Senior Technical Architect

Ministry of Justice; United Kingdom; Hybrid; GBP 58,000 - 74,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading government agency in the UK is seeking a Senior Technical Architect to enhance their digital services. This role involves collaborating with diverse teams and stakeholders to develop technical strategies that improve government services. Key responsibilities include mentoring, guiding architectural decisions, and advocating for an inclusive culture within the engineering community. The position supports flexible work arrangements, enabling professionals to balance personal responsibilities with their work commitments.

Qualifications

• Experience in software engineering and commercial enterprise.
• Ability to mentor and support other architects.
• Understanding of a broad range of technologies.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with Lead Technical Architect on technical vision.
• Communicate technology strategies across teams.
• Engage with senior stakeholders for technical direction.
• Create structured analysis of technical concepts.
• Advocate for diverse and inclusive engineering community.

Skills

Technical leadership

Strong communication skills

Collaboration

Technical governance

Mentorship

Job description

Overview

Senior Technical Architect

Location: National*

Closing Date: 8th February 2026

Interviews: 18th February – 26th February 2026

Grade: 7

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

Salary: London: £63,343- £78,225 (which may include an allowance up to £14,882)

National: £58,511- £73,450 (which may include an allowance up to £14,939)

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

Contract Type: Permanent

Vacancy number: 14186

*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 Senior Technical Architect here at Justice Digital, to be part of our warm and collaborative HM Prison & Probation Service.

This role aligns against the senior architect role from the Government Digital and Data Framework

Our Senior Technical Architects are responsible for assuring, designing, and delivering digital services.

You will be working with developers, Site Reliability Engineers and security experts, user researchers, product managers, designers, delivery managers, and content specialists who share a vision for improving government through smarter use of technology. You will collaborate to develop our strategy, connect people and build trust with clear communication, and provide empathetic technical leadership across diverse product teams.

Our Senior Technical Architects will work to understand our technology, our business, and our people (colleagues, stakeholders, and users of our services), and to create an ambitious and pragmatic vision for our teams, using their technical expertise to bring our challenges and opportunities into focus alongside the views of other professions in our leadership team.

A Senior Technical Architect can see the big picture, understanding our complex technology landscape, and can clearly and effectively communicate that big picture by building trust, developing great relationships, and empathising with others. They provide mentoring and support to other architects and engineering leadership in their service area, and they have a good understanding of a broad range of technologies, with experience in both software engineering and commercial enterprise, as well as providing effective governance, both within our organisation, and across our suppliers.

As a Senior Technical Architect, your days will be varied. For example, you might be creating diagrams and data flows for replacing a legacy service; working directly with developers to ensure their services are robust and secure; supporting a new delivery manager to introduce or improve ways of working; or liaising with engineering leadership to develop guardrails and patterns for use across the department.

We are looking for people who will encourage open discussion and build the architecture community within the Ministry of Justice, particularly within His Majesty's Prisons and Probation Service Digital department and Office of the CTO. You should have a mindset for growth and learning, constantly looking for emerging technologies, tools and good practice.

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.

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

Key Responsibilities

• Collaborate with the Lead Technical Architect to refine and progress technical vision for HMPPS Digital, develop our strategy and be accountable for our technology estate.
• Communicate about our technology across teams and professions, both within our Digital unit and across all parts of the Ministry of Justice; seeing the big picture and bringing it to all stakeholders.
• Collaborate and find agreement with senior stakeholders, providing both technical and non-technical direction and challenge, as well as pragmatic compromise to deliver value across your teams and the service area.
• Create structured analysis of technical concepts, providing insight for multi-disciplinary decision-making, whilst seeking opportunities to collaborate and develop patterns and guidelines for the Digital Unit.
• Guide and influence choices to align with strategy, and seek out opportunities for digital transformation, helping all understand the value of technical decisions.
• Engage with our portfolio, assurance, risk management, cyber, and information assurance leadership to ensure priorities, such as Secure by Design, are represented alongside those of the business and other digital teams.
• Advocate for a diverse, inclusive culture across the engineering community, growing awareness, inclusivity, and balance, including being a champion for increasing women and minorities in our workforce.
• Mentor, coach, line-manage, and help recruit more great technical architects and engineering leadership.

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