Lead Technical Architect

• Details
• Reference number
• 470836
• Salary
• £75,026 - £96,683
• A Civil Service Pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

GBP

• Job grade
• Grade 6
• Contract type
• Permanent
• Business area
• DWP - Digital
• Type of role
• Architecture and Data
• Digital
• Information Technology
• Working pattern
• Flexible working, Full-time, Job share, Part-time
• Number of jobs available
• 1
• Contents

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

Location

This role may be located in one of the following locations; Birmingham, Blackpool, Leeds, Manchester and Newcastle Upon Tyne.

Please find further information on the Corporate hub locations here.

Please note that for candidates requesting to work in Newcastle, the role will initially be based at Benton Park View. It will then move to 1 Pilgrim Place in Newcastle city centre by the end of 2027.

About the job

Job summary

Do you want to work collaboratively designing modern IT architecture for some of the largest digital transformations in Europe?

Do you want to help support millions of our claimants by designing user-friendly digital services?

If so, these roles may be perfect for you!

We are looking for experienced Lead Technical Architects who are confident working on products and services in a complex digital environment, where you’ll be supporting major initiatives within DWP Digital.

You will collaborate with colleagues and stakeholders across DWP Digital to support the delivery of solutions, creating options and recommendations, and providing expert advice to drive technology choices.

The roles will include the design, oversight and architecture governance of IT solutions that support DWP customers.

This is an exciting time to join us. You’ll shape the future and support our mission to deliver exceptional products and services that work for everyone.

Job description

A Lead Technical Architect (Solutions) leads at the highest level and is responsible for making sure the strategy is agreed and followed.

At this role level, you will:

• network and communicate with senior stakeholders across organisations.
• proactively seek opportunities for digital transformation.
• support multiple teams, finding and using best practice and emerging technologies.
• inspire other architects and help them understand how to deliver the goals of the organisation.
• be responsible for governance, solving complex and high risk issues or delivering architecture design.
• will be responsible for the design and implementation of the Health Assessment Service (HAS) which is a key enabler for assessing claimants eligibility for a number of Health benefits including Personal Independence Payment (PIP).
• you will be a key member of the HAS senior leadership team, working with product, delivery, engineering, design and others to drive the delivery of HAS.
• you will work with multiple delivery teams within Health and Disability and also external DWP teams responsible for delivering common capabilities for multiple areas of the department.
• you will ensure that the design and implementation of HAS is consistent with the departments strategy and vision, you will help teams build services consistently.
• you will drive cross team discussions and ensure designs are cohesive and consistent and are delivered within aggressive timescales.
• you will work closely with engineering colleagues to ensure that services have clear domain separation.
• you will be responsible for managing and mentoring architects within HAS ensuring they have the support and guidance they need. You will ensure the architecture team is working together and communicating in an effective way. You will encourage cross collaboration with architects outside of HAS facilitating the many integrations with other services within the department.

Person specification

When giving details in your employment history and personal statement you should highlight your extensive practical experience in line with essential criteria below:

• Architecture design across on-prem, cloud and hybrid environments involving networking, security, presentation, middleware, database, and integration aspects.
• Architecture design informed through use of principles, patterns, technical radars, practices and standards.
• Architecture design working with project delivery teams within agile, waterfall and hybrid environments throughout the lifecycle - from concept to go-live.
• Translating business requirements into technical solutions with traceability that can be demonstrated to stakeholders.
• Architecture design through use of architecture modelling techniques and tools to devise and represent.
• Event-based architecture design, patterns (including pub-sub and data streaming), modelling techniques, tools and standards.
• Microservice and API-led architecture and integration design tools, techniques and best practice.

If you would like to learn more about the role, please contact Mark.Harbottle@dwp.gov.uk.

Behaviours

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

• Leadership
• Working Together
• Communicating and Influencing

Technical skills

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

• Architecture communication (Expert)
• Architect for the whole Context (Practitioner)
• Community collaboration (Practitioner)
• Making Architectural Decisions (Expert)
• Strategy Design (Practitioner)
• Technical Design throughout the life cycle (Expert)

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £75,026, Department for Work and Pensions contributes £21,735 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides .

