Senior Technical Architect (Ref: 17226)

Job summary

This position is based Nationally

Job description

Senior Technical Architect

Location: National*

Closing Date: 12th May

Interviews: W/C 18th May (subject to change)

Grade: G7

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

Salary**: London: £63,343- £78,225 (which may include an allowance up to £14,882)

National: £58,511- £73,450 (which may include an allowance up to £14,939)

Working pattern: Full-time, Part-time, Flexible working, Job share

Contract Type: Permanent

Number of vacancies: 8

*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

Please note this role requires you to pass Security Check clearance. Please click on the link for details.

We’re recruiting for Senior Technical Architects here at Justice Digital, Data and Science to be part of our warm and collaborative Legal Aid Agency team.

This role aligns against Senior Technical Architect from the Government Digital and Data Framework

We believe that architecture is not purely a technical discipline. The systems we build are shaped by the teams that build them, the organisational structures they sit within, and the communication patterns between the people involved. Our architects think about how team structures, domain boundaries, and organisational dynamics shape systems — and how the systems we design, in turn, shape the organisation. We are looking for people who understand that designing great systems means co-designing the social and technical dimensions together, and who bring both technical depth and organisational awareness to their work.

Our Senior Technical Architects are responsible for assuring, designing, and delivering the best digital services for justice in the world.

You will be working with developers, SREs and security experts, user researchers, product managers, designers, delivery managers, and content specialists who share a vision for improving government through smarter use of technology. Together we will collaborate to develop our strategy, connect people and build trust with clear communication, and provide empathetic technical leadership across diverse product teams.

You will work to understand our technology, our business, and our people (colleagues, stakeholders, and users of our services), and to create an ambitious and pragmatic vision for our teams, using your expertise to bring our challenges and opportunities into focus alongside the views of other professions in our leadership team.

A Senior Technical Architect can see the big picture: understanding our complex technology landscape and the organisational landscape that produces it. You can clearly and effectively communicate that big picture by building trust, developing great relationships, and empathising with others. You provide mentoring and support to other architects and engineering leadership. You have a good understanding of a broad range of technologies, combined with the ability to reason about how organisational structures and team designs affect what can and should be built.

As a Senior Technical Architect, your days will be varied. For example, you might be creating diagrams and data flows for replacing a legacy service; working directly with developers to ensure their services are robust and secure; supporting a new delivery manager to introduce or improve ways of working; or liaising with engineering leadership to develop guardrails and patterns for use across the department.

We are looking for people who will encourage open discussion and build the architecture community within the Ministry of Justice and the Legal Aid Agency in particular. You should have a mindset for growth and learning, constantly looking for emerging technologies, tools and good practice.

We are a flexible organisation, and we understand that people can't always work 5 days a week or might have responsibilities that sometimes clash with standard office hours. We work as flexibly as we can, including offering part-time hours, so if in doubt, please do get in touch. If you're the right candidate, we will do our best to work around you.

You’ll receive a range of excellent benefits when you join our department, including:

• A generous employer pension contribution of 28.97% through the Civil Service Pension Scheme.
• 25 days of annual leave, (increasing to 30 days once you have reached 5 years of service), plus 8 bank holidays and a privilege day for the King’s birthday.
• Flexible working arrangements including hybrid working, working part time or compressed hours. Designed to support a positive work–life balance.
• Employees are allocated 10% of their working time for personal and professional development.
• A £1k per person learning budget is in place to support all our people, with access to best-in-class conferences and seminars, accreditation with professional bodies, fully funded vocational programmes and e-learning platforms.
• 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!

You can find more details of the Benefits we offer here. To help picture your life at MoJ Justice Digital, Data and Science please take a look at our blog.

