Enterprise Architect

• Details
• Reference number
• 474990
• Salary
• £58,478 - £64,743

There is a higher starting salary available of : £62000 per annum.

A Recruitment and Retention Allowance (RRA) is available for up to £6000 for candidates that meet the right skills and experience. This will be reviewed annually and is not consolidated for pension. The total salary package is negotiable for exceptional candidates.

GPA is also committed to recognising and rewarding where our staff hold the “Gold Standard’ accreditation relevant to their Specialism and offer a £5000 non-pensionable allowance to staff who have achieved this.

A Civil Service Pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

GBP

• Job grade
• Grade 7
• GPA G7 National
• Contract type
• Permanent
• Business area
• GPA - Chief Operating Office - CTO & IT Delivery
• Type of role
• Architecture and Data
• Working pattern
• Full-time
• Number of jobs available
• 1
• Contents

• Location
• About the job
• Benefits
• Things you need to know
• Apply and further information

Location

Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Leeds, Manchester, Nottingham, Swindon

About the job

Job summary

The Government Property Agency is the largest property holder in government, with more than £2.1 billion in property assets and over 55% of the government’s office estate.

We are transforming the way the Civil Service works by creating great places to work, leading the largest commercial office programme in the UK, working towards halving carbon emissions from government offices, and achieving greater value for taxpayers. And we are looking for innovative, solutions-focused people to join our team.

Representing the best covenant in the UK – His Majesty’s Government – we are leading significant transformational programmes such as the Government Hubs Programme, Whitehall Campus Programme and Net Zero Programme. We are also delivering cost-effective property services such as asset management, lifecycle replacement and workplace services.

Innovation and progress underpin our behaviours. We foster a culture of lifelong learning, where curiosity and self-improvement are encouraged. Our four core values are at the heart of everything we do. They shape our culture and guide how we work, lead and grow together:

• Striving for excellence - We always aim to deliver great results
• Empowering through respect - We insist on fair treatment for all, always
• Acting with integrity - We consistently do the right thing
• Succeeding together - We rely on each other to achieve success

The GPA is committed to representing the communities we serve by making Diversity, Equality and Inclusion part of everything we do.

To ensure that we are always recruiting and retaining a diverse mix of talent, we are particularly inviting applications from candidates who are disabled, ethnically or gender diverse, and people who identify as being part of the LGBTQ+ community.

Join our dynamic and diverse team that leads with purpose, improving sustainability, nurturing social value, driving inclusivity and flexibility, and kickstarting economic growth. We are driven by purpose, and you can be part of it too: where you make a meaningful impact; where you influence; where your voice really matters; where you help to shape our future direction.

