Senior Technical Architect in Newcastle upon Tyne

Remote First | Consultant can pick between the hubs below, very limited travel 1–2 times every 2 months: Manchester, Newcastle, London

About Amber Labs

Amber Labs is an established UK technology consultancy helping organisations modernise through cloud, engineering, data, AI and user-centred design. We work with government departments, enterprise organisations and highly regulated industries to deliver secure, scalable digital services.

We're looking for an experienced Technical Architect to join Amber Labs and support a major UK public sector digital transformation programme focused on improving how third-party organisations securely access government services.

The Opportunity

You'll play a key role in shaping the technical architecture for third-party access to DWP systems and services.

You'll work across multiple DWP benefit lines, legacy services and modern platforms to understand current capabilities, identify gaps and help define a consistent, secure and scalable future approach.

A key focus will be identity and access management, including how DWP identifies organisations and the individuals acting on their behalf, manages permissions and provides secure access to services.

You'll also assess existing cross-government capabilities and recommend where these should be used versus where DWP-specific capability may be required.

The role will take the architecture from Discovery into Alpha, working closely with engineering, security, product and delivery teams.

What You'll Be Doing

Technical Architecture

• Define the target architecture for third-party access to DWP services.
• Assess existing systems and identify technical and capability gaps.
• Develop architecture options, recommendations and transition approaches.
• Produce HLDs, architecture diagrams and technical design documentation.
• Design scalable API and integration approaches across legacy and modern platforms.

Identity & Access Management

• Design solutions covering organisation identity, authentication and authorisation.
• Define relationships between organisations, users, roles and permissions.
• Apply IAM, RBAC/ABAC, federation and delegated access patterns.
• Use standards including OAuth 2.0 and OpenID Connect (OIDC).
• Consider onboarding, access provisioning, lifecycle management and audit.
• Apply modern AWS/cloud architecture and integration patterns.
• Understand event-driven architecture, including pub/sub and event streaming.
• Work with engineering teams across Agile, DevOps and CI/CD environments.
• Balance modernisation with the constraints of existing legacy DWP systems.
• Lead technical architecture through Discovery and into Alpha.
• Develop technical options, prototypes and recommendations where required.
• Identify architectural risks, dependencies and constraints.
• Present designs and recommendations through technical governance forums.
• Work with senior stakeholders, security, enterprise and solution architects.
• Communicate complex technical decisions clearly and pragmatically.

Skills & Experience

• Strong commercial experience as a Technical Architect, Solution Architect, Lead Architect or equivalent.
• Strong UK Government / central government or regulated environment experience.
• Strong IAM experience covering authentication and authorisation.
• Practical experience with OAuth 2.0 and OIDC.
• Experience designing B2B, third-party, partner or delegated access solutions.
• Strong API and integration architecture experience.
• Experience with AWS/cloud architecture.
• Experience working across legacy and modern technology estates.
• Experience taking architecture through formal governance and design authority.
• Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills.
• Previous DWP, GDS or wider central government experience.
• Experience with organisation identity, delegated administration or entitlement management.
• Experience with GOV.UK One Login or equivalent government identity services.
• Experience with event-driven architecture, containers or Kubernetes.
• Experience working through Discovery / Alpha.
• Understanding of the GOV.UK Technology Code of Practice and Service Standard.

What We Offer

• 25 days annual leave plus public holidays.
• Private medical insurance with Bupa.
• Personal training budget.
• Electric Vehicle Scheme after one year.
• Employer pension contributions.
• Regular team socials.
• Referral scheme offering up to £3,000.
• Opportunity to work on significant UK public sector digital transformation and identity programmes.

Amber Labs is an equal opportunities employer. We are committed to creating an inclusive environment where everyone can thrive, regardless of background, identity or experience.