Senior Enterprise Architect

Location: National*

Closing Date: 7^th July

Interviews: w/c 20^th July

Grade: 7

(MoJ candidates who are on a specialist grade, will be able to retain this grade on lateral transfer)

Salary**: (for more information, please see below):

London: £63,343 - £78,225 (may include an allowance of up to £14,882)

National: £58,511 - £73,450 (may include an allowance of up to £14,939)

Working pattern: Full-time, part-time, flexible working

Contract Type: Permanent

Number of vacancies: 2

Vacancy number: 18986

*We offer a hybrid working model, allowing for a balance between remote work and time spent in your local office. Office locations can be found ON THIS MAP

Please note that unless you are an existing member of staff at Justice Digital, Data and Science, the only London location being recruited to is 10 South Colonnade, E14 4PU. We are no longer recruiting to 102 Petty France, SW1H 9AJ.

The Role

Please note this role requires you to pass Security Check clearance. Please click on the link for details.

We’re recruiting for Senior Enterprise Architects here at Justice Digital Data and Science, to be part of our warm and collaborative team. These roles sit within the Office of the CTO in the Ministry of Justice, which is responsible for architecture and engineering across the MoJ. We work in close collaboration with Executive Agencies, Business Units and Arm’s Length Bodies to align technology and operate platforms that support the products and services relied upon across the justice system.

As part of the newly established Enterprise Architecture function, Senior Enterprise Architects play a key role in supporting the Ministry of Justice’s strategic and transformational priorities. This is an opportunity to help embed enterprise architecture across the department and shape how architectural thinking supports effective, joined‑up delivery.

These roles operate across either the Ministry of Justice’s Executive Agencies including, HM Prisons and Probation Service (HMPPS), the Legal Aid Agency (LAA), Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA) and the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG), or across MoJ Headquarters and Corporate Landscape. You will be aligned to one or more areas, providing enterprise‑level architectural leadership that supports end‑to‑end justice outcomes across organisational boundaries.

Reporting to the Principal Enterprise Architect(s), you will work closely with senior stakeholders to translate strategic intent into clear, practical architectural direction. A core focus of the role is aligning local roadmaps with the Ministry of Justice Enterprise Target State, ensuring products and services are consistent with enterprise principles, standards and long‑term direction.

You will work hands‑on with delivery, providing guidance and assurance from discovery through to live. You will also contribute to defining enterprise‑wide target states for shared capabilities such as common platforms, services, data and integration helping teams adopt reusable capabilities and building blocks, reduce duplication and maximise value across the department. Alongside this, you will support the development of enterprise standards, communities of practice and architectural ways of working.

Who this role is for:
This role is well suited to architects who enjoy working at scale and want to broaden their impact. You may already be operating at enterprise level, or be a senior solution, technical or domain architect ready to take the next step. We are looking for people who are collaborative, curious and pragmatic, are comfortable working with complexity, able to influence across boundaries, and keen to develop their enterprise architecture capability. You do not need experience of every domain or system to succeed in this role.

This role aligns against the Senior enterprise architect role from the Government Digital and Data Framework.

You’ll receive a range of excellent benefits when you join our department, including:

• A generous employer pension contribution of 28.97% through the Civil Service Pension Scheme.
• 25 days of annual leave, (increasing to 30 days once you have reached 5 years of service), plus 8 bank holidays and a privilege day for the King’s birthday.
• Flexible working arrangements including hybrid working, working part time or compressed hours. Designed to support a positive work–life balance.
• Employees are allocated 10% of their working time for personal and professional development.
• A £1k per person learning budget is in place to support all our people, with access to best-in-class conferences and seminars, accreditation with professional bodies, fully funded vocational programmes and e-learning platforms.
• Compassionate maternity, adoption, and shared parental leave policies, with up to 26 weeks leave at full pay, 13 weeks with partial pay, and 13 weeks further leave. And maternity support/paternity leave at full pay for 2 weeks, too!

You can find more details of the Benefits we offer here. To help picture your life at MoJ Justice Digital, Data and Science please take a look at our blog.

Key Responsibilities

You will:

• Provide enterprise architecture leadership across one or more portfolios, programmes or domains within either MoJ Executive Agencies or MoJ HQ / Corporate, working across organisational and delivery boundaries.
• Align Executive Agency and MoJ HQ / Corporate strategies and roadmaps with the Ministry of Justice Enterprise Target State, ensuring coherence with enterprise architecture direction and priorities.
• Define and evolve enterprise‑wide target states for shared and central capabilities, including common platforms, services, data and integration, promoting reuse and reducing duplication, complexity and technical debt.
• Contribute to the establishment and ongoing development of the Architecture Hub within the Office of the CTO, helping to shape ways of working, governance, artefacts, and engagement models.
• Actively contribute to, and make effective use of, the Enterprise Architecture Knowledge Base to capture architectural decisions, target states, standards, patterns and roadmaps in a transparent and reusable way
• Define, apply and assure enterprise architecture standards, principles and reference architectures, supporting teams to adopt them in a pragmatic and proportionate way.
• Act as a trusted architectural advisor to senior stakeholders, using architectural methods to communicate a clear view of the wider enterprise and influence key decisions.
• Actively contribute to the architecture community within MoJ, sharing knowledge and good practice.

