Senior Technical Architect - MoD - SEO
Government Digital & Data -
Location
Norcross - Tomlinson House, FY5 3WP,
Abbey Wood North, Stoke Gifford, Bristol, South West, BS34 8QW,
Kentigern House, Glasgow, G2 3EX.
About the job
Job summary
Are you a dedicated person who is passionate about making a difference?
Would you like to work for the Ministry of Defence?
Defence Business Services (DBS) is one of the largest shared service organisations in Europe that provides a wide range of corporate services, to over 1.2 million end users, including serving and past military and families, as well as MoD civil servants and industry. DBS delivers large scale administration and smaller specialist services to enable the wider MOD to focus on its core aims, maintaining the UK’s Defence and Security. Services include Human Resources, Pay, Veterans, Finance and Procurement.
- Our Vision - To support UK defence customers with outstanding service every time.
- Our Mission – Together we will proudly support Defence, continuously improving and delivering flexible, timely, sustainable and value for money services that underpin the whole force and enhance operational capability.
DBS is committed to creating a great place to work for all our colleagues. We are building an inclusive culture and respectful environment that reflects the diversity of the society.
We want to maximise the potential of everyone who chooses to work for us through opportunities to develop your skills and experience. We also offer a range of flexible working patterns and support to make a fulfilling career accessible to you and offer a Civil Service pension with an average employer contribution of 28.97%. Where your role permits, we support a blended working approach alternatively known as hybrid working.
Where business needs allow, some roles may be suitable for a combination of office and home-based working. This is a non-contractual arrangement where all office-based employees will be expected to spend a minimum of 60% of their working time in office, subject to capacity and any required workplace adjustments. Requirements to attend other locations for official business, or work in another MOD office, will also count towards this level of attendance. Applicants can request further information regarding how this may work in their team from the Vacancy Holder (see advert for contact details). Defence Business Services cannot respond to any questions about working arrangements.
DBS has recently undertaken a review of its operational locations in the North West, and have consolidated all activities in Norcross, Blackpool. A further move, to the new Government Hub at Talbot Gateway in Blackpool, is scheduled to take place in 2027.
Come and join the DBS community today!
Job description
You will join a team in DBS Digital, Information and Technology (DIT) responsible for exploiting and administering the DBS Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) platform, in support of Civilian People business needs. Working closely with engineers, developers, other architects and the wider Civilian People Change Delivery Services, your focus will be on designing and improving the OCI platform to enable DBS to provide its Civilian People services. This includes support to the Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) technologies enabling and extending the Oracle HCM Cloud Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) HR, Payroll and Expenses system MyHR.
This role will also involve architectural oversight of a MODCloud iACE (Microsoft Azure) tenant hosting the public-facing Discover My Benefits website.
Role Specific Responsibilities
Responsible for solution designs at application, data, platform or security level (dependent on background), consisting of Infrastructure-as-a-Service, Platform-as-a-Service and Software-as-a-Service technologies providing network, integration and security views
Recommend solutions to business requirements, completing options analyses where appropriate, and balancing functional fit against cost, strategic alignment and non-functional requirements such as supportability, interoperability, scalability and reusability
Create and amend High Level Designs (HLDs), ensuring they are current and accurate, provide sufficient technical detail and explain how the MOD’s many assurance requirements (e.g. Secure-by-Design, JSP 453) are met
Represent and advocate for solutions at the Technical Design Authority (TDA), and contribute to discussions around solutions proposed by other teams
Apply robust architectural governance across Change Requests (CRs) and projects, ensuring decision logs are maintained and designs are completed and approved, whilst
also working at pace to facilitate agile delivery of proofs of concept (POCs) and minimum viable products (MVPs)
Person specification
Technology governance background:
You will have experience in a technology governance role where the ability to produce credible documentation is paramount – e.g. architect, security lead, assurance lead
You will be confident with document iteration and ideation, starting with draft documentation to invite discussion and investigation, and developing granular detail as understanding grows
Strong written and oral communication skills:
Proactive and confident in engagement with business stakeholders, customers and technical colleagues
Can clearly articulate recommendations in writing
Can lead and focus meetings with a diverse range of stakeholders
Able to persuade stakeholders to embrace recommendations where appropriate, whilst respecting their views and decisions
Technical understanding:
Able to convey technical information to non-technical stakeholders and confirm understanding of risks, issues and benefits
Working knowledge of one of the following domains: Application (APIs, SFTP, Javascript, PL/SQL, OCI APEX, Oracle Integration); Data (SQL, ETL, Oracle Database, MySQL, OCI Data Safe, Data Modelling); Infrastructure (Linux Administration, Windows Server Administration, Network Administration, Database Administration)
Awareness of cloud hosting models and the responsibility split between hosting provider and customer for SaaS, PaaS and IaaS
Behaviours
We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
- Changing and Improving
Technical skills
We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:
- DDaT - Technical design throughout the life cycle
- DDaT - Architecture Communication
- Community Collaboration
- Architect for the whole context
We only ask for evidence of these technical skills on your application form:
- DDaT - Technical design throughout the life cycle
- DDaT - Architecture Communication
