Principal Technical Architect

Location: National*

Closing Date: 28^th February

Interviews: w/c 16^th March

Grade: 6

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

Salary (for more information, please refer to the T&Cs at the bottom):

London: £75,674 - £93,025 (which may include an allowance of up to £17,351)

National: £71,381 - £88,900 (which may include an allowance of up to £17,519)

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

Contract Type: Perm

Vacancy number: 14742

*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

The Role

We’re recruiting for a Principal Technical Architect here at Justice Digital, to join the Office of the Chief Technology Officer (OCTO), working within the Chief Architect function and under the Chief Data Architect. You will provide technical architectural leadership across our data platforms, integration services and shared data capabilities, helping ensure that data can be shared securely, reliably and appropriately across the Ministry of Justice.

OCTO sets technical direction across the organisation. It defines standards, shapes shared platforms and ways of working and supports teams to build and operate systems that are secure, reliable and sustainable.

Justice Digital’s data capabilities are undergoing significant transformation as part of the MoJ Data Strategy. This includes:

• The evolution of the Justice Data Platform
• Adoption of Data as a Product and federated data ownership
• Strengthening data integration patterns across services and domains
• Improving governance, security and operational maturity across the data estate

As a Principal Technical Architect, you will ensure that the technical architecture for data and integration is coherent, scalable and aligned to wider Justice Digital strategy, enabling teams to publish, integrate and consume data safely and consistently.

We are a flexible organisation, and we understand that people can't always work 5 days a week or might have responsibilities that sometimes clash with standard office hours. We work as flexibly as we can, including offering part time hours, so if in doubt please do get in touch. If you're the right candidate we will do our best to work around you.

This role aligns against the Principal technical architect role from the Government Digital and Data Framework.

To help picture your life at MoJ Justice Digital please take a look at our blog and our Digital and Technology strategy 2025

Our Tech Stack

We use a broad range of technologies and are looking for people with strong practical experience in modern software delivery environments.

• Cloud platforms: AWS
• Infrastructure as code: Terraform
• Containerisation and orchestration: Docker, Kubernetes
• Source control and CI/CD: GitHub, GitHub Actions
• Languages: Python
• Data technologies
  • Workflow orchestration: Apache Airflow
  • Data transformation: dbt
  • Metadata, cataloguing and lineage: DataHub
  • Data access governance: AWS IAM, AWS Lake Formation
  • Development environments: Kubernetes-orchestrated development environments including VS Code, RStudio and JupyterLab

You will be supported to deepen your knowledge of our platforms once in post.

Our work is largely open source. You can explore repositories at:
https://github.com/ministryofjustice

Key Responsibilities

• Define and champion the technical architecture for data and integration across Justice Digital, working with the Chief Data Architect and Chief Architect to align with overall technology strategy.
• Provide architectural leadership across multiple programmes, platforms and delivery teams where data and integration are critical.
• Define and assure integration patterns, including APIs, event-driven architectures and data sharing mechanisms.
• Mentor, coach, and line manage lead and senior technical architects
• Oversee and guide technical teams, influence technical choices and seek out opportunities for digital transformation.
• Look for opportunities to collaborate and reuse common components, communicating with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Assure digital services built by our civil service and managed service delivery teams, ensuring system quality, and that the technical work fits into the broader strategy for the agency and department.
• Build and maintain an inclusive culture across the technical architecture community.
• Manage recruitment and allocation of technical architects to teams, identifying gaps in capability, ensuring a good balance of skills and seniority.
• Take part in Technical Design Authority, representing both the interests of Ministry of Justice and your own area of responsibility

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

Benefits

Person Specification

Essential:

• Expert knowledge of modern cloud-first architectures, and how to build applications to take advantage of the opportunities they offer.
• Experience in designing software architecture, including multi-tier web applications, micro services, API management, data persistence technologies, and event-driven architecture in public cloud environments with a strong understanding of how to design secure, scalable and easily managed access control and identity patterns as part of those systems.
• Able to identify and mitigate security risks at team and organisation level when designing and operating in a public cloud environment.
• Experience of architecting digital services that align to a wider organisational technical strategy that meets business needs.
• Ability to translate technical concepts between multidisciplinary teams and other senior stakeholders so they are understood by all.
• Expert at fostering, evolving and mending relationships and communicating with senior stakeholders.
• Demonstrable experience of leading technical teams in the successful delivery of complex outcomes, working across disciplines and a wide range of technical and non-technical professions.

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.

Six Months in – Building the Women in Engineering Working Group.

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.

How to Apply

1. Candidates must submit a CV and a Statement of Suitability (750 words max), which describes how you meet the requirements from the essential criteria, set out below:

• Expert knowledge of modern cloud-first architectures, and how to build applications to take advantage of the opportunities they offer.
• Experience in designing software architecture, including multi-tier web applications, micro services, API management, data persistence technologies, and event-driven architecture in public cloud environments with a strong understanding of how to design secure, scalable and easily managed access control and identity patterns as part of those systems.

Please note, failure to provide the documents as requested for the specific role, will result in a rejection of your application.

2. A diverse panel will review your application against the Person Specification above.
3. Successful candidates who meet the required standard will then be invited to a 1-hour panel interview held via video conference. Candidates will also be required to provide a 10-minute presentation during the interview stage. Details of the presentation will be sent across prior to interview.

Should we receive a high volume of applications, a pre-sift based on "Expert knowledge of modern cloud-first architectures, and how to build applications to take advantage of the opportunities they offer" will be conducted before the sift.

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

As a Principal Technical Architect:

• Leadership
• Seeing the Big Picture
• Making Effective Decisions

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.

Application Guidance

Please access the following link for guidance on how to apply and how to complete a Personal Statement

Application Guidance

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.

Please Note

Recruitment Process Notice
This role is being delivered in partnership with PeopleScout, our managed recruitment service provider. As part of the recruitment process, your personal data will be shared with PeopleScout for the purposes of candidate assessment, communication, and selection.
PeopleScout will process your data on behalf of the Ministry of Justice in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018. Your data will be handled securely, used only for recruitment purposes, and retained only as long as necessary.
The Ministry of Justice processes your personal data under the lawful bases of:

• Contractual necessity – to assess and progress your application,
• Legal obligation – for checks such as right to work,
• Legitimate interest – to improve recruitment processes and ensure fair selection.

You have the right to:

• Access your personal data,
• Request correction or deletion,
• Restrict or object to processing,
• Request data portability.

Your data will be retained for up to 12 months following the recruitment process or the duration of the appointment, whichever is shorter, after which it will be securely deleted.
For more information on how your data will be used and your rights under data protection law, please refer to our https://justice.gov.uk/privacy or contact the MoJ Data Protection Team at data.protection@justice.gov.uk

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