Lead Technical Architect Full Time

REED Talent Solutions

Money & Pensions ServiceLondon (on site once a week)Up to £95,000Permanent, full-time

The Purpose of the Role

PDP is seeking a Lead Technical Architect to cover Solution, Identity and Integration Architecture.

This client-side role spans the entire life cycle: the programme has developed requirements and an architecture and is currently in a development and incremental delivery to operation. There will be at least two more major design and build phases before on-going maintenance and enhancement phases. The role covers requirements, design, deployment and operational assurance.

The Lead Architect assumes responsibility for the ecosystem technology architecture, and leads all aspects of PDP’s client-side technical team, working with suppliers to define and assure the solution architecture, design, build and test through to implementation, and operations.

As the role holder, to deliver the service outcomes for the public, you will:

• Manage suppliers of the technical solution across its life cycle of design, development, operational service and ongoing enhancement
• Provide critical, high level and far reaching contributions to the programme design authority
• Enhance and iterate open standards for technical integration, eco-system operation and security, technical and business trust frameworks
• Work with stakeholders across the ecosystem to determine requirements and resolve integration and interoperation issues
• Contribute to the Pension Dashboard’s Governance and Trust Frameworks on technical and design matters
• Create technical solutions and resolve issues with the supplier teams
• Assure all technical programme products
• Lead technical teams (security architect, business and risk analysts, testers, assurers)
• Coordinate with other client-side roles to determine the programme’s approach to architecture, design and technical delivery issues
• Ensure integration and interoperation with an external federated identity service which meets the needs of the working age public
• Lead and assure integration with third party products across the connected organisations (i.e. dashboards provided by both many commercial providers and by MaPS in a separate project, and the hundreds of pension data provider endpoints)
• Provide architecture and technical support as the service it is rolled out across many connected organisations
• You will constantly demonstrate extensive practical technical and business experience in working across organisational boundaries with suppliers and stakeholders.

Key Accountabilities

• Manage all architectural and technical aspects of the solutions delivery, working with industry subject matter experts, user researchers, product owners and suppliers to the programme.
• Create and manage the application of technology related policies, standards and processes and their continued assurance
• Own the technical roadmap, strategy, technical standards, technical architecture, design and delivery of the ecosystem architecture
• Working with stakeholders, map and own a view of the technical landscape associated with all parties: users, dashboard operators, pension data providers, encompassing the whole life-cycle from architecture through implementation to onboarding of ecosystem participants.
• Provide risk management (technical, delivery and security risks) and technical assurance of all stages of the lifecycle.
• Develop test scenarios and oversee assurance teams (across suppliers and organisations)
• Support the Design Authority and Assurance processes and manage project change requests.
• Evaluate improvements to the system during and after staging launches.
• Lead the technical team, especially the client-side technology team, in collaboration with their supplier-side counterparts, to ensure a holistic and assurable architecture, design, delivery and operational vision and plan.
• Assure all technical artefacts as the client-side Technical Authority
• Communicate the architecture, design, solution and technical operations appropriately to all stakeholder groups.

Skills & Experience

• Technical skills in large scale open data/open banking/regulatory programme, APIs, interfaces, messaging and cloud platforms possibly in the Financial Services industry.
• Strong understanding and expertise in solution and integration architecture, designs and concepts which include enterprise software solutions, web services, monitoring and integration technologies
• Expertise in open standards related to API design and authentication, and authorisation, OAuth2, JSON, data payload representation and transformation
• Expertise in open standards of identity proofing and authentication (e.g. GPG45, GPG44, KYC/AML, Open ID Connect), preferably have experience of User Managed Access 2 (UMA2), token design, protocol design and profiling
• Experience of distributed service design across organisational boundaries, inter-organisational integration patterns and solution test and delivery.
• Experience of cloud based open standard and open-source deliveries (cloud native architecture, continuous integration/test/delivery)
• Demonstrable appreciation of risk and security issues of large-scale public internet facing services managing sensitive personal data, directing the work of, and taking advice from, Security Architect and Security Risk Analysts
• Demonstrable experience of working as the authoritative architect on bids and programmes of work (on either client or supplier side) preferably in a government procurement context
• Ability to present complex technical information to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• An in-depth understanding of the challenges faced throughout the technology lifecycle, essentially including inter-organisation integration programmes
• Practical understanding of technology development governance principles, and project governance principles.
• It is likely that you have over 10 years of experience as an architect, achieving Lead or Principal Architect status, at least SFIA level 5, preferably level 6.