Senior Technical Architect

Government Digital Service; Manchester; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

The Government Digital Service (GDS) is seeking a Senior Technical Architect to own GOV.UK data infrastructure, delivering robust, scalable data platforms and actionable intelligence.

You will lead architectural strategy, mentor engineers, and collaborate with product teams to align data platforms with government standards, ensuring secure, resilient systems and data-driven decision making across services.

Qualifications

• Designing and assuring large-scale, resilient data architectures for complex data platforms.
• Strong understanding of modern data engineering principles and best practices.
• Ability to translate business and user requirements into secure, scalable technical solutions.
• Expert knowledge of Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and BigQuery for data warehousing and analytics, plus familiarity with AWS.
• Experience with web analytics data collection using GTM and GA to support data-driven decisions.
• Excellent communication with both technical and non-technical stakeholders to drive direction.
• Mentoring and supporting engineers and architects to foster excellence.

Responsibilities

• Provide technical and architectural leadership for data-intensive systems.
• Collaborate with product and delivery managers to plan and prioritise work.
• Ensure architectures align across workstreams and standards.
• Design end-to-end data infrastructure to meet expanding user needs.

Skills

Large-scale data architectures

Data engineering principles

Requirements translation

GCP BigQuery

AWS familiarity

GTM/GA data collection

Stakeholder communication

Mentoring engineers

Tools

Google Tag Manager

Google Analytics

BigQuery

Job description

The Government Digital Service (GDS) is the digital centre of government. We are responsible for setting, leading and delivering the vision for a modern digital government.

Our priorities are to drive a modern digital government, by:

1. joining up public sector services

2. harnessing the power of AI for the public good

3. strengthening and extending our digital and data public infrastructure

4. elevating leadership and investing in talent

5. funding for outcomes and procuring for growth and innovation

6. committing to transparency and driving accountability

We are home to the Incubator for Artificial Intelligence (I.AI), the world-leading GOV.UK and at the forefront of coordinating the UK’s geospatial strategy and activity. We lead the Government Digital and Data function and champion the work of digital teams across government.

We’re part of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) and employ more than 1,000 people all over the UK, with hubs in Manchester, London and Bristol.

The Government Digital Service is where talent translates into impact. From your first day, you’ll be working with some of the world’s most highly-skilled digital professionals, all contributing their knowledge to make change on a national scale.

Join us for rewarding work that makes a difference across the UK. You'll solve some of the nation’s highest-priority digital challenges, helping millions of people access services they need.

As a Senior Technical Architect in the Insights and Analytics team, you will take ownership of the infrastructure that transforms GOV.UK data into actionable intelligence. You will have significant autonomy to define the architectural strategy, designing robust, scalable data platforms that enable the team to unlock insights from the UK’s most critical online services.

Beyond the technical build, you will champion the effective use of GOV.UK data by serving as a key bridge between your team and the wider GDS technical community. You will be responsible for designing and implementing policies and processes that ensure data infrastructure is both resilient and aligned with government standards, fostering a culture of technical excellence in how we collect, process, and derive value from the information our users trust us with every day.

As a Senior Technical Architect you’ll:

• be responsible for technical and architecture leadership and decision making, assuring robust, secure, and scalable technical architectures for complex data-intensive systems
• work with product and delivery managers to plan and prioritise the teams work
• ensure the activities and work of the team technically align across workstreams and meet the required standards
• be responsible for designing an end to end data infrastructure that meets the expanding needs of data users across GOV.UK

Person specification

We’re interested in people who:

• have extensive experience designing and assuring large-scale, resilient technical architectures for complex data platforms
• bring a deep understanding of modern data engineering principles, including pipeline orchestration, data modelling, and infrastructure as code
• are confident translating complex business and user requirements into secure, scalable, and performant technical solutions
• possess expert-level knowledge of Google Cloud Platform (GCP), specifically in leveraging BigQuery for data warehousing and analytics, alongside a solid working familiarity with AWS
• demonstrate strong experience with web data collection methodologies, including hands‑on proficiency with Google Tag Manager (GTM) and Google Analytics (GA) to support data-driven decision‑making
• communicate effectively with both technical and non-technical stakeholders to build consensus and drive technical direction
• are passionate about mentoring engineers and architects, contributing to a supportive culture of continuous improvement and technical excellence