Technical Architect

Job summary

We have an exciting opportunity for a talented, enthusiastic Technical Architect within the Insolvency Service Digital Services team working on a programme of work to maintain, improve and modernise our line-of-business applications.

The Insolvency Service is a leading government agency which plays a crucial role in providing essential services to the public and to business. The work we do is important to the proper functioning of markets, the economy in general and support for thousands of people each year who are in financial difficulty.

Inclusive and diverse teams are important to us. We welcome and encourage applications from everyone, including groups underrepresented in our workforce. The Insolvency Service strives to ensure that the agency is a safe, inclusive, and welcoming place for everybody to bring their true self to work and to help the agency to achieve its diversity objectives. We have 9 active employee network groups available to join or become an ally, these include, Carers Network, Disability network group, Employee Assistance, Representatives, FACES Network Group, LGBT+, Mind Matters, Part Time Workers, The Shed - Men’s Network Group and Women’s Network Group.

We value capability, technical skills and experience and we place great emphasis on lifetime development to support our people. We encourage our employees to become more involved in areas they feel strongly about, whether it be for the benefit of the agency, through our Engagement network or in their own local communities via volunteering opportunities.

The Insolvency Service is a great place to work, learn and grow your career!

If you would like to find out more about the role, the team and what it's like to work at the Insolvency Service, we are holding a Hiring Manager Q&A session for this role where you can virtually meet the team on 5th October at 10:30 - 11:30. Please click here to reserve your place.

Job description

The successful candidate will be working on the Digital Service team (part of the Change Technology Services within the Insolvency Service) responsible for Digital applications used by internal and external organisations as well as the general public.

The role ensures that solutions are aligned to business objectives, user needs, government standards and long-term strategic goals. They provide architectural expertise across products, platforms and delivery teams, balancing immediate delivery needs with the sustainable evolution of the estate.

Working with the Principal Technical Architect across Digital Services and the wider Insolvency Service, the Technical Architect establishes technical standards, architectural principles and governance processes that enable teams to deliver secure, scalable, maintainable and resilient services.

Responsibilities

Architecture:

• define target architectures and future technology direction
• develop and maintain architectural roadmaps
• produce and maintain reference architectures and design patterns
• participate in architecture reviews and governance activities
• support delivery teams in applying architecture principles
• provide guidance on complex technical decisions

Technical Governance:

• support technical assurance forums
• review significant technical decisions
• ensure solutions comply with security, accessibility and operational standards
• assess architectural impacts of proposed change
• identify and manage technical and architectural risks
• maintain architecture decision records and governance artefacts

Platform and Strategic Direction:

• drive adoption of shared platforms, reusable services and common capabilities
• help the evolution of Digital Services platforms
• support service consolidation and technology rationalisation initiatives

Engineering and Delivery Support:

• work closely with Lead Developers to maintain engineering standards
• support teams facing complex technical challenges
• review solution designs and implementation approaches
• ensure delivery teams understand architectural expectations
• help balance technical quality, delivery speed and operational sustainability

Stakeholder Engagement:

• engage with senior business and technical stakeholders on strategic technology matters
• translate complex technical concepts into language understood by business audiences
• represent Digital Services in cross-government, assurance and governance forums
• influence organisational decision-making through evidence-based technical advice

Capability Development:

• develop architectural capability across Digital Services
• promote Communities of Practice and knowledge sharing
• establish standards, guidance and architectural artefacts

Person specification

• communication skills. You can listen to the needs of technical and business stakeholders and interpret them. You are skilled at proactive and reactive communication
• governance. You can evolve and define governance. You can take responsibility for collaborating and supporting other staff in wider governance. You know how to assure services delivered by technical architects across sets of services
• making and guiding decisions. You can make decisions characterised by managed levels of risk and complexity. You can recommend decisions as risk and complexity increase. You can resolve technical disputes between wider peers and indirect stakeholders, taking into account all views and opinions
• strategy. You can apply strategy, using patterns, standards, policies, roadmaps and vision statements. You can challenge them and provide guidance
• turning business problems into technical design. You can design systems characterised by medium levels of risk, impact, and business or technical complexity. You can work across multiple services or a single large or complicated service
• understanding the whole context. You understand trends and practices outside your team and how these will impact the work. You understand how your work fits into the broader strategy and historical context. You can consider the patterns and interactions on a larger scale
• you should ideally come from a software development background, preferably .NET/C#
• you should have experience in cloud transformations ideally using Azure
• you should have experience is a number of differing technologies
• it would be preferable for candidates to have GDS Service Manual, Government architecture/design experience

Behaviours

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

• Seeing the Big Picture
• Communicating and Influencing

Technical skills

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

• During the interview you will be given a hypothetical scenario that will assess your technical knowledge and approach. You are not required to create a presentation.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £57,367, Insolvency Service contributes £16,619 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).