If this feels like an exciting challenge, something you are enthusiastic about, and want to join our team please read on and apply!

Person Specification

Essential:

• Ability to translate strategic objectives, policy intent, and business outcomes into clear, practical enterprise‑level architectural direction that supports delivery teams.
• Proven experience designing, assuring and documenting complex architectures across one or more portfolios or domains, using enterprise architecture tools and techniques.
• Experience defining, applying and evolving architecture standards, principles or reference architectures, and supporting teams to adopt them pragmatically.
• Ability to identify architectural risks, dependencies and technical debt across complex environments, and propose proportionate mitigation strategies.
• Strong systems‑thinking skills, with the ability to understand and communicate dependencies, constraints and trade‑offs across organisational and technical boundaries.
• Experience working with a wide range of stakeholders, including senior leaders, product managers, engineers and operational teams, to influence decisions and balance competing priorities.
• Excellent communication and influencing skills, with the ability to explain complex architectural concepts clearly to technical and non‑technical audiences.

Willingness to be assessed against the requirements for SC clearance.

We welcome the unique contribution diverse applicants bring and do not discriminate based on culture, ethnicity, race, nationality or national origin, age, sex, gender identity or expression, religion or belief, disability status, sexual orientation, educational or social background or any other factor.

Our values are Purpose, Humanity Openness and Together. Find out more here about how we celebrate diversity and an inclusive culture in our workplace.

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan and the Civil Service D&I Strategy.

Salary Information**

Base salary for this role is from £58,511 to £65,329 (National) or from £63,343 to £70,725 (London).

• New entrants to the Civil Service joining the MoJ are expected to start at the minimum of the pay band.
• Existing Civil Servants moving on a level transfer will retain their current base salary or move to the minimum of the pay band for the role, whichever is higher.
• Existing Civil Servants who are promoted will either move to the bottom of the new grade’s pay band or receive a 10% uplift, whichever provides the greater increase.
• Candidates may also be eligible for a non‑pensionable Government Digital & Data Allowance of up to £14,882 per year (London) or £14,939 (National). This is a temporary allowance, reviewed annually and may be retained, amended, or withdrawn.

The final offer will reflect the skills and experience you demonstrate during the assessment process.

How to Apply

In Justice Digital, Data and Science, we recruit using a combination of the Government Digital and Data Profession Capability and Success Profiles Frameworks. We shall assess a combination of your Experience, Technical skills and Behaviours during the assessment process.

Stage 1 - Application and sift:

To apply for this position, you must submit the following as part of your application:

• A CV detailing your career history (including any relevant qualifications). Your CV will be assessed against the essential criteria outlined within the Person Specification of this advert.
• A Personal Statement (no more than 750 words) which should outline your experience and skills, giving clear examples of work undertaken. It should specifically address the following 3 criteria listed below, using a separate paragraph for each.
• Ability to translate strategic objectives, policy intent, and business outcomes into clear, practical enterprise‑level architectural direction that supports delivery teams.
• Proven experience designing, assuring and documenting complex architectures across one or more portfolios or domains, using enterprise architecture tools and techniques.
• Experience working with a wide range of stakeholders, including senior leaders, product managers, engineers and operational teams, to influence decisions and balance competing priorities.

A diverse sift panel will review the information in your CV and Personal Statement to assess the sift criteria specified above. We operate an anonymous shortlisting process. Please ensure your CV and Personal Statement do not include your name or any other identifying details.

Should we receive a high volume of applications, a pre-sift based on “Proven experience designing, assuring and documenting complex architectures across one or more portfolios or domains, using enterprise architecture tools and techniques” will be conducted before the sift.

Please access the following link for guidance on how to apply - Application Guidance

Stage 2 - Interviews:

Successful candidates who meet the required standard will then be invited to a panel interview held via Microsoft Teams. At interview stage, you will be assessed against the following Success Profile elements - Experience, Technical and the following Behaviours:

• Seeing the Big Picture
• Working Together
• Communicating and Influencing

As part of your interview, you will be asked to deliver a presentation that assesses “Proven experience designing, assuring and documenting complex architectures across one or more portfolios or domains, using enterprise architecture tools and techniques” and “Experience defining, applying and evolving architecture standards, principles or reference architectures, and supporting teams to adopt them pragmatically”. Further details will be provided if successful at sift.

Appointments are made strictly in merit order. In the event that two or more candidates receive identical interview scores, the lead behaviour Seeing the Big Picture will be applied as the primary lead criterion to determine the final merit order.

Should you be unsuccessful in the role that you have applied for but demonstrate the capability for a role at a lower level, we reserve the right to discuss this opportunity with you and offer you the position without needing a further application.

A reserve list may be held for up to 12 months, from which further appointments may be made.

Use of Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Terms & Conditions

Please review our Terms and Conditions which set out how we recruit and provide further information related to the role and salary arrangements.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact digitalanddatarecruitment@justice.gov.uk