Lead Enterprise Architect

DWP Digital; Birmingham; Hybrid; GBP 91,000 - 111,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid working

Flexible hours

Great work life balance

Pension contributions 28.97%

Job summary

DWP Digital is seeking an experienced Lead Enterprise Architect to shape the future of our data-centric estate in the UK. You will provide strategic direction on enterprise data architecture, governance, and emerging technologies across government services.

You will influence senior leaders and product teams, guiding data platforms, cloud ecosystems and AI readiness while ensuring architecture delivers business outcomes and supports innovation. This role offers hybrid working and competitive pay.

Qualifications

• Experience delivering enterprise-scale IT architecture for large, high-volume environments.

Responsibilities

• Shape enterprise architecture, data strategy and technology direction.
• Lead architectural governance for effective decision making.
• Develop reference architectures, standards and guidance for peers.
• Communicate concrete architectures and reference patterns to diverse audiences.
• Advise on product selections and high-impact technology choices.

Skills

Enterprise scale architecture

Audience communication

Architectural governance

Reference architectures

Architecture modelling

Data modelling & lifecycle

Relational & NoSQL databases

ETL/ELT tools

Tools

AWS Glue

Informatica

Talend

Apache NiFi

Job description

Pay up to £100,886, plus 28.97% employer pension contributions, hybrid working, flexible hours, and great work life balance.

DWP. Digital with Purpose.

DWP Digital is looking for an experienced Lead Enterprise Architect with deep expertise in enterprise data architecture to help shape the future of one of the UK's largest and most complex digital estates.

DWP Digital is transforming how we use technology and data to deliver better outcomes for millions of people.

This is an opportunity to shape the enterprise architecture, data strategy and technology direction that underpins services relied upon by millions of citizens every day.

You and your role

You'll provide insight, challenge and leadership on some of the most significant data and technology decisions in government, helping teams navigate complexity and align with enterprise strategy.

This role combines strategic influence with deep technical credibility. As a trusted advisor across DWP, you'll shape solutions spanning operational services, enterprise platforms and emerging technologies, ensuring data architecture delivers business outcomes while enabling future innovation.

From cloud-based data ecosystems and modern data platforms to governance, resilience and AI readiness, you'll help define the future direction of DWP's digital and data capabilities.

You'll join a highly influential architecture community and play a key role in developing enterprise standards, reference architectures and design patterns that support critical national services.

Working closely with senior leaders, architects and product teams, you'll influence major transformation programmes and help shape the long‑term technology and data strategy of one of the UK's largest and most complex organisations.

What skills, knowledge and experience will you need?

• Leading the enterprise scale architecture and design of business-critical IT projects/services in a large, high volume and complex organisation. Includes evidence of responsibility for architecting 'eco-systems' of products as well as individual products. Advising on high impact technology choices and product selections.
• Presenting to large and varied technical and non‑technical audiences both within the organisation, across government and externally.
• Leading on architectural governance activities to enable effective management and architectural decision making.
• Experience of developing reference architectures including architectural principals, patterns, standards and guidance and communicating this to an audience of peers.
• Using architecture design and modelling techniques, patterns, tools and standards to clearly communicate concrete architectures and reference patterns.
• Experience of data modelling, database schema design, normalization, indexing, partitioning, sharding, replication, data quality assessment and data lifecycle management.
• Experience of selecting and using database technologies, including relational databases (e.g., Oracle, SQL Server, MySQL), NoSQL databases (e.g., MongoDB, DocumentDB, Cassandra, Couchbase) and other database type (Graph, Ledger, Vector).
• Experience of different data transfer and transformation Extract, Transform, Load (ETL, ELT) tools and processes (e.g., AWS Glue, Informatica, Talend, Apache NiFi) in modern data platforms.

Location: You'll join us in one of our brilliant digital hubs in Birmingham, Blackpool, Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle or Sheffield, whichever is most convenient for you.

Hybrid Working: We work a hybrid model - you'll spend some time working at home and some time collaborating face to face in a hub.

Pay: We offer competitive pay of up to £100,886. That's a base salary of £76,339 and Government Digital and Data Allowance of up to £24,527.

Pension: You'll get a brilliant civil service pension with employer contributions worth 28.97%.

Holidays: A generous leave package starting at 26 days rising to 31 days over time.

You can also take up to 3 extra days off a month on flexi‑time. You'll also get all the usual public holidays.

We have a broad benefits package built around your work‑life balance which includes:

• Flexible working including flexible hours and flex‑friendly policies
• Time off volunteering and charitable giving
• Bring your authentic self to work with 'I Can Be Me in DWP'
• Discounts and savings on shopping, fun days out and more
• Interest‑free loans to buy a bike or a season ticket, so it's even easier for you to get to work and start making a difference
• Sports and social activities
• Professional development, coaching, mentoring and career progression opportunities.

And we have an award‑winning environment and culture:

• DWP have been recognised as 2024 Diversity Employer of the Year at the Computing Women in Tech Excellence awards
• Diverse and Inclusive Leadership at Digital Leaders Awards 2024
• Commended as Best Place to Work in Digital category in the Computing Digital Technology Leaders awards 2025
• Recognised as one of the Best Public Sector Employers at 2025 Women In Tech Employer Awards

Process

We know your time is valuable so our application and selection process is just two stages:

Interview: a single stage interview online.