Solution Architect

Solution Architect
Permanent (Hybrid working)
£52,120 to £58,540
*Additional DDaT skills supplement paid up to £17,880
UK based

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About DEFRA:

DEFRA is the UK government department responsible for safeguarding our natural environment, supporting our world-leading food and farming industry, and sustaining a thriving rural economy. Our broad remit means we play a major role in people's day-to- day life, from the food we eat, and the air we breathe, to the water we drink.

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Role Summary:

In DEFRA you will work with projects and programmes of all scales to deliver end-to-end infrastructure Solution Architectures and implement designs based on requirements, strategic drivers, best practice, and guidance. This will take the form of a mixture of business as usual and project work focussed on the Microsoft 365 platform.

Working as a Solution Architect at DEFRA means supporting delivery of digital services that handle some of the most pressing issues our society faces, including climate change, sustainability, biodiversity and farming. It's work with real-world impact!

DEFRA plays a crucial role in protecting and defending against flooding in England. The Delivery Architecture roles in the team delivers new improved services to help with Infrastructure and Maintenance, Planning and Prevention.

In this role you will work across multiple projects or teams on problems that require broad architectural thinking to ensure delivery of end to end Solution Architectures and implemented designs based on requirements, strategic drivers, best practices and guidance. These projects will be high profile and high value, spanning DEFRA bodies and partner organisations being highly visible to the public

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Responsibilities:

· Design logical and physical components of Solution Architectures that will enable the delivery of the required business outcome and service.

· Assure the work of other colleagues and suppliers, challenging and escalating when necessary. Provide mentoring within teams and provide leadership by exemplifying architectural best practice to other architects.

· Creation of appropriate formal architecture products for (amongst other activities) product selection, options and impact assessment to validate or solution choices, enable traceability and provide corporate knowledge for ongoing support efforts.

· Coordinate the efforts of specialist colleagues (such as security and networks) to contribute to end to end service designs ensuring quality and coherence throughout the solution layers.

· Work with project managers and service owners to provide whole life costing for the components of the architecture in order to select best value approaches and inform the organization as to the economy of their solutions estate.

· Support technical and architectural requirements capture, design and assurance including injection of architectural stories into backlogs.

· Identification and management of "technical debt" items including justification and exception seeking for initial adoption and exit plan for future remediation.

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Experience required:

· Significant experience of complex IT programme architecture involving dependency management and multi-supplier deliveries in an applications or solutions architecture capacity.

· A practical understanding of architectural models of application and solution delivery and also of delivery methodologies and ways of working.

· Strong hands-on experience and knowledge of at least one solutions stack or product ecosystem coupled with a broad understanding of the range of application technologies which may be selected from to deliver required capabilities.

· An understanding of the technical implications of delivering to both on premise infrastructure and cloud (or hybrid) environments and an understanding of the associated economics.

· Demonstrate the ability to identify areas where specialist input is required and to coordinate the required resources and consider their advice and input constructively in the broader context of a defined solution.

· Extensive experience of creating architectural roadmaps, estimating and contributing to project planning, development of business cases, dependency and risk maps from a technical perspective.

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Benefits

We can offer an array of benefits including (but not limited to):

· 25 days’ leave (rising to 30 days over 5 years) plus bank holidays

· A Civil Service pension with an average employer contribution of 27% (worth a minimum of £14,685 per year)

· Access to a range of retail discounts (including supermarkets, tech, gyms, holidays, phones and much more)

· Flexible working options such as condensed hours, part-time and flexi time

· 3 paid volunteering days per year

· Funding for professional membership of a recognised professional body

· Learning and development tailored to your role and budget for training or qualifications

· 24/7 Employee Assistance Programme 24/7

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Application process:

As part of the application process, you will be assessed on your Experience and will be asked to complete:

• A CV
• A 500-word personal statement:"Referring to the 'responsibilities and 'skills and experience' sections of the job advert, please demonstrate how you are suitable for the role by providing relevant examples."

To apply, please submit a CV and Cover Letter, one of our talent partners will review your application and if suitable, will arrange to discuss the role in more detail. You will also be provided with guidance on how to complete your application / next steps.

DEFRA is an equal opportunity employer. We value diversity and welcome applications from all backgrounds. Please note this post requires Security Check (SC) clearance. To gain (SC) clearance all applicants are required to have been a UK resident for a minimum of 5 years. If this requirement is not met, the individual will not be able to progress their application further.