74233 - Technical Architect
We encourage applications from people from all backgrounds and aim to have a workforce that represents the wider society that we serve. We pride ourselves on being an employer of choice. We champion diversity, inclusion and wellbeing and aim to create a workplace where everyone feels valued and a sense of belonging. To find out more about how we do this visit: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ministry-of-justice/about/equality-and-diversity.
Technical Architect Location: National*
Closing Date: 31st May 2023
Interviews: Multiple 1 stage interviews expected on the following dates: May: 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th, 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th, 23rd, 24th, 25th, 30th, 31st & June: 1st, 2nd, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th.
Grade: Grade 7
(MoJ candidates who are on a specialist grade, will be able to retain this grade on lateral transfer)
Salary: London: £55,720 - £73,875 which may include an allowance up to £12,685 National: £51,767 - £69,150 which may include an allowance up to £12,298
Working pattern: Full time/ Part time/ Flexible working Contract Type: Perm
Vacancy number: 74233
*We are currently offering hybrid working which includes 2 days per week in your local office. Office locations can be found
The Role
We’re recruiting for Technical Architects here at J ustice Digital, to be part of our warm and collaborative Justice Digital teams, including our public facing teams:
Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority, HM Prison & Probation Service, Legal Aid
Agency, Office of the Public Guardian, Youth Justice Board, and our internal facing teams: Central Digital, and Platforms and Architecture.
As a Technical Architect, you’ll work as part of core multidisciplinary teams delivering innovative services for use by the public or teams across the Ministry of Justice.
Technical Architects can act as a technical product owner, developing short, medium, and long term strategies for services within Justice Digital. You’ll also be designing and delivering digital services that make a genuine difference to people’s lives, alongside championing the adoption of emerging technologies.
At Justice Digital, you’ll be working on our acclaimed open-source public services, with user needs at the heart of everything we do, helping us to transform government for the future.
We’re hiring Technical Architects for multiple teams within Justice Digital. As part of your application, please indicate which team you’re interested in (if any). If you’re not sure about which team, we’re happy to talk more about what each team does to find
the right fit for you; and if you don’t tick all the boxes, we encourage you to apply as we will proactively help you learn our technology landscape.
To help picture your life at MoJ Justice Digital please take a look at our blog and our
Key Responsibilities:
As a Technical Architect in Justice Digital, you will:
- Work with more senior Technical Architects to define, maintain, and champion a technical strategy
- 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
- Support transforming government into a more agile organisation by helping embed modern development practices
- Guide technical teams, influence technical choices and seek out opportunities for digital transformation
- Align your teams work with departmental and wider government’s technology strategy
- Support hiring, taking part in recruitment for both Technical Architects and other professions such as developers
If this feels like an exciting opportunity, something you are enthusiastic about, and want to join our team please read on and apply!
Benefits
- 37 hours per week and flexible working options including working from home, working part-time, job sharing, or working compressed hours.
- We are committed to nurturing our staff and provide lots of training and development opportunities with learning platforms such as: Linux Academy, O’Reilly, Pluralsight, Microsoft Learning, Civil Service Learning
- 10% dedicated time to learning and development with a budget of £1000 a year per person
- Generous civil service pension based on defined benefit scheme, with employer contributions of 26-30% depending on
- 25 days leave (plus bank holidays) and 1 privilege day usually taken around the Kings’
- 5 additional days of leave once you have reached 5 years of service.
- Option to buy or sell annual leave
- 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!
- Wellbeing support including access to the Calm
- Nurturing professional and interpersonal networks including those for Careers & Childcare, Gender Equality, PROUD and SPIRIT
- Bike loans up to £2500 and secure bike parking (subject to availability and location)
- Season ticket loans, childcare vouchers and eye-care vouchers.
- 5 days volunteering paid leave.
- Free membership to BCS, the Chartered Institute for
- Some offices may have a subsidised onsite
Person Specification
Across Justice Digital, we use a variety of technologies, and we don’t expect anyone to be an expert in anything, or have an engineering background. If you don’t feel like you meet all of the below, we still encourage you to apply as we will proactively help you learn our technical landscape.
