Solution Architect - UK Export Finance - G7

Location

Westminster, London

About the job

Job summary

The Digital Data and Technology Division provides UKEF’s DDaT operational IT services and transformational capability for the delivery of change programmes. The Division includes project and change managers, a PMO function, Business Analysts, Developers, DevOps and Enterprise Architecture. The Enterprise Architecture Team role is to develop and maintain  a framework that will assist UKEK to align our strategy, processes and technology to achieve our goals.

The Enterprise Architecture function is critical for UKEF to proactively and holistically lead enterprise responses to disruptive forces by identifying and analysing the execution of change toward desired business visions and outcomes. Enterprise Architecture enhances customer value add by presenting business and IT leaders with signature-ready recommendations to achieve agreed business outcomes.

Job description

The Solution Architect is a key member of the EA Team and is responsible for the architecture of the team’s solutions, designing, describing, and managing secure by design engineering solutions aligned with specific business problems.

The role bridges the gap between business problems and technology solutions to find the best solution to solve existing business problems. You will describe the structure, characteristics, behaviour, and other aspects of the software to non-technical project stakeholders. This will include defining features, development phases, and solution requirements. An important part of the role will be to provide specifications according to which our solutions are defined, managed, and delivered.

You will need the ability to design technical services or plan system integration, selecting and designing necessary platforms and technologies to meet project requirements and user needs. You will lead evaluation, design and analysis of CQC wide solutions and propose solution recommendations and alternatives to satisfy customer needs. You will support to the design and transition from legacy technologies/brownfield estates to modern, flexible and scalable architectures with our Enterprise Architect, encouraging communication across development teams to identify strategic requirements and dependencies in the design of the End-to-End solutions including multiple technical domains.

You will enable a positive technical culture, applying agile methods to development and completing quality assurance practices. Working closely with Business Analysts and Product managers to build the requirements and advising Product Managers on the estimated effort and technical implications of current user stories, as well as those in the backlog.

It is essential that you are positive, proactive and collaborative with a commitment to providing excellent customer service.

Person specification

The key responsibilities and deliverables for this post are working with your UKEF colleagues and customers to ensure that UKEF is able to meet evolving customer demand using a secure, scalable and  robust enterprise architecture blueprint.

The main activities of your role will be:

• Use advanced theoretical and practical skills acquired through experience, specialist training and applied research to design and deliver robust, resilient, fit-for-purpose technology designs aligned to user-needs.
• Maintain a blueprint of the implementation of components of the digital strategy including technology choices, design patterns, processes, information architecture to ensure that the component systems work together as a whole.
• Ensure appropriate controls are in place for development efforts (internal and external) to ensure compliance with architectural thinking and agreed design patterns within their sphere of influence.
• Work across the Digital function developing and assuring the solution design to meet user needs in line with business strategy and digital transformation efforts. 
• Develop a strategic and technical roadmap including architecture transition states for the implementation of new services, their integration with legacy and the decommissioning of replaced solutions.
• Through personal specialist knowledge, bring together technology, business strategy, operational resilience, user focused design and financial planning to lay out a clear blueprint and delivery plan to implement products within their sphere of influence.
• With the Data Architect, own and maintain the enterprise level conceptual, logical and physical data model for the required information systems.
• Champion and implement agile development and service design practices in line with the UKEF’s development approach and iterative user-focused development.
• Facilitate cross team working and problem solving to support organisational needs to enable UJEF to become intelligence led with understanding built on data.
• Technical liaison, working across technical and business functions, to translate business objectives and detailed functional and non-requirements in to scalable, supportable data and development practices.
• Providing expert advice and guidance to business and analytics teams, employing extensive technical knowledge, to ensure that available solutions are understood and selected appropriately given time, cost and quality expectations.
• Contribute to the design of software development standards and methodologies and ensure systems and solutions are compliant, well-designed, developed and tested.
• Ensuring solution architecture documentation is produced as per enterprise architecture standards and kept up to date at an appropriate level of detail.
• Producing the relevant papers for governance approvals as required.
• Mentor development colleagues to share knowledge and upskill staff, assisting them with personal, technical and professional development.
• Establish continuous improvement projects to constantly improve ways of working across the team and organisation using quality Improvement ideas, lean methods and peer review.
• Ensuring that third-party consulting engagements are leveraging existing assets, tools and standards and that there are clear transitions plans for IT support.
• Working across the organisation to ensure architectural disciplines, principles and standards are well understood, implemented and effectively supported to ensure consistency with the overall roadmap and enterprise architecture.
• Champion the delivery of UKEF’s agile delivery methods and practices, focussing on delivering a responsive, customer focused delivery approach.
• Engage with business colleagues across operational and strategic teams, developing and maintaining a clear understanding of UKEF’s strategic objectives and the associated Digital contribution.

Qualifications

• Relevant degree in associated Computer Science subject or equivalent experience.
• Recognised architectural qualification e.g. TOGAF, BCS.

Behaviours

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

• Seeing the Big Picture
• Changing and Improving
• Communicating and Influencing

Technical skills

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

• If you are successful following the full sift stage, you will be invited to an initial technical interview: 1. Technical - technical questions where you will be assessed across your technical expertise and acumen in relation to the essential criteria
• You will be assessed across your technical expertise and acumen, in relation to the essential criteria at the formal interview: a. Presentation - the topic will be agreed by UKEF and shared with the relevant candidates ahead of the interview