Principal Core Enterprise Architect
| Posting date: | 20 February 2026 |
|---|---|
| Salary: | £69,501 to £98,061 per year |
| Additional salary information: | The base pay is £69,501. In addition to this, the role includes a Digital and Data allowance of up to £28,560. |
| Hours: | Full time |
| Closing date: | 08 March 2026 |
| Location: | Swansea |
| Company: | Government Recruitment Service |
| Job type: | Permanent |
| Job reference: | 449815/1 |
Summary
Do you have the confidence and experience to lead enterprise level decision making, guide senior stakeholders, and influence the strategic direction of a large and complex organisation?
If you thrive on solving high risk technical challenges, developing architectural communities, and driving innovation that delivers real public value, we would love to hear from you.
At the DVLA we are looking for a Principal Enterprise Architect specialising in applications to help define and deliver the next generation of our digital ecosystem. You will lead the vision and strategy for enterprise architecture, setting the principles, standards and roadmaps that underpin our digital transformation. Working across domains, portfolios and programmes, you will help ensure our technology landscape is sustainable, secure and aligned to organisational goals.
This is a chance to operate at scale, shape long term direction, and support teams across DVLA to deliver modern, efficient and user focused services for citizens.
Joining our department comes with many benefits, including:
- Employer pension contribution of 28.97% of your salary. Read more about Civil Service Pensions here
- 25 days annual leave, increasing by 1 day each year of service (up to a maximum of 30 days annual leave), plus 8 bank holidays a privilege day for the King’s birthday
- Flexible working options where we encourage a great work-life balance.
Read more in the Benefits section below!
Find out more about what it's like working at Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency - Department for Transport Careers
We are seeking a Principal Enterprise Architect with a strong focus on application architecture to join our Architecture function. This role will provide strategic leadership and technical authority across the application estate, ensuring that application design and evolution align with business priorities, architectural principles and long term organisational strategy.
As a Principal Enterprise Architect, you will own and shape the enterprise application architecture, defining current state, future state and transition architectures. You will work across portfolios and programmes to guide decision making, promote reuse and consistency, and reduce complexity and risk. The role requires close collaboration with delivery teams, business stakeholders and fellow architects to ensure application solutions are scalable, resilient and deliver value for money.
This is a senior practitioner role that combines strategic thinking with hands on architectural leadership across multiple teams and initiatives.
Enterprise and Application Architecture
- Own the enterprise architecture vision, strategy and roadmaps from an application perspective, covering current, target and transitional states.
- Provide architectural direction for application platforms, products and services, ensuring alignment with enterprise standards and reference architectures.
- Guide architectural decision making to support reuse, sustainability and scalability across the application landscape.
- Identify priorities for change within the application estate to enable effective delivery at pace.
Architectural Governance and Assurance
- Establish and maintain architectural principles, policies and standards relating to application architecture.
- Provide architecture assurance for programmes and projects, addressing complex and high-risk design challenges.
- Support governance forums by presenting architectural options, risks and recommendations clearly and credibly.
Stakeholder Engagement
- Network and communicate effectively with senior stakeholders across digital, technology and business teams.
- Translate business needs into clear architectural outcomes, balancing strategic intent with delivery realities.
- Build strong working relationships that enable collaboration across organisational boundaries.
Leadership and Community Development
- Inspire, mentor and support other architects, helping to raise architectural capability and maturity across the agency.
- Contribute to the development of the architecture community of practice, sharing knowledge and promoting best practice.
- Carry out horizon scanning across industry and technology, identifying emerging trends and assessing their potential impact.
Delivery Support
- Support multiple delivery teams by promoting best practice and appropriate use of modern application technologies.
- Ensure application architecture is integrated throughout the delivery lifecycle, from discovery through to live service.
Your responsibilities will include but aren't limited to:
- Network and communicate with senior stakeholders across enterprises and actively seek opportunities for improvement.
- Support multiple communities and teams.
- Find and use best practice.
- Find and use emerging technologies and approaches.
- Inspire other enterprise architects and help them understand how to meet organisational goals.
- Horizon scan for external influences or risks.
- Support successful delivery of the long-term strategy.
- Be responsible for the overall direction of business and digital capabilities.
- Be responsible for the creation, maintenance and consumption of an Architectural Model.
Great line management is important to us as an organisation, and we will equip and support line managers to develop the skills they need. We aim to empower line managers to create teams where people can flourish and deliver excellent outcomes for the public.
For further information on the role, please read the attached role profile. Please note that the role profile is for information purposes only - whilst all elements are relevant to the role, they may not all be assessed during the recruitment process. This job advert will detail exactly what will be assessed during the recruitment process.
Open Sessions: Would you like to find out more about the role, the team and what it’s like to work in our department? If so, we are organising an open session where you can virtually 'meet the team' on Tuesday 3rd March at 12:00pm. Sign up here.
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