Technical Architect - MI5 The Security Service - SEO

Location

London

About the job

Job summary

MI5 keeps the country safe from serious threats like terrorism and attempts by states to harm the UK, its people, and its way of life. We carry out investigations by obtaining, analysing and assessing intelligence, and we work with a range of partners, including MI6 and GCHQ, to disrupt these threats. Through our protective security arm, we provide advice and guidance to government, businesses, and other organisations on how to keep themselves safe. A role in MI5 means you’ll do unique and challenging work within a supportive and encouraging environment, making a real difference to UK national security.

You’ll be working under the Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework (GDDPCF), which recognises and rewards specialist expertise. Find out more about the framework at the following link: Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework (GDDPCF).

Job description

Architecture and technology leadership are crucial to MI5’s ability to move at pace and deliver the strategic technology change we need to stay ahead. We need technology leaders to help set and deliver our ambitious technology strategy. We are moving into a product-centred organisation and, as we evolve in this direction, we need senior technologists to help us develop our capabilities, ensuring we make the best use of recent innovations in technology while also pushing these boundaries even further with our internal engineering teams. MI5 makes use of modern approaches and cloud technologies such as AWS and Azure, as well as on-premises platforms and long-established technologies and frameworks. 

The role involves leading and managing technical architecture at both the product and product-group level, including the delivery and prototyping of new, secure, scalable, and robust capabilities. It also includes owning and managing technical risk for the product groups you’re accountable for, while supporting our product teams in their technical decisions and designs. 

A key part of the role is setting the strategic direction for our products and technologies, guiding decisions on the future of products, platforms or services, and enabling the decommissioning of legacy ones. 

Working closely with engineers and senior stakeholders, you’ll ensure alignment of vision and act as a force multiplier to increase delivery pace, manage technical and compliance risk, and maintain coherence across the organisation’s wider product landscape. This helps to ensure systems work effectively together and that capability investments deliver maximum value. 

Bridging the gap between technical and non-technical stakeholders, you’ll work with a range of technical specialists, including engineers, product professionals, and senior mission stakeholders, to make decisions on risk and technology strategy. You’ll also share the collective responsibility for keeping the country safe and demonstrate a commitment to continually developing yourself and others. Providing the appropriate level of support, leadership and direction where required to aid the development and growth of others, taking various forms including coaching and mentoring across the technical community. You’ll also bring constructive challenge, respecting the views and experience of colleagues while ensuring the right approaches, guardrails, standards, policies and governance are in place across the delivery lifecycle. 

Technical architects tend to be ‘T’-shaped, meaning they maintain both broad technical knowledge and one or more technical specialism, in depth. These specialisms may include software development, data architecture, security, cloud technologies and others.

MI5’s architecture community (guild) is supportive and inclusive. It is responsible for designing and delivering real-world architectural solutions to strategic requirements from a range of business areas across the organisation and partner agencies. Whether delivering a platform for analysing data systems to support investigations, providing compliance services that ensure legal operation, or developing tools that enhance developer experience, the work presents unique and fascinating challenges. 

Due to the nature of our work, most teams are office based. Limited opportunities to work from home may be available, but these are not guaranteed and depend on the business need. 

Person specification

We’re looking for passionate technology leaders who are excited to take the initiative, be creative, and drive business change. You’ll have a technical background (e.g., data science, software engineering, or security engineering) and experience leading multiple successful product deliveries using methodologies such as agile throughout the full delivery lifecycle. 

You’ll have experience turning business problems into technical designs, including designing complex solutions and evaluating the merits of different technical and commercial options and approaches. 

You can lead the development of technology roadmaps with empowered product teams, ensuring that delivery meets the needs of the business. You’ll also ensure that their system architectures are robust, scalable, and secure, with appropriate system design and integration points (e.g. APIs) to deliver a high-quality user experience.

You bring experience in guiding and supporting less-experienced colleagues, helping to build capability and foster a collaborative, high-performing environment.

We also value your passion for continuous learning and good communication skills, as you collaborate, share ideas and experience, and produce high-quality architectural artifacts to support communication.