Key Responsibilities:

• Collaborate with Lead Technical Architects to create a technical vision for Legal Aid, develop our strategy, and be accountable for our technology estate.
• Ensure that team structures, domain boundaries, and technical architecture are aligned and support the flow of value.
• Communicate about our technology across teams and professions, both within our Digital unit and across all parts of the Ministry of Justice; seeing the big picture and bringing it to all stakeholders.
• Collaborate and find agreement with senior stakeholders, providing both technical and non-technical direction and challenge, as well as pragmatic compromise to deliver value across your teams and the service area.
• Create structured analysis of technical concepts, providing insight for multi-disciplinary decision-making, whilst seeking opportunities to collaborate and develop patterns and guidelines within our digital unit.
• Guide and influence choices to align with architecture strategy, and seek out opportunities for digital transformation, helping all understand the value of technical decisions.
• Engage with our portfolio, assurance, risk management, cyber, and information assurance leadership to ensure priorities, such as Secure by Design, are represented alongside those of the business and other digital teams.
• Advocate for a diverse, inclusive culture across the engineering community, growing awareness, inclusivity, and balance, including being a champion for increasing women and minorities in our workforce.
• Mentor, coach, line-manage, and help recruit more great technical architects and engineering leadership.

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

Our Tech Stack

This is our tech, both strategic and legacy. You don’t need to have experience with all of these, but we hope you see some familiar things.

• Modern strategic software built in Java, Python and Ruby
• Public GitHub repositories for our work
• Resilient infrastructure in the cloud (primarily AWS), using infrastructure as code (IaC) and platforms as a service (PaaS)
• Progressive software development practices such as Domain-Driven Design (DDD), test-driven development (TDD), continuous integration (CI) and continuous delivery (CD)
• A new multi-tier architecture, creating central data and business logic platforms to accelerate our product development.
• Enterprise Oracle software, including Enterprise Resource Planning (E-Business Suite)
• Mac laptops for delivering our work

Does this sound like a role that meets your requirements? If this feels like an exciting challenge, something you are enthusiastic about, and you want to join our team please read on.

Person Specification

We want to hear from those who aren't sure if they are ready for architecture, and eager to show us what great leadership looks like.

Whilst we have to evaluate your application against the criteria below, we are looking for aptitude over experience, and attitude over knowledge!

Essential

• Experience as a software engineer, cloud engineer, solutions architect, or software architect, delivering digital products on the web.
• Experience of different levels of the web stack, such as frontend and backend, API management, micro services, databases, or event driven architectures in cloud environments.
• Experience of making and guiding effective technical decisions by understanding the wider context.
• Strong communication and influencing skills, with the ability to explain complex information clearly and concisely to a range of technical and non-technical audiences.
• Able to support teams to uphold standards of security, quality, and operational resilience, while meeting the needs of stakeholders and live service users.
• Experience of introducing and supporting best practices and standards across teams.
• Able to embrace agile, user-centred product delivery, working with multi-disciplinary teams to realise value quickly.
• Demonstrated ability to navigate organisational complexity, working across multiple teams, professions, and competing priorities to achieve pragmatic outcomes in ambiguous environments. You build coalitions, not just architectures.

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.

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.

Salary Information**

Base salary for this role is - London: £63,343- £70,725. National: £58,511- £65,329.

• New entrants to the Civil Service joining the MoJ are expected to start at the minimum of the pay band.
• Existing Civil Servants moving on a level transfer will retain their current base salary or move to the minimum of the pay band for the role, whichever is higher.
• Existing Civil Servants who are promoted will either move to the bottom of the new grade’s pay band or receive a 10% uplift, whichever provides the greater increase.
• Candidates may also be eligible for a non‑pensionable Government Digital & Data Allowance of up to £14,882 per year (London) or £14,939 (National). This is a temporary allowance, reviewed annually and may be retained, amended, or withdrawn.

The final offer will reflect the skills and experience you demonstrate during the assessment process.

How to Apply

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

Stage 1 - Application and sift:

To apply for this position, you must submit the following as part of your application:

• A CV detailing your career history (including any relevant qualifications).
• A Personal Statement (no more than 750 words) which should outline your experience and skills, giving clear examples of work undertaken.