We want you to have a good work-life balance and want to support you in all that you do, so we offer a great benefits package including:

• flexible working arrangements and flexi-time
• full time new entrants to the Civil Service and those Civil Servants on modernised terms and conditions will be entitled to 25 days leave increasing on a sliding scale to 30 days after 5 years’ service
• in addition to this you are entitled to 8 public/bank holidays plus an additional day of privilege leave
• competitive maternity, paternity and parental leave
• 5 days paid leave for learning and development
• 5 days paid for volunteering
• a Cycle to work scheme
• staff have access to an employee assistance programme, Workplace Wellness, for confidential, independent support and advice during difficult times in either their professional or personal life

Your pension is a valuable part of your total reward package where the employer makes a significant contribution to the cost of your pension. Your contributions come out of your salary before any tax is taken. This means, if you pay tax, your take-home pay will not be reduced by the full amount of your contribution; and your pension will continue to provide valuable benefits for you and your family if you are too ill to continue to work or die before you retire. For more information, visit www.civilservicepensionscheme.org.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

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

As part of the sift process, you will be asked to complete:

CV

Multi-Stage Screening Process

As part of the application process, candidates will be asked to upload a CV outlining their experience, skills and suitability for the role, and complete a multi-stage screening process. Candidates who are longlisted will be invited to complete a 5 minute, pre-recorded video screening interview. Alternatively, a 750 word written response may be provided in place of the video interview. Our recruitment partner (Inspire People) will assess applications against the essential criteria to produce a shortlist, which will then be reviewed by Insolvency Service hiring managers. Successful candidates will be invited to interview.

If successful at the sift stage, at interview, you will be assessed on the following:

Behavioural Competencies - assessed through:

• Behaviour 1 - Seeing the Big Picture
• Behaviour 2 - Communicating and Influencing

Technical Skills

• During the interview the candidate will be given a hypothetical scenario that will assess their technical knowledge and approach. The candidates are not required to create a presentation.

Expected timeline (subject to change)

Sift – w/c TBC

Interview – w/c TBC

Location - MS Teams

Your interview will be conducted by video. Candidates are asked to note the above timetable, exercising flexibility through the recruitment and selection process.

Visa Applicants
To sponsor a candidate under the Skilled Worker visa, a sponsorship licence is required. The Insolvency Service does not currently hold this licence and therefore, cannot legally sponsor Skilled Worker visa applicants.

Queries and Support

When contacting us or the Government Recruitment Service (GRS) using the contact details at the bottom of this advert, please include the 6-digit Vacancy ID, job title, your full name and, where applicable, your 8-digit Applicant ID in the email subject line. This will help us process your enquiry more efficiently.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a basic (or equivalent) criminal record check.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 : Zymante Gintalaite
• Email : zymante@Inspirepeople.net

Recruitment team

• Email : HR.recruitment@insolvency.gov.uk

Further information

A candidate can raise a complaint to the Insolvency Service by emailing the contact point for applicants (as listed on the vacancy advert), if they think that: They have been discriminated against under the Equality Act 2010 there have been procedural irregularities at any stage of the recruitment process All complaints must be received by the contact point for applicants within 24 hours from the date the applicant is advised of their non-success at sift, assessment or interview. Complaints will be considered by an independent third-party outside of recruitment campaign. The decision will be conveyed to the applicant, in writing, within 5 working days of receipt of the complaint. The recruitment process will usually be put on hold until the complaint has been resolved. Complaints may also be made to the Civil Service Commission at any time if the individual believes their application has not been treated in accordance with the recruitment principles (appointment on merit through fair and open competition). However, complaints must first have been raised to the Insolvency Service