Lead Technical Architect in London

This role is available across our London, Bristol and Manchester locations. As the Government Cyber Unit, our mission is to protect public services and the UK Government from cyber threats by:

• setting strategic direction for government and the public sector on cyber security through the Government Cyber Action Plan
• managing the portfolio of programmes to implement the strategy across central government
• establishing standards and policies (Government Cyber Security Standard and the Cyber Policy Handbook)
• supporting government organisations to deliver secure digital services via Secure by Design
• assuring system and organisation cyber security via initiatives such as GovAssure
• identifying public sector internet-facing digital assets, finding vulnerabilities and misconfigurations and helping to fix them through the cyber and domains protection services
• leading the operational response to cyber threats, vulnerabilities and incidents through the Government Cyber Coordination Centre (GC3)

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. 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.

The Cyber Services Team supports the delivery of the Government Cyber Action Plan by coordinating, overseeing and delivering services to help public sector organisations solve cyber security challenges. The services we provide centrally are those where automation and economies of scale can be applied to address common resilience and cyber problems. These cover the core internet services we all rely on such as DNS, email and web services, as well as vulnerability management, cyber testing and cyber capability uplift.

We ensure that cyber services are easy to find and use, and that the information and support delivered by these services is coherent, valuable, relevant, timely, trusted, reliable and easy to action. We track success using evidence based objective measures.

We are hiring 2 Lead Technical Architects in the campaign, one for the Cyber Services Team and one for the Cyber Products team - Please let us know if you have a preference for one of the roles in your application.

As a Lead Technical Architect you’ll:

• define and own a coherent suite of digital cyber defence services or products that are best delivered centrally, for the whole of the public sector.
• work closely with the Heads of Cyber Services and Products to support the delivery of the services and products according to the agreed roadmap. The services and products may be owned and operated internally by the team, by other parts of DSIT, by third party public sector bodies or by commercial organisations.
• provide technical leadership for the Cyber Services strategy and a coherent suite of services, ensuring that services are feasible, roadmaps align to underlying technology roadmaps, and that services work coherently together.
• provide technical leadership for the coherent suite of products, ensuring that products are feasible, roadmaps align to underlying technology roadmaps, and that products work coherently together.
• maintain knowledge of the global cyber security landscape, including threats, vulnerabilities and how they are mitigated.
• maintain knowledge of the global cyber security marketplace, and the opportunities it provides for the public sector.
• own the overall prioritisation of service or product development, and work with the Head of Cyber Services, Head of Cyber Products and Service Owners to ensure that the suite continues to evolve coherently to meet new threats and challenges.
• engage with industry and government specialists to understand their current cyber security challenges and how they are meeting them, ultimately looking for opportunities to share best practices or develop new central services and products.
• manage and develop staff so that they reach their full potential, thrive and contribute effectively to the team’s objectives.

Person specification: We’re interested in people who have a high level of expertise in:

• leading broad and complex strategic work across systems and services, with an ability to think strategically and bring clarity and structure to uncertainty.
• owning and defining digital cyber defence services and products that operate across government at scale.
• actively addressing the most complicated risks, issues and dependencies including where ownership exists outside the team or no clear ownership exists. You can identify innovative ways to unblock issues.
• assessing products and services and giving constructive feedback and guidance on priorities and improvements.
• coordinating service and product development with other teams across organisational boundaries.
• communicating well with senior stakeholders and technical and non-technical stakeholders, including suppliers, coordinating activity across a number of organisations toward common objectives.
• engaging well with people through a range of channels and explain what you are doing and how you are doing it in clear and compelling ways.
• managing staff effectively, using initiative to identify issues within team dynamics and proactively implement appropriate solutions.
• developing staff through tailored feedback, adapting communication styles to ensure impact is effective and lasting.

Please note that this role requires SC clearance, which would normally need 5 years’ UK residency in the past 5 years. This is not an absolute requirement, but supplementary checks may be needed where individuals have not lived in the UK for that period. This may mean your security clearance (and therefore your appointment) will take longer or, in some cases, not be possible.

DSIT cannot offer Visa sponsorship to candidates through this campaign. DSIT holds a Visa sponsorship licence but this can only be used for certain roles and this campaign does not qualify.