Senior Enterprise Architect

Crown Commercial Service; Liverpool; Hybrid; GBP 60,000 - 69,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary

Generous pension scheme

Discretionary bonus

Remote working

Flexi time

25 days annual leave

Job summary

Crown Commercial Service in the United Kingdom seeks a Senior Enterprise Architect to shape the national digital estate and translate strategy into resilient roadmaps. You will lead architecture governance across major programs, balancing speed, cost and quality to maximise public value.

You will mentor a small team, collaborate with business and delivery partners, and set guardrails for Secure by Design and Data First across the organisation.

Qualifications

• Enterprise Architecture & Roadmap Delivery: proven ability to convert strategies into TSA blueprints.
• Strategic Governance & Assurance: experience leading an Architecture Review Board and defining principles.
• Risk & Technical Debt Management: identify risks and secure investment to remediate debt.
• Executive Stakeholder Communication: translate complex problems into executive views for boards.
• Leadership & Technical Mentorship: lead and develop architecture teams with governance guardrails.

Responsibilities

• Strategic Vision & Roadmap Delivery: convert the annual plan into a TSA blueprint and manage transition roadmaps.
• Governance & Assurance Leadership: act as the technical voice on ARB and oversee Front Door reviews.
• Investment & Technical Debt Management: allocate remediation budgets (15–20%) for debt.
• Senior Leadership Communication: maintain Level Zero Architecture Map for Board decisions.
• Blueprinting & Business Alignment: partner with Business Architecture to map goals to tech capabilities.
• Technical Standards & Principles: enforce Secure by Design and Data First principles.
• Strategic Consultancy & Mentorship: provide Architecture‑as‑a‑Service and mentor up to 2 architects.
• Architectural Steering & High‑Level Design: author steer papers and develop HLDs for major initiatives.

Skills

Enterprise Architecture

Roadmap Delivery

Governance & Assurance

Risk & Technical Debt

Executive Communication

Leadership & Mentorship

Job description

Job description Job Title: Senior Enterprise Architect Band: Band 5 Salary: £59,877 - £69,457 (plus allowance up to £9,000 per annum depending on technical assessment) Available Locations: Liverpool, Newport, Norwich, Glasgow or Birmingham. The following locations listed below are restricted to contracted GCA staff already based in one of these offices: London, Bristol, Manchester or York. External applicants are not eligible for these sites. If you select one of these locations as an external applicant your application will unfortunately be withdrawn. Contract Type: Permanent Hours: Full Time Closing Date: 02/11/26 Interview Date(s): 24th-27th Nov (subject to change)

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Ready to move beyond system design and drive a strategic roadmap that delivers true value for the nation? We are seeking a Senior Enterprise Architect to translate high-level strategy into a resilient, scalable digital estate for the public good. If you’re prepared to own the architectural governance for products impacting millions of citizens, we want to hear from you. In this role, you will navigate the critical trade-offs between speed, cost, and quality—ensuring that every technical decision maximises efficiency and delivers public value across the organisation.

Job Summary

We are seeking a visionary Senior Enterprise Architect to act as the defining authority for our enterprise-wide DDaT strategy and architecture. In this high-impact role, you will perform as a versatile Enterprise Architect while bringing deep specialisation in data and integration—translating high-level strategic goals into coherent, resilient technical roadmaps and leading critical governance on investments and technical debt to ensure secure, scalable public service delivery. You will lead, mentor, and grow a unified team of Enterprise and Technical Architects, establishing the technical guardrails and maintaining strategic control while steering our complex digital transformation journey and managing preferred delivery partners.

