Lead Security Architect, Home Office

Posting date:	04 June 2025
Salary:	£60,300 to £70,730 per year
Additional salary information:	National: £60,300 - £66,330 London: £64,300 - £70,730 You may be eligible for an additional non-pensionable allowance, pending a Capability and Skills assessment, with a value of up to £20,100.
Hours:	Full time
Closing date:	17 June 2025
Location:	Manchester
Company:	Government Recruitment Service
Job type:	Permanent
Job reference:	407904/4

Summary

Join the Home Office as a Lead Security Architect and steer the secure‑by‑design delivery of critical systems that protect citizens and national interests. Working with the Principal Security Architect, you will own security architecture for a major portfolio, translate business goals and threat intelligence into practical controls, and mentor SEO‑level architects to raise capability across multiple programmes. You will engage senior stakeholders, balance risk against usability and cost, and shape patterns that let teams adopt cloud, DevSecOps, IoT and zero‑trust approaches safely. If you can blend deep technical insight with clear, influential communication—and enjoy turning complex risks into elegant, proportionate solutions—this role offers the chance to make a tangible impact on services millions rely on every day.

Due to the requirements of the role, the successful candidate will be required to work full-time hours

As Lead Security Architect you will direct secure architecture across a portfolio worth hundreds of millions of pounds. Working with product owners, delivery managers and enterprise architects, you will ensure every new or changed service conforms to Home Office and NCSC standards while enabling rapid, user‑centred delivery. You will analyse emerging threats, advise on proportional mitigations, and produce or tailor reference patterns covering identity, network segmentation, container security, data protection, and monitoring. By modelling risks with frameworks such as ISO 27005, NIST, or STRIDE, you will justify design choices to technical and non‑technical audiences and document them for re‑use. You will champion “secure‑by‑default” in agile pipelines—embedding IaC scanning, SAST/DAST, SBOM and cloud‑native guardrails—so security becomes a quality attribute owned by delivery teams. Through communities of practice and one‑to‑one coaching, you will nurture SEO architects and engineers, acting as escalation point for complex design decisions. Finally, you will cultivate relationships with external suppliers, government peers and industry forums to import good practice and influence future standards, ensuring Home Office services remain resilient, cost‑effective and compliant.

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