We also have a broad benefits package built around your work-life balance which includes:

• Working patterns to support work/life balance such as job sharing, term-time working, flexi-time and compressed hours.
• Generous annual leave – at least 25 days on entry, increasing up to 30 days over time (pro–rata for part time employees), plus 9 days public and privilege leave.
• Support for financial wellbeing, including interest-free season ticket loans for travel, a cycle to work scheme and an employee discount scheme.
• Health and wellbeing support including our Employee Assistance Programme for specialist advice and counselling and the opportunity to join HASSRA a first-class programme of competitions, activities and benefits for its members (subscription payable monthly).
• Family friendly policies including enhanced maternity and shared parental leave pay after 1 year’s continuous service.
• Funded learning and development to support progress in your role and career. This includes industry recognised qualifications and accreditations, coaching, mentoring and talent development programmes.
• An inclusive and diverse environment with opportunities to join professional and interpersonal networks including Women’s Network, National Race Network, National Disability Network (THRIVE) and many more.

Hybrid Working

This role may be suitable for hybrid working, which is where an employee works part of the week in their DWP office and part of the week from home. This is a voluntary, non-contractual arrangement and your office will be your contractual place of work.

If a hybrid working arrangement is suitable for the role and for you, you will normally be required to spend a minimum of 60% of your contracted working hours from your DWP office.

If you have a disability, caring responsibilities, or other circumstances that may affect your ability to meet the minimum office attendance requirement, please discuss this with us using the contact details in this advert.

Salary Information

The role is part of the Government Digital and Data profession and utilises an enhanced Government Digital and Data Pay Framework linked to capability which provides access to a Government Digital and Data allowance.

Pay for this role is £75,026 to £80,267, subject to candidate type. In addition to this, the role can attract a Government Digital and Data allowance of up to £21,667. Please see additional info below regarding candidate type. The value of allowance awarded will be based on an assessment of your skills as demonstrated in the selection process. Government Digital and Data Allowance is a discretionary non-consolidated, non-pensionable allowance.

External applicants

Pay for this role is £75,026 plus a Government Digital and Data Allowance of up to £21,667, subject to our assessment of capability at interview.

Our offer to successful candidates will be based on our assessment of your capability based on the evidence you provide at interview against the listed Technical Skills for the role. There is no negotiation at offer stage.

Internal and OGD applicants

Pay for the role is from £75,026 to £80,267, you may also be eligible for a Government Digital and Data Allowance of up to £21,667, subject to our assessment of capability at interview.

Existing Civil Servants who secure a new role on lateral transfer should maintain their current base salary.

Existing Civil Servants who gain promotion should either move to the bottom of the grade pay scale or receive a 10% increase to their base salary; whichever would be the greater.

In addition to your base salary a Government Digital and Data Allowance may be payable based on our assessment of your capability. Our offer to successful candidates will be based on the evidence you provide at interview against the listed Technical Skills for the role. There is no negotiation at offer stage.

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.

Stage 1: Application

Your application will consist of three parts:

1. A Personal Details application form.

2. Employment history - this should contain your work experience and any skills, qualifications and accomplishments relevant to the jobs you have completed based on the essential criteria.

3. Personal statement - up to 1250 words. This statement should be used to provide examples of how you meet the essential criteria listed in the Person specification.

Further details around what this will entail are listed on the application form.

Ensure that all examples provided in your statement are taken directly from your own experience and that you describe the examples in your own words. If you choose to use gen-AI to support your statement, you must follow the guidelines outlined in the Artificial intelligence and recruitment guide.

The sift panel will use the information in your employment history and personal statement to assess your experience, skills and knowledge against the essential criteria.

You will be provided with one combined overall assessment score for both your CV and Personal Statement.

For Hints and Tips on completing your application visit Applying for jobs at DWP Digital.

Applications will be sifted at regular intervals from the date the posts are advertised. Please apply as soon as you can, do not wait until the end of the campaign.

Important Information

• You will be asked to complete your employment history. Any information that you would customarily share on a CV should therefore be entered onto the application form.
• Personal details that could be used to identify you including your name, contact details and address must be removed for your application to be considered.
• If your employment history/personal statement contains any personal details your application will be withdrawn.

Stage 2: Interview 1

If you’re successful at sift stage you will be invited to a video interview via Microsoft Teams.

You will be asked to do a 10-minute presentation to further assess your experience. Your presentation should focus on the following:

Present an example of a cloud-based event-driven microservices architecture design that you’ve defined and delivered, explaining how you translated business requirements into technical solutions including your key decisions, applied architectural standards, patterns and modelling techniques, and worked with delivery teams through the full lifecycle.

You will also be assessed on the technical skill of: Architecture communication (Expert).

