Principal Technical Architect - FCDO Services - G6 in Hanslope

Location: Hanslope, South East England, MK19 7BH

About the job

At FCDO Services, we protect the UK's interests at home and overseas. We design and construct secure government buildings and courier diplomatic packages worldwide, safeguard government tech and a whole lot more. Our work is as varied and vital as it gets, but we never lose sight of our people. Their skills, aspirations and growth mean as much as the global mission we're on.

Our Digital and Data technology team are at the forefront of digital innovation. They provide the best in-class solutions for our customers, helping to shape and support a data-driven future for the UK government. Whether it's creating bespoke, secure software, offering programme and application support or moving an entire embassy's servers to a Cloud platform. No matter the task, they are on hand to support.

When you join us in this significant role you'll lead the definition and evolution of enterprise architecture, ensuring it aligns with our organisational goals, government standards and technological strategy. Building capability, promoting excellence and overseeing the infrastructure, networks and cloud architecture domains, you'll inspire your dedicated team as you drive the design and execution of architectural roadmaps and transformational change across applications, operations, infrastructure and cloud domains.

Making an important contribution to our technology and target operating models, and shaping strategies for the adoption of AI, DevSecOps, and identity management, we'll also expect you to establish architectural standards, policies and guardrails across our organisation.

You'll use all your leadership skills as you coach and mentor our architects and technical specialists by articulating FCDO Services' vision, principles and value, and cultivate a culture of continuous improvement and shared learning. Engaging with a diverse range of senior stakeholders across government, technical communities and industry as you represent our organisation and share insights at relevant forums, you'll also work with other senior leaders to align our architecture with business strategy, procurement and operations.

Your additional key tasks will include identifying and governing risk, ensuring decisions and solutions comply with relevant requirements, and participating in incident reviews. And it goes without saying that you'll be committed to driving innovation and improving performance as we stay at the forefront of emerging technologies, architectures and industry trends.

To be a success in this vital role you should possess the skills to translate business and security requirements into secure, efficient and cost-effective designs, and have experience of reviewing and assuring complex solutions and designs using the TOGAF framework. With proven experience of using VMware, Microsoft on-premise, and multi-cloud technologies to define and govern enterprise scale architectures, we'll also look for the ability to translate strategic objectives into technical roadmaps, the skills to design secure or air-gapped platforms within the government sector, and knowledge of NCSC, GDS and UK government security frameworks.

Committed to fostering technical excellence and professional growth in the architects and specialists you work with, and with the confidence to influence and advise senior civil servants, you'll be a skilled user of Terraform, CloudFormation, Azure Resource Manager, Ansible, Puppet and Chef, and have expert knowledge of VMware and Microsoft infrastructure technologies.

When it comes to academic qualifications you should have a degree or equivalent experience in Computer Science or Information Technology, expert or professional level certifications in relevant specialisms, and hold or be willing to work towards qualifications such as TOGAF, ITIL, Agile Project Management and PRINCE2.

But we're always looking to improve - just like you. That's why when you join us, expect to receive a competitive salary, generous holiday entitlement and a Civil Service Pension. Along with this, you'll also have access to training and other development opportunities to help grow your career with us. Our offices have an on-site gym, nursery, café, and restaurant, and we offer interest-free loans on season tickets and bikes to help you get there. It's a great set of benefits made to support all you do, and all you need.

Every single colleague must be security cleared before joining us. If you're successful in your application, we'll ask you to undergo our vetting process to achieve Developed Vetting (DV) clearance.

We are looking for people with:

• Degree or equivalent experience in Computer Science or Information Technology.
• Hold or willing to work towards recognised qualifications such as TOGAF, ITIL, Agile Project Management, PRINCE2, or equivalent experience.
• Hold professional or expert level certifications such as; Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert, AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Professional, VMware Certified Design Expert (VCDX) or equivalent experience.
• Translate business/security requirements into secure, efficient, and cost-effective designs.
• Experience in reviewing and assuring complex solutions and authored concise and high quality high and low-level designs (conceptual, logical, and physical architecture layers) using the TOGAF framework.
• Proven experience defining and governing enterprise scale architectures across using VMware (private cloud), Microsoft on-premise, and multi-cloud (Azure and/or AWS) technologies, with the ability to translate strategic objectives into technical roadmaps and standards.
• Demonstrable experience leading, coaching, and developing senior architects and specialists, fostering technical excellence, and professional growth.
• Experience designing secure or air-gapped platforms within the government sector.
• Knowledge of NCSC, GDS, and UK government security frameworks, including Secure by Design, Cloud Security Principles, Government Functional Standards, and the Technology Code of Practice.
• Expert in VMware (VCF) and Microsoft infrastructure technologies with strong capability across networking, storage, recovery, monitoring, and multi-cloud platforms (Azure, M365, and AWS).
• Knowledge of Agile, DevSecOps, and CI/CD practices for infrastructure delivery.
• Skilled in infrastructure design and automation using provisioning and configuration management tools including Terraform, CloudFormation, Azure Resource Manager, Ansible, Puppet, and Chef.
• Influencing and advising Senior Civil Servants (SCS), both internally and externally (through wider governance forums) through credible, evidence-based recommendations.
• Developing and maintaining enterprise architecture frameworks, standards, and roadmaps aligned with strategic goals.