Senior Technical Architect

£745 a day, inside IR35, 12 months, occasional trips to London or Sheffield office.

Launchpad is the name of the laptop & services that will deliver in-cell software to promote prisoner rehabilitation and resettlement. In-cell software changes lives and can reduce reoffending, making society a safer place to live.

The team builds the Launchpad software applications which provide in-cell technology services to prisoners. This can include:

* Online Learning services

* Marshalled access to internet sites - BBC, News, self-help and rehabilitation etv

* Guides to prison life

* Access to in-prison bank accounts, Visits, activity timetable, work opportunities etc

Key Responsibilities

Work with the Principal Technical Architects to define, maintain and own the technical strategy and roadmap for services of various sizes and complexity, defining how they integrate with other services and teams, and how they evolve over time

Collaborate and find agreement with senior stakeholders, providing both technical and non-technical direction and challenge

Mentor, coach, and line manage senior and mid level technical architects

Guide technical teams, influence technical choices and seek out opportunities for digital transformation

Undertake structured evaluation of technical concepts, translating this into technical designs that describe a solution

Look for opportunities to collaborate and reuse common components, communicating with both technical and non-technical people

Assure other services and system quality, ensuring the technical work fits into the broader strategy for the agency

Align your team's work with departmental and wider government technology strategy

Support hiring, taking part in recruitment for both Technical Architects and other professions such as Software Developers

Tech Stack

Programming languages such as TypeScript/Node, Kotlin/Java.

AWS and/or Azure using infrastructure as code such as Terraform, CloudFormation, or ARM templates

Container orchestration tools such as Kubernetes.

Public GitHub repositories for our work

Modern development practices such as domain-driven design, test-driven development, continuous integration and continuous delivery

Mac laptops

plus other tools such as Prometheus, Grafana, AppInsights, GitHub Actions, CircleCI, and more

Experience in a technical/solution architecture role and can act as a recognised technical expert to guide, critique and support teams in the delivery of outcomes

Practical working knowledge of modern cloud-first architectures, and how to build applications to take advantage of the opportunities they offer

Experience of devising software architecture for multitier web solutions which typically include frontend and/or backend microservices, event-driven processing, API provision/consumption, databases, and pub/sub patterns.

Able to identify and mitigate security risks when designing and operating in a public cloud environment

Experience of architecting digital services that align to a wider technical strategy that meets business needs

Experience of making and guiding effective technical choices by understanding the trends and practices within the broader organisation

Capable of looking for deeper underlying problems and opportunities

Experience of introducing and championing best practices such as TDD, continuous integration, continuous delivery, and DevOps to teams

Translates technical concepts between multidisciplinary teams and other stakeholders so they are understood by all. Expert at mediating and mending relationships and communicating with senior stakeholders

Can act decisively and make bold, unbiased decisions. Able to clearly communicate the purpose and reasons for recommendations and decisions.

Can consult with others where necessary to ensure decisions meet the diverse needs of the end users. Clearly recommend the best option articulating risks and impacts

Ensure plans and activities in your area of work reflect wider strategic priorities and communicate effectively with senior leaders to influence future strategies

Technical leadership of teams. You have demonstrable experience of leading technical teams in the successful delivery of complex outcomes. You can work across disciplines and are able to engage with a wide range of technical professions