from a vague problem to a clear problem statement, options and recommended action. How did you avoid jumping straight to a technology answer?

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:

• Leadership
• Seeing the big picture
• Communicating and influencing

We’ll also be assessing your experience and specialist technical skills against the following skills defined in the Government Digital and Data Capability Framework for the Principal Solutions Architect role:

• Architecture communication
• Problem definition and shaping
• Architect for the whole context
• Community collaboration

Recruitment Timeline

Open Recruitment Session 22nd June 2026 12:00 - 13:00

Sift completion: 9th July 2026

Panel interviews: Starting from the 16th July 2026

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.

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan and the Civil Service D&I Strategy.

Please note that this role requires SC clearance, which would normally need 5 years’ UK residency in the past 5 years. This is not an absolute requirement, but supplementary checks may be needed where individuals have not lived in the UK for that period. This may mean your security clearance (and therefore your appointment) will take longer or, in some cases, not be possible.

For meaningful checks to be carried out, you will need to have lived in the UK for a sufficient period of time, to enable appropriate checks to be carried out and produce a result which provides the required level of assurance. Whilst a lack of UK residency in itself is not necessarily a bar to a security clearance, and expectation of UK residency may range from 3 to 5 years. Failure to meet the residency requirements needed for the role may result in the withdrawal of provisional jobs offers.

Sponsorship

DSIT cannot offer Visa sponsorship to candidates through this campaign. DSIT holds a Visa sponsorship licence but this can only be used for certain roles and this campaign does not qualify.

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.

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.The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. Read more about prison leaver recruitment (opens in new window).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

Job contact :

• Name : gdsrecruitment@dsit.gov.uk
• Email : gdsrecruitment@dsit.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : gdsrecruitment@dsit.gov.uk

Further information

If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with the Recruitment Principles and you wish to make a complaint, you should contact gds-complaints@dsit.gov.uk in the first instance.

If you are not satisfied with the response you receive you can contact the Civil Service Commission by email: info@csc.gov.uk Or in writing: Civil Service Commission, Room G/8 1 Horse Guards Road, London, SW1A 2HQ.