Key Accountabilities

• Strategic Vision & Roadmap Delivery: Convert the annual business plan into a clear, step-by-step blueprint for the future technology environment (Target State Architecture or TSA). You will manage the plans for moving from the current system to the future one, specifically for major initiatives, to make sure all projects are connected and support the overall business strategy.
• Governance & Assurance Leadership: You will be the technical voice on the Architecture Review Board (ARB). Your role is to manage the 'Front Door' review process, making sure new projects are checked for architectural soundness and fit before budget approval.
• Investment & Technical Debt Management: Ensure strategic bids allocate a dedicated remediation budget (15–20%) to mitigate technical debt.
• Senior Leadership Communication: Maintain the "Level Zero" Architecture Map as a streamlined executive view of the GCA technology estate for Board and ExCo decision‑making.
• Blueprinting & Business Alignment: Partner with Business Architecture to create Enterprise Blueprints. You will take high-level strategic goals (e.g. "Improve SME Spend") and map them to specific technical capabilities and data flows required to deliver that outcome.
• Technical Standards & Principles: You will establish and enforce the Secure by Design and Data First architectural principles. You will set the non‑negotiable rules that product teams must follow to ensure technical consistency, interoperability, and security across the organisation.
• Strategic Consultancy & Mentorship: Provide Architecture‑as‑a‑Service to senior stakeholders, moving from "activity‑based" updates to "outcome‑based" advice. You will mentor a team of up to 1-2 architects, establishing a formal competency framework to elevate the team’s strategic influence.
• Architectural Steering & High‑Level Design (HLD): Author Architecture Steer papers to align stakeholders on major investments, and personally develop High‑Level Designs for critical, complex initiatives to ensure long‑term resilience and strategic alignment.

Essential Criteria (to be assessed at application stage)

• Enterprise Architecture & Roadmap Delivery: Proven experience converting abstract business strategies into Target State Architecture (TSA) blueprints and managing transition roadmaps for complex digital estates.
• Strategic Governance & Assurance: Experience leading technical assurance (e.g., an Architecture Review Board) and defining architectural principles, such as Secure by Design and Data First.
• Risk & Technical Debt Management: Proven track record of identifying architectural risks and successfully articulating, managing, and securing investment to remediate technical debt.
• Executive Stakeholder Communication: Ability to translate complex technical problems into simplified executive views (like a "Level Zero" map) to influence Board and ExCo‑level decision‑making.
• Leadership & Technical Mentorship: Experience leading, mentoring, and developing the strategic capabilities of architecture teams while managing the technical guardrails for external delivery partners.

Success Profiles (to be assessed at interview)

Experience Technical skills (presentation sent 24 hours in advance)

• Enterprise architecture - Enterprise Architecture presentation that clearly outlines strategic impacts across People, Process, Data, and Technology (PPDT).

You will also be assessed against the following behaviours: Leadership Seeing the big picture Communicating & influencing (A link to the Civil Service Success Profiles Framework is provided below) Success Profiles Framework

Benefits

• Competitive salary
• Generous pension scheme
• A discretionary non‑contractual performance related bonus
• Working remotely in addition to working in advertised office location
• Flexi time scheme (available for B1-B6)
• Minimum 25 days annual leave to a maximum service related 30 days excluding bank holidays

Want to make a difference? Find out more about the rewarding work that we do in our candidate pack.

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan and the Civil Service D&I Strategy. We want to make our recruitment process accessible to everyone, so if there is any way that we can support you, please contact [e-mail]

Working flexibly, delivering outcomes

GCA operates a smarter working model that balances flexibility with collaboration. Successful candidates are expected to spend at least 26 days per quarter (approximately 2 days per week, pro‑rata) at their contracted office, another GCA site, or off‑site for meetings. For the remainder of the time, you may work from home or another suitable location that meets business needs.

Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection Process

A reserve list may be held for up to 12 months, which the Civil Service may use to fill future suitably similar vacancies across government for candidates who are considered appointable following interview. Should you be placed on a reserve list and want to be removed please contact [e-mail].

Complaints Procedure

Our recruitment processes are underpinned by the principle of selection for appointment on merit on the basis of fair and open competition as outlined in the Civil Service Commission’s Recruitment Principles details of which can be found at https://civilservicecommission.independent.gov.uk/recruitment/recruitment-principles/ If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with the Recruitment Principles, and you wish to make a complaint, you should contact [e-mail] in the first instance. If you remain unsatisfied with the response you receive you can then contact the Civil Service Commission at [e-mail]. Internal candidates should apply using their Workday account. Please use the careers hub for your application.

Government Commercial Agency (GCA) is the largest public procurement organisation in the UK. With over 800 staff, we help thousands of public and third sector buyers in the UK with billions of pounds of spending each year. We have a wide range of commercial agreements to help our customers buy what they need, when they need it - saving time and money.

Why join GCA?

We offer fantastic benefits as well as career development opportunities, have an inclusive culture that values work‑life balance and offers flexibility in how you work.