Technical Architect One Login - GDS - G7

GDS works at the very centre of government to make user-focused digital transformation happen. We build and maintain common platforms, products and tools for others to use and create great public services that are accessible, inclusive and easy to use. We also work with departments to identify patterns, share learning and create change to make government more efficient.

Our teams are organised around delivering on our priorities, which are to:

• make it easier for people to find what they are looking for on GOV.UK
• build common service platforms to make it simpler and cheaper to build quality digital services
• promote agile, user-centred design practices both in the UK and across the world

The GOV.UK One Login Programme represents a once in a generation opportunity to simplify and widen access to all digital government services. Sitting at the heart of the government, we are building one simple, safe and secure way for users to log in and prove who they are that will work across all government services.

Effective identity assurance is central to digital transformation and GOV.UK One Login enables people to prove who they are online, with the necessary level of confidence to access and use particular services. Our technology stack runs on AWS, using serverless compute and storage products. Backend services are written in TypeScript/Node.js and JVM technologies. Web applications also use TypeScript.

Job description

As a GDS Technical Architect, you’ll share the responsibility for the digital transformation of government. You’ll ensure a project’s overall technical design meets user needs and acceptance criteria, whilst conforming to time and budget constraints. You’ll thrive using agile methods and enjoy working collaboratively with departments and multidisciplinary teams. Above all, you’ll want to make government better, which may sometimes involve challenging the status quo.

As a Technical Architect, you’ll:

• design technical services or plan system integration, selecting necessary platforms and technologies to meet project requirements and user needs
• provide technical leadership and consultancy to both internal and external development teams, ensuring designs & solutions are fit for purpose, whilst meeting time and budget constraints
• build and maintain technical roadmaps, looking ahead for future opportunities or blockers, and ensuring decisions by development teams align with the strategy
• encourage communication across multiple development teams to identify strategic requirements and dependencies
• help develop services by contributing code, testing technologies and producing rapid prototypes
• be involved in the wider software engineering community, including cyber security and operations teams, identifying good practices to adopt and sharing your experiences, eg through blog posts, tech talks at conferences etc
• enable a positive technical culture, applying agile methods to development and completing quality assurance practices
• ensure delivery is aligned with the GDS Way and work with others across GDS to keep that up to date and relevant
• advise product managers on the estimated effort and technical implications of current user stories, as well as those in the backlog

Person specification

We’re interested in people who have:

• leadership of team, management of outcome
• experience leading technical teams and delivering user-focused services
• awareness and understanding of a range of tech stacks and the ability to take a balanced approach to technology selection
• strong software development and application architecture experience, with good knowledge of cloud technologies, open source technologies, testing, and at least one programming language such as Ruby, Java, Python or Javascript
• experience designing and building secure and scalable user focussed systems and an awareness of emerging security issues
• understanding of how to influence senior management and communicate with both technical and non-technical audiences
• understanding of agile environments, continual delivery techniques and devops cultures
• understanding of how governance works in agile, multidisciplinary team environments and be interest in forming government best practices, standards and policies

If you meet a few of those criteria but think that you might not meet every last one then don’t let that stop you from submitting an application.