Job description

• As an enterprise architect, you will partner with GPA business, strategy and policy leads and stakeholders across the department, to demonstrate the business value of Enterprise Architecture as an enabler of strategy formulation, business change and technology innovation. You will collaboratively develop business capability models and roadmaps to facilitate discussion and decision making to enable the GPA to design, build and deliver GPA owned services that enhances the interoperability of the Government estate.
• You will work in a team of skilled Engineers, providing capability to the Government Property Agencies CTO PropTech Team. You will be working with multi-disciplinary teams who deliver user-centred digital services for all of our users. Working in close collaboration with other engineers and software developers.
• You will lead analysis of the CTOs future-state capabilities and current / future IT environment, to detect critical deficiencies and recommend solutions for improvement, driving the organisation forward. To do this, you will have a good understanding of a broad range of technologies and the ability to take a balanced approach to technology selection. You'll be able to converse easily with and translate between non-technical stakeholders and technical practitioners. You'll be able to switch between different problems and responsibilities and be directly involved in service delivery.
• You could be working on anything from transforming core technology services to architecting substantial digital services. Examples of our services include GovPass, GovPrint, GovWifi. Our services are developed by multi-disciplinary teams using a variety of technologies - you would ideally have experience across multiple platforms, technologies and delivery methodologies.
• You'll undertake structured analysis of technical issues, translating this analysis into designs that describe a solution. You can be consulted on design and are capable of providing design patterns. You can identify the deeper issues that need fixing and look for opportunities to collaborate and reuse components, communicating with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• You will have oversight of the work of architecture community members on projects, programmes and business as usual activities, ensuring work is of an appropriate standard. Where appropriate, you should lead by example and positively resolve issues collaboratively.
• There will be opportunities to contribute to the development of the pan-government community and wider technology leadership across government.
• Working across a programme or group of projects aligned to a portfolio or domain, across GPA, to understand the needs of the delivery programmes and projects, defining suitable strategies, architectures and roadmaps to meet those needs.
• Building and maintaining technical roadmaps, looking ahead for future opportunities or blockers, and ensuring decisions by service teams align with the strategy.
• Advising on optimal architectures and ensure projects are run using appropriate assurance activities, best practice guidelines and appropriate methodologies.
• Anticipating and mitigating against architecture challenges or risks within projects.
• Defining and managing technical procurement requirements.
• Involvement in the wider development community, identifying good practices to adopt and share your experiences, e.g. through community meet-ups, blog posts and other collaboration channels
• Advising Service Owners and their teams on the estimated effort and technical implications of current user stories, as well as those in the backlog.
• Helping to enable the reuse of patterns, tools, and components across the whole government service landscape.
• Helping to mature architecture practice and profession to ensure what we deliver is strategically aligned and provides best value. Helping to maintain the architecture body of knowledge, developing standards and patterns that contribute back to wider technical communities.

Person specification

We are looking for a motivated and driven individual with:

• Strong communication skills and is comfortable briefing at a senior level
• Customer focused and organised with an ability to rapidly analyse complex problems and find solutions
• Resilient, adaptable and comfortable working in a fast paced and evolving environment
• Driven and focused to deliver within the public sector
• Collaborative and inclusive ways of working and can build trust across diverse teams and stakeholders
• Is able to communicate to external bodies and industry specialists

Essential criteria:

• Experience working as a Technical, Solution, Business or Enterprise Architect (or equivalent), /operating across a wide range of architectures, technologies and programming languages
• Experience of working across varied technology domains, such as Business, Applications, Data, Infrastructure, Integration and Security.
• Experience of providing technology leadership in complex projects and programmes, with an understanding of long-term business objectives and the ability to suggest technical strategies to meet those objectives, by introducing innovation through technology.
• Experience of suggesting and influencing good digital, software and data design
• Experience of working with business and technology stakeholders to translate business problems into suitable architectures and designs, producing clear architecture artefacts underpinned by sound technology solution design principles.
• Strong stakeholder management, evidencing the influencing and execution skills of Enterprise Architecture, including the ability to interact with stakeholders at all levels, translating technical concepts between all parties.
• Ability to make effective decisions, characterised by managed levels of risk and complexity, explaining clearly how the decision has been reached and recommending decisions as the risk and complexity increase.
• Ability to resolve technical disputes between wider peers and indirect stakeholders, taking into account all views and opinions.
• Experience in the use of cloud technologies, cloud strategies and in architecting solutions for the cloud, as well as big data, analytics, artificial intelligence, Internet of Things and automation.
• Extensive experience of AWS architecture design, build and support.

Desirable criteria:

• Technical knowledge and skills across several domains, which may include software design, development, engineering and integration, cloud-native services, productivity tools, applications, infrastructure, data solutions, business / service design
• A background in software development / engineering is strongly preferred, along with the ability to suggest and influence good digital design
• The ability to suggest and influence good data architecture, with experience of creating and designing data solutions
• Experience of writing thematic papers or thought leadership blogs, leading discussions and deep-dives on specific subject-matter areas
• Experience of modern engineering practices (such as DevOps, CI/CD, PaaS) and cloud-native platforms and services (such as Azure, AWS, GOV.UK PaaS, O365, ServiceNow)
• Experience of technical assurance within UK Government Service Assessments
• Architecture qualifications or certifications (such as TOGAF, Business Architecture Guild)

Behaviours

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

• Seeing the Big Picture
• Making Effective Decisions
• Communicating and Influencing
• Leadership

Technical skills

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

• Customer Perspective
• Commercial Acumen
• Property Market Knowledge
• Innovation

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £58,478, Government Property Agency contributes £16,941 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides .

• Learning and development tailored to your role
• An environment with flexible working options
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

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 for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles , and will assess your Behaviours, Experience and Technical skills.

Please note - At this time GPA are unable to offer any Visa Sponsorship to candidates as we do not currently hold a visa sponsorship licence. Please do not apply for permanent roles with GPA if you will require your employer to take on the sponsorship of your current or any future visas.

Sift

The sift is due to take place week commencing 3rd September 2026.

The sift will be based on your CV.

Interview

GPA policy is for interviews to be held face to face, with virtual interviews only by absolute exception. The date and location will be confirmed if you are invited to interview. If you feel this will be a problem for you, please contact recruitment@gpa.gov.uk to discuss prior to submitting your application.

Interviews will involve an Initial short screening call and then if successful followed by a final in-person interview.

At interview, applicants will be scored against 4 behaviours - Seeing the Big Picture, Making Effective Decisions, Communicating & Influencing and Leadership.

Interview questions will be a blend of Behaviour, Experience and Technical (core skill).

Reasonable Adjustment

If a person with disabilities is put at a substantial disadvantage compared to a non-disabled person, we have a duty to make reasonable changes to our processes.

If you need a change to be made so that you can make your application, you should:

Contact Government Recruitment Service via gparecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs.

Complete the ‘Assistance required’ section in the ‘Additional requirements’ page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need further on in the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at interview, or if you’re deaf, a Language Service Professional.

Further Information

Please note: in addition to the standard pre-employment checks for appointment into the Civil Service, all candidates must also obtain National Security Vetting at Security Clearance (SC) level for this vacancy.

For further information on National Security Vetting please visit the Demystifying Vetting website.

A reserve list may be held for a period of 12 months from which further appointments can be made.

Any move to GPA 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; for further information visit the Childcare Choices website.

If successful and transferring from another Government Department a criminal record check may be carried out.

In order to process applications without delay, we will be sending a Criminal Record Check to Disclosure and Barring Service on your behalf.

However, we recognise in exceptional circumstances some candidates will want to send their completed forms direct. If you will be doing this, please advise Government Recruitment Service of your intention by emailing Pre-EmploymentChecks.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk stating the job reference number in the subject heading.

Applicants who are successful at interview will be, as part of pre-employment screening, subject to a check on the Internal Fraud Database (IFD). This check will provide information about employees who have been dismissed for fraud or dishonesty offences. This check also applies to employees who resign or otherwise leave before being dismissed for fraud or dishonesty had their employment continued. Any applicant’s details held on the IFD will be refused employment.

New entrants are expected to join on the minimum of the pay band.

A candidate is not eligible to apply for a role within the Civil Service if the application is made within a 5-year period following a dismissal for carrying out internal fraud against government.

This role is full time only. Applicants who wish to work an alternative pattern are welcome to apply however your preferred working pattern may not be available and you should discuss this with the vacancy holder before applying.

If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the 'Contact point for applicants' section.

Feedback

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

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a basic (or equivalent) criminal record check.

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check .

See our vetting charter .

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)
• 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

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code 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 .

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 the Civil Service People Plan and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy .

Apply and further information

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans 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 : Matt Cupit
• Email : matthew.cupit1@gpa.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : ddatsupport@gpa.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, in the first instance, you should contact HR@gpa.gov.uk

If you are not satisfied with the response you receive from the Department, you can contact the Civil Service Commission:

Click here to visit Civil Service Commission