Chief Infrastructure Architect - HMRC - SCS1

Location

Bristol, Cardiff, East Kilbride, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Manchester, Stratford, Telford, Worthing

About the job

Job summary

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) is the UK’s tax service. We’re one of the largest organisations in the country, with more than 60,000 employees, and we collected £829.4 billion in tax receipts in 2023-24.

The Chief Infrastructure Architecture role sits within the CT&DO (Chief Technology & Design Office) of CDIO. This is a key leadership role in CDIO to lead Infrastructure capability, technology and processes as the Department is aligned to a new Transformation function in HMRC.

The Chief Architect is accountable for enhancing, validating and delivering the architecture Strategy, designing technical services, and platforms and technologies to meet the organisation’s requirements and user needs.

He/she will inspire, advise, and support an appropriately knowledgeable and skilled architecture team, ensuring that they are fulfilling their deliverables on time and to a high level of quality.  They also make sure that the technical, delivery and business impacts of all architectural design decisions are aligned to the technology strategy and understood by the appropriate stakeholders.

Job description

Key Responsibilities include:

Leadership and Direction:

• Work with the Senior Leadership Teams (SLTs) of the relevant Director General to provide leadership and direction in aligning business and technology architecture
• Drive the alignment of business and technology architecture to ensure cohesive and effective strategic change.

Strategic Understanding and Translation:

• Gain a deep understanding of relevant operational and policy strategies.
• Translate these strategies into effective IT changes that support HMRC’s goals.

Influence and Improvement:

• Understand and influence operational and policy strategies to promote improved processes.
• Develop appropriate IT Strategy responses to ensure alignment with HMRC’s objectives.

Validation and Alignment:

• Validate that HMRC’s IT Strategy remains aligned with the appropriate operational and policy strategies.
• Provide an improved business context to support the development of application architecture.
• Identification and Reuse of Services: Increase the identification and reuse of common services to enhance efficiency and reduce redundancy.

Cross-Government Engagement:

• Engage with other IT Leaders and the wider government community to develop a cross-government perspective for domain areas.
• Ensure HMRC interests are represented and opportunities for HMRC are exploited.

Effective Business Change:

• Support the delivery of more effective business change by leveraging IT architecture to drive strategic initiatives.

Person specification

The successful applicant will need to demonstrate relevant experience and effective delivery of the following essential criteria:

Proven Leadership and Stakeholder Engagement:

• A strong leader and manager with a successful track record of building and leading high-performing technical IT teams, driving cultural change, and influencing senior stakeholders across internal and external environments. Able to communicate complex technical issues clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences.

Extensive Infrastructure Architecture Expertise:

• Demonstrable experience in all aspects of Infrastructure Architecture, including End User Computing, Hosting and Storage, Networks, Cloud Computing (e.g. AWS, Azure), and IT Service Management. Strong understanding of commercial cloud environments, development methodologies, and disaster recovery.

Strategic Direction and Governance:

• Accountable for the design, delivery, and promotion of infrastructure architecture principles, standards, and roadmaps. Experienced in technology selection, architectural governance, and expertise in supporting initiatives in application architecture and integration.

Hands-on Technical and Delivery Experience:

• Skilled in the technical implementation of IT infrastructure projects, with experience working alongside outsourced service providers and IT service delivery teams. Proven ability to lead teams of infrastructure and enterprise architects.

Certifications and Technical Breadth:

• Ideally TOGAF 9/10 certified or able to demonstrate equivalent experience. Familiarity with SAP, Oracle, and a broad range of infrastructure technologies including databases, middleware, security, and cross-functional services.