Stage 3: Interview 2

If you are successful at Stage 2 you will be invited to a video interview via Microsoft Teams. There, you will be assessed against the following Behaviours and Technical Skills:

Behaviours:

• Leadership
• Working Together
• Communicating and Influencing

Technical Skills:

• Architect for the whole Context (Practitioner)
• Community Collaboration (Practitioner)
• Making Architectural Decisions (Expert)
• Strategy Design (Practitioner)
• Technical Design throughout the life cycle (Expert)

For both interviews:

To help you prepare and settle into the interviews, you will be sent the interview questions in advance of the interview, at least 5 days prior to your interview. These questions should be treated as confidential and should not be shared. The interview panel may ask you other questions which will not be shared in advance, including follow-up questions, and those about your experience and abilities. Candidates may be asked further probing questions if their response is deemed to require further information to determine suitability for the role.

Candidates are strongly encouraged to secure their interview slot promptly to ensure fairness in preparation time with the questions provided in advance.

Interviews will take place from Late September 2026 onwards. Sift and Interview dates to be confirmed.

Further Information

At the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) we value diversity and inclusion and actively encourage and welcome applications from everyone, including those that are underrepresented in our workforce.

Find out more about working for DWP on the DWP Careers Hub.

Reserve List

A reserve list may be held for a period of 6 months from which further appointments can be made.

If you are placed on a reserve list but we cannot immediately offer you a post, please note:

• If you are later offered the role you applied for, in a location you have expressed a preference for, and you decline the offer or are unable to take up the post within a reasonable timeframe you will be withdrawn from the campaign and removed from the reserve list, other than in exceptional circumstances (e.g. a contractual Part Time Working Pattern cannot be accommodated in the initial role offered or in cases of serious ill health).
• If DWP makes an offer of an alternative role or location to that which you originally applied for, and you decline that offer, you will be able to remain on the reserve list.

Disability Confident Scheme

If high application volumes are received, the benchmark for candidates to proceed to the next stage may be raised. In line with our commitment to the Disability Confident Scheme (DCS), we aim to advance all candidates applying under the DCS who meet the minimum standard. However, we may only progress those candidates who best meet the required standards.

Reasonable Adjustments

We consider visible and non-visible disabilities, neurodiversity or learning differences, chronic medical conditions, or mental ill health. Examples include dyslexia, epilepsy, autism, chronic fatigue, or schizophrenia.

If you need a change to be made so that you can make your application, you should contact the Government Recruitment Service via DigitalRecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs.

Complete the “Reasonable Adjustments” 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.

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

Integrity, plagiarism and Civil Service Principles

The Civil Service values honesty and integrity and expects all candidates to abide by these principles.

Please ensure that all examples provided in your application are taken directly from your own experience and that you describe the examples in your own words.

Examples of plagiarism can include:

• Presenting the work, ideas and experience of others as your own
• Copying content or answers from an online or published source that is not your own

Disclosure and Barring Service and Internal Fraud Database Checks

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. 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.

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

Important

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

Before applying for this vacancy, current employees of DWP should check whether a successful application would result in changes to their terms & conditions of employment, e.g. mobility, pay, allowances. If you are a current employee and are successful you must be able to be released from your current post within four weeks.

Those on protected TUPE/ COSoP terms and conditions applying on promotion or voluntary permanent level move will adopt DWP’s Terms and Conditions and this may have a different impact on pay and allowances. Please review this prior to acceptance of a role.

Civil Servants that would transfer into DWP from other government organisations, following successful application, will assume DWP's terms & conditions of employment current on the day they are posted, unless DWP has stated otherwise in writing. Accepting a post will be taken to mean acceptance of revised terms & conditions.

Civil Servants applying on promotion will usually be appointed to the salary minimum or within 10% of existing salary.

Any move to DWP 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 the Childcare Choices Website.

All successful candidates and those placed on reserve will be posted in merit list order by location.

For these vacancies, we strongly recommend that applicants consult with an immigration specialist or qualified advisor to assess their eligibility for Visa Sponsorship before deciding to apply. Please note that while we consider sponsorship requests in accordance with current DWP guidance and Home Office policy, sponsorship cannot be guaranteed.

For further information on reasonable adjustments, terms and conditions and how we recruit visit the How we recruit page.

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.

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 : Mark Harbottle
• Email : Mark.Harbottle@dwp.gov.uk
• Telephone : Nehaal Chauhan

Recruitment team

• Email : digitalrecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk

Further information

Appointment to the Civil Service is governed by the Civil Service Commission’s Recruitment Principles. If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with these principles and you wish to make a complaint, you should in the first instance contact DWP by email: HR.BUSINESSASSURANCE@DWP.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 the Civil Service Commission.