Lead Technical Architect
| Posting date: | 25 November 2025 |
|---|---|
| Salary: | £75,026 to £99,836 per year |
| Additional salary information: | plus 28.97% employer pension contributions |
| Hours: | Full time |
| Closing date: | 16 December 2025 |
| Location: | Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear, NE7 7NE |
| Remote working: | Hybrid - work remotely up to 3 days per week |
| Company: | DWP Digital |
| Job type: | Permanent |
| Job reference: | 437936_1764079499 |
Summary
Lead Technical Architect
Pay up to £99,836 plus 28.97% employer pension contributions, hybrid working, flexible hours, and great work life balance.
Join DWP Digital as a Lead Technical Architect, designing modern IT architecture for one of the biggest digital transformations in Europe. You'll be supporting major initiatives and working on products and services in a complex digital environment. If you're interested in shaping the future of digital products used by millions of people, this role could be for you.
DWP. Digital with Purpose.
We are looking for a Lead Technical Architect to join our community of technical experts in DWP Digital.
We're using fresh ideas and leading-edge tech to build and maintain digital solutions that will be used by nearly every person in the UK, every day and at key moments in their lives.
DWP is the UK's largest government department. We help people into work, and make payments worth over £195bn a year to support and empower millions of people.
The scale of what we do is extraordinary, we have architectural challenges you won't find anywhere else, and our purpose is unique. We'd love you to join us.
What skills, knowledge and experience will you need?
We are looking for someone who can demonstrate experience in the following areas:
- Designing architectures for on-premises, cloud, and hybrid environments, including networking, security, presentation, middleware, databases, and integration.
- Applying architecture principles, patterns, standards, and technical radars to guide design decisions.
- Collaborating with delivery teams across Agile, Waterfall, and hybrid methodologies from initial concept through to go-live.
- Translating business requirements into traceable technical solutions that can be demonstrated to stakeholders.
- Using modelling techniques and tools to create and communicate architecture designs.
- Communication and Collaboration Technologies, particularly MS 365 Solutions (SharePoint, Teams and Copilot) and Exchange
- Information / Data Security, Governance, Management & Compliance including Data Privacy, Data Lifecycle Management, Legislation, Disaster Recover and Backup
- Data Architecture Design - Data Modelling, Master Data Management (MDM), Metadata Management and Data Governance
- API Management - Experience designing and implementing APIs (REST / JSON, SOAP / XML, GraphQL), including API lifecycle management, API gateways, HTTP transport and security such as mTLS, OIDC (integration specialism)
You and your role
The Lead Technical Architect will be responsible for defining and implementing the strategy that brings all the solutions within our hybrid environment together, working cohesively and harmoniously. You'll be tasked with ensuring we're delivering effective change that works for both our users and for over 100,000 DWP colleagues. Ultimately, your work will have a tangible impact on millions of lives.
Working predominantly with the Microsoft Suite and services (Teams, SharePoint, OneDrive, Exchange online), we have a hybrid environment which includes services hosted by us on prem, which even includes intranet and generative AI. You'll be taking the lead on design, oversight and architecture governance of IT solutions that support all of DWP's customers through the use of best practices. You'll need to communicate complex concepts to a range of audiences, so that DWP make the right decisions for now and for the future.
It's essential that you make sure DWP strategies are implemented through technology to exceptional standards while also managing a small team of Senior Architects. If you're interested in answering questions such as "how does this fit into our environment of products?" and "how would this work together?" while thinking strategically, then this could be the perfect role for you.
You'll be the most senior person in a lot of rooms. As well as your deep technical expertise you have the communications and leadership skills to influence other architects and support them to deliver their own goals, to explore emerging technologies and to better support the delivery of complex and even high-risk issues.
Details. Wages. Perks.
Location: You'll join us in one of our brilliant digital hubs in Birmingham, Blackpool, Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle or Sheffield, whichever is most convenient for you.
Hybrid Working: We work a hybrid model - you'll spend some time working at home (40%) and some time collaborating face to face in a hub (60%).
Pay: We offer competitive pay of up to £99,836
Pension: You'll get a civil service pension with employer contributions worth 28.97%.
Holidays: A generous leave package starting at 26 days rising to 31 days over time. You can also take up to 3 extra days off a month on flexi-time. You'll also get all the usual public holidays.
We have a broad benefits package built around your work-life balance which includes:
- An award-winning environment and culture
- Flexible working including flexible hours and flex-friendly policies
- Time off volunteering and charitable giving
- Bring your authentic self to work with 'I Can Be Me in DWP'
- Discounts and savings on shopping, fun days out and more
- Interest-free loans to buy a bike or a season ticket, so it's even easier for you to get to work and start making a difference
- Sports and social activities
- Professional development, coaching, mentoring and career progression opportunities.
Process:
We know your time is valuable so our application and selection process is just two stages:
Apply: complete your application on Civil Service Jobs. There'll be full instructions when you click through.
Interview: a single stage interview online.
Click apply for more information and to start your application
Proud member of the Disability Confident employer scheme