At the sift stage, candidates will be assessed against the following essential criteria -

• Experience as a software engineer, cloud engineer, or software architect, delivering digital products on the web.
• Experience of different levels of the web stack, such as frontend and backend, API management, micro services, databases, and event driven architectures in cloud environments.
• Strong communication and influencing skills, with the ability to explain complex information clearly and concisely to a range of technical and non-technical audiences.

A diverse sift panel will review the information in your CV and Personal Statement to assess the sift criteria specified above. We operate an anonymous shortlisting process. Please ensure your CV and Personal Statement do not include your name or any other identifying details.

Should we receive a high volume of applications, a pre-sift based on the following criteria will be conducted before the sift -

• Experience as a software engineer, cloud engineer, or software architect, delivering digital products on the web.

Please access the following link for guidance on how to apply - Application Guidance

Stage 2 - Interviews:

Successful candidates who meet the required standard will then be invited to a panel interview held via Microsoft Teams. At interview stage, you will be assessed against the following Success Profile elements - Experience, Technical and the following Behaviours:

• Communicating and Influencing
• Seeing the Big Picture
• Making Effective Decisions
• Working Together
• Changing and Improving

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.

Appointments are made strictly in merit order. In the event that two or more candidates receive identical interview scores, the ‘Experience as a software engineer, cloud engineer, solutions architect, or software architect, delivering digital products on the web’ criterion will be applied as the primary lead criterion to determine the final merit order.

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

Use of 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 for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Terms & Conditions

Please review our Terms and 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 digitalanddatarecruitment@justice.gov.uk

Person specification

Please refer to attached Job Description

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £58,511, Ministry of Justice contributes £16,950 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

• Access to learning and development
• A working environment that supports a range of flexible working options to enhance your work life balance
• A working culture which encourages inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%
• Annual Leave
• Public Holidays
• Season Ticket Advance

For more information about the recruitment process, benefits and allowances and answers to general queries, please click the below link which will direct you to our Candidate Information Page.

Link: https://justicejobs.tal.net/vx/candidate/cms/About%20the%20MOJ

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

How to Apply

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

Stage 1 - Application and sift:

To apply for this position, you must submit the following as part of your application:

• A CV detailing your career history (including any relevant qualifications).
• A Personal Statement (no more than 750 words) which should outline your experience and skills, giving clear examples of work undertaken.

At the sift stage, candidates will be assessed against the following essential criteria -

• Experience as a software engineer, cloud engineer, or software architect, delivering digital products on the web.
• Experience of different levels of the web stack, such as frontend and backend, API management, micro services, databases, and event driven architectures in cloud environments.
• Strong communication and influencing skills, with the ability to explain complex information clearly and concisely to a range of technical and non-technical audiences.

A diverse sift panel will review the information in your CV and Personal Statement to assess the sift criteria specified above. We operate an anonymous shortlisting process. Please ensure your CV and Personal Statement do not include your name or any other identifying details.

Should we receive a high volume of applications, a pre-sift based on the following criteria will be conducted before the sift -

• Experience as a software engineer, cloud engineer, or software architect, delivering digital products on the web.

Please access the following link for guidance on how to apply - Application Guidance

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

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 : SSCL Recruitment Enquiries Team
• Email : moj-recruitment-vetting-enquiries@resourcing.soprasteria.co.uk
• Telephone : 0345 241 5359

Recruitment team

• Email : moj-recruitment-vetting-enquiries@resourcing.soprasteria.co.uk

Further information

Appointment to the Civil Service is governed by the Civil Service Commission’s Recruitment Principles. If you feel a department has breached the requirement of the Recruitment Principles and would like to raise this, please contact SSCL (Moj-recruitment-vetting-enquiries@gov.sscl.com) in the first instance. If the role has been advertised externally (outside of the Civil Service) and you are not satisfied with the response, you may bring your complaint to the Commission. For further information on bringing a complaint to the Civil Service Commission please visit their web pages: http://civilservicecommission.independent.gov.uk/civil-service-recruitm…

https://www.jobtrain.co.uk/justicedigital/Job/JobDetail?JobId=1038

Attachments

FINAL - JD Senior TA LAA April 2026 (6) Opens in new window (docx, 44kB)