Teams typically use:
- Programming languages such as TypeScript, Kotlin, Java, Go, Ruby, Python, PHP, or js
- AWS and Azure using infrastructure as code such as Terraform, CloudFormation, or ARM templates
- Container orchestration tools like Kubernetes or Fargate
- 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
Essential:
- Experience of making and guiding effective technical decisions by understanding the whole context
- Experience applying and supporting a technical strategy that meets business needs
- Some experience of communicating technical detail to non-technical stakeholders
- Enjoy learning and helping others
- Hold yourself and others to a high standard
- Solve problems in a systematic way
- Have experience working in a fast paced, agile environment Willingness to be assessed against the requirements for BPSS clearance
We welcome the unique contribution diverse applicants bring and do not discriminate on the basis of 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.
How to Apply
Candidates must submit CV which describes how you meet the requirements set out in the Person Specification above.
In Justice Digital, we recruit using a combination of the Digital, Data and
Technology Capability and Success Profiles Frameworks. We will assess your Experience, Technical Skills and the following Behaviours during the assessment process:
- Making effective decisions
- Communicating and influencing
Your application will be reviewed against the Person Specification above by a diverse panel.
Successful candidates who meet the required standard will then be invited to a 90 minute panel interview held via video conference, consisting of a 45-minute STAR interview and a 45-minute technical exercise.
Should we receive a high volume of applications, a pre-sift will be conducted prior to the sift, based on awareness, or experience of modern software development practices such as containerisation, observability & test driven development.
Terms & Conditions
Please review our Terms & Conditions which set out the way we recruit and provide further information related to the role and salary arrangements.
If you have any questions please feel free to contact
DDaT Allowance
London: Up to £12,685
National: Up to £12,298
31/05/2023, 23:55 hours.
To apply for roles in MOJ you will need to confirm your employment history for at least 3 years prior to the date of application so that pre-employment checks (BPSS) can be undertaken. If you have spent significant time abroad (a total of 6 months in the past 3 years) you would be required to give a reasonable account of the reasons why.
For some roles you will be required to successfully complete National Security Vetting at Counter Terrorism (CTC), Security Clearance (SC) or Developed Vetting (DV) level as a condition of appointment. To meet CTC/SC/DV requirements you will normally need to have been resident in the UK for at least 3/5/10 years prior to the date of application (The level of checks that are required are stated in the advert).
If you do not meet the above requirements, you may still be considered if, for example:
- You've been serving overseas with HM Forces or in some other official capacity as a representative of HM Government
- You were studying abroad
- You were living overseas with parents
In such cases you will need to be able to provide referee cover for the period(s) of residence overseas. The duration of overseas residence and the country of abode will also be taken into account.
Success Profiles will enable a fairer and more inclusive method of recruitment by enabling us to assess the range of experiences, abilities, strengths, behaviours and technical/professional skills required for different roles. This flexible approach to recruitment focuses more on finding the right candidate for the specific role. To find out more about Success Profiles to support your application please click here for further guidance.
We have provided detail of the assessment stages and areas being assessed to help you prepare for completing your application form, and to advise of what will be assessed following this, if you successfully pass the application stage.
Application form stage assessments
Interview stage assessments
A Great Place to Work for Veterans
The "Making the Civil Service a Great Place to work for veterans" initiative includes a guaranteed interview scheme to those who meet the minimum criteria to provide eligible former members of the Armed Forces with opportunities to secure rewarding jobs. Allowing veterans to continue to serve their country, and to bring highly skilled individuals with a broad range of experience into the Civil Service in an environment, which recognises and values your previous service in the Armed Forces.
For further details about the initiative and eligibility requirements visit : https://www.gov.uk/government/news/making-the-civil-service-a-great-place-to-work-for-veterans
Redeployment Interview Scheme
Civil Service departments are expected to explore redeployment opportunities before making an individual redundant. The MoJ are committed, as part of the Redeployment Interview Scheme, to providing opportunities to those who are 'at risk of redundancy'.
MoJ are able to offer an interview to eligible candidates who meet the minimum selection criteria, except in a limited number of campaigns. Candidate's will not be eligible for the Redeployment Interview Scheme if they are applying on promotion.
This job is broadly open to the following groups:
· UK nationals
· nationals of the Republic of Ireland
· nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
· nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window) https://www.gov.uk/settled-status-eu-citizens-families
· nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
· individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
· Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service
Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window) https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nationality-rules
This Vacancy is closed to applications.