Croydon, Liverpool, Manchester
The Digital Data and Technology (DDaT) profession enable the Home Office to keep the UK safe and secure. They do this by designing, building, and running the services that help people apply for visas or passports, support policing and counter-terrorism operations, and protect the UK’s borders.
As a Principal Technical Architect at the Home Office, you will play a key role in leading the design, implementation, and continuous operation of our Datacentre Infrastructure, Private Cloud, and Edge capabilities that form the backbone of our critical systems and services. In this senior leadership position, you will be responsible for developing robust, secure, and scalable architectural solutions, focusing on hybrid environments that span both on-premises systems and public cloud platforms like AWS and Azure.
You will take charge of guiding third-party suppliers in the design of a diverse range of projects that introduce new capabilities across the Home Office. This position requires a strategic thinker with a collaborative approach, working closely with multidisciplinary teams, suppliers, and external partners to ensure that our infrastructure is designed and deployed with a focus on security, reliability, and performance.
By embedding Secure by Design principles into all aspects of your work, you will help protect our operations, data, and resources, while ensuring seamless integration across all digital initiatives. Your leadership will ensure the alignment of infrastructure strategies with broader business goals, enabling the delivery of secure, scalable, and high-performing solutions.
Due to business requirements this post is available on a Full Time/Flexible Working basis. Where business needs allow, some roles may be suitable for a combination of office and home-based working. Where this is the case, employees will be expected to spend a minimum of 60% of their working time in the office. Applicants can raise any queries to the email address at the bottom of the advert.
We value diversity and inclusion and welcome applications from the widest diversity of backgrounds, cultures, and experiences. We particularly encourage applications from women, people with disabilities and LGBT+ as they are currently under-represented in the Home Office at this grade level. Appointments will be made on merit based on fair and open competition.
A Principal Technical Architect for Data Centre and Edge Platform Services leads at the highest level, has the highest technical understanding of the broadest range of Data Centre, Edge and Private Cloud technologies used across the estate and works with the Head of Role to define technical strategy, making sure it is agreed and followed.
As a Principal Technical Architect for Data Centre and Edge Platform Services, you will network and communicate with senior stakeholders, both technical and non-technical, across the organisation and proactively seek out opportunities for digital transformation. You will manage diverse teams across multiple locations, finding and using best practice and emerging technologies and inspiring other architects, helping them understand how to deliver the goals of the organisation.
You will be the design authority for the Data Centre, Edge Platform and Private Cloud Services portfolio that underpin Critical National Infrastructure and will be responsible for governance, solving complex and high-risk issues and delivering architecture design. You will have a detailed knowledge of technical requirements to implement, design and manage associated technologies.
You will have a genuine interest in new technologies and bring this passion to the role to ensure the Home Office remains at the forefront of technical advances.
Your main day to day responsibilities will be:
Essential skills
You’ll have a demonstrable passion for Technical Architecture, with the following skills or proven experience in:
SFIA capability framework
Skills for the Information Age (SFIA) is the technical framework that sets the standard capability and development of all levels in the Home Office.
This is a link to the capability framework: All skills A - Z English (sfia-online.org). We use set SFIA technical skills to form our interview questions and we will assess you against these technical skills during the selection process.
SFIA levels of responsibility – Use the SFIA Levels of responsibility to understand what would be expected for each Technical Skill listed below.
The essential skills listed above are reflective of the Home Office Government Digital and Data Profession Career Framework (based on the industry standard SFIA framework). Please see below for the relevant skills for your role:
Strategy & Architecture:
We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:
Alongside your salary of £73,900, Home Office contributes £21,408 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.
You’ll also have access to the same benefits available to all civil servants in the Home Office:
You can find more information at Benefits - Home Office Careers
Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.
If you feel that your application has not been treated in accordance with the recruitment
principles, and wish to make a complaint, then you should contact in the first instance
HORecruitment.GRS@cabinetoffice.gov.uk. If you are not satisfied with the response that you receive, then you can contact the Civil Service Commission.
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