Technical Architect

The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) has a clear mission - to grow the economy. Our role is to help businesses invest, grow and export to create jobs and opportunities right across the country. We do this in three ways.

Firstly, we help to build a strong, competitive business environment, where consumers are protected and companies rewarded for treating their employees properly.

Secondly, we open international markets and ensure resilient supply chains. This can be through Free Trade Agreements, trade facilitation and multilateral agreements.

Finally, we work in partnership with businesses every day, providing advance, finance and deal-making support to those looking to start up, invest, export and grow.

The Digital, Data and Technology (DDaT) directorate develops and operates tools and services to support us in this mission. The team have been nominated four times in a row for Best Public Sector Employer at the Women in Tech awards and won the award in 2025!

We are seeking 4 Technical Architects to join our growing, collaborative team. These roles offer the opportunity to shape the technical direction of services, influencing design decisions from early discovery through to live operations.

You will be responsible for the overall technical design of services, ensuring they meet user needs, align with organisational goals, and adhere to time and budget constraints. You will also contribute to portfolio-level strategy and governance, helping to shape the future of digital delivery at DBT.

Our technology stack includes Python/Django, Node.js/React within cloud services such as AWS and Azure.  We optimise our architecture for change, enabling continuous improvement and innovation.

This role is ideal for someone who enjoys solving complex problems, influencing technical direction, and fostering inclusive, high-performing teams. Above all, you will be motivated by the opportunity to improve public services and challenge the status quo where needed.

Main responsibilities

You will:

• Define and champion the technical strategy for services, ensuring alignment with user needs, business goals, and DDaT standards.

• Lead technical specialists across multiple projects, solving complex architectural challenges.

• Design and assure open-source, user-centred systems in agile environments.

• Own the technical design and evolution of services, including integration and interoperability.

• Provide technical governance and present designs to boards such as the Technical Design Authority.

• Build cloud solution designs and ensure they meet quality, security, and performance standards.

• Collaborate with architects across DBT to ensure alignment and coherence.

• Horizon scan for emerging technologies and assess their relevance to DBT.

• Contribute to the architecture community, sharing knowledge and mentoring peers.

• Support recruitment and capability development within the technical architecture profession.

We are recruiting Technical Architects across several specialist areas. You will have a core architecture skillset but may bring experience in one of the following areas:

Technical Architect: AI-focused

Leads the design of AI-enabled architectures, translating emerging capabilities into secure, scalable, and reusable solutions. Rapidly prototypes and validates AI concepts, assessing feasibility, risk, and value within government constraints. Works collaboratively with multidisciplinary teams to develop, test, and operationalise AI use cases, ensuring successful transition from experimentation into production services.

Technical Architect: Cloud-focused

Shapes and advances DBTs cloud capability across AWS and Azure, driving the design of modern, resilient services. Establishes best practice and architectural standards, influencing how cloud technologies are adopted to improve efficiency, scalability, and long-term service delivery across the department.

Technical Architect: ERP-focused

Provides architectural leadership for DBTs role in a cross-government ERP transformation programme. Focuses on high-level and integration architecture, ensuring the effective adoption of ERP within the departments digital estate. Collaborates with multidisciplinary and cross-government teams to deliver coherent, scalable solutions aligned to programme objectives.

Technical Architect (Generalist)

Leads the architecture of user-centred, public-facing digital services at national scale. Translates strategic architecture into deliverable technical designs, supporting multidisciplinary teams to build secure, scalable solutions across a portfolio. Provides technical leadership through setting standards, defining design patterns, and ensuring alignment with cross-government strategy, assurance requirements, and the DDaT capability framework.

It is essential that you have:

• Proven experience in designing and implementing secure cloud solutions using AWS and/or Azure with a track record of successful project delivery.

• Experience producing HLDs and gaining approval through Governance Boards (Architecture Review board, Technical Design Authority, etc..)

• Experience in collaborating with development teams to translate HLDs into Low Level Designs (LLDs), ensuring alignment with standards

• Proven ability to lead technical teams and deliver user-focused services in agile environments.

• Demonstrated ability to articulate complex technical concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences, ensuring understanding and alignment across diverse stakeholders.

• Proven experience with API-driven architecture, data modelling, and relational databases.

It is desirable that you have:

• A willingness to learn new technologies and select the most appropriate tools for the task, seeing technology as an enabler.
• Experience using Python/Django and/or NodeJS/React