Lead Technical Architect
| Posting date: | 23 June 2026 |
|---|---|
| Salary: | £56,375 to £62,830 per year |
| Additional salary information: | This post offers successful candidates the opportunity to be considered for an additional Digital, Data and Technology (DDaT) Skills Supplement. The level of the awarded supplement is determined following a separate skills assessment process, the outcome of which has no impact on the decision to make a job offer. This digital capability supplement ranges from £0 to £26,608 and you may be awarded a pay supplement within this range based on results of your additional skills assessment. For details of our pay on appointment policy, please see below under the heading ‘Salary’. |
| Hours: | Full time |
| Closing date: | 07 July 2026 |
| Location: | newcastle |
| Remote working: | Hybrid - work remotely up to 2 days per week |
| Company: | Government Recruitment |
| Job type: | Permanent |
| Job reference: | 467277 |
Summary
You will provide senior technical leadership for DEFRA’s End User Infrastructure estate, covering devices, endpoints, operating systems, application delivery, and modern workplace platforms across a predominantly Microsoft-based environment.
You will lead the architecture for complex and high‑risk services and change initiatives, defining domain standards, patterns, and roadmaps aligned to enterprise strategy, security requirements, and cross‑government standards. This includes operating across a mixed estate of modern platforms and legacy technologies, ensuring continuity of user services as the organisation transitions away from legacy delivery models.
Working across multidisciplinary teams, you will:
Lead and assure technical designs and architectural decision‑making, particularly where services operate across device, operating system, and application runtime boundaries
Guide teams and suppliers to deliver coherent, secure, operable, and value‑for‑money solutions across both modern and legacy environments
Identify and manage architectural risks across multiple services, including those arising from legacy platforms, dependencies, and unclear ownership
Communicate complex technical issues clearly to both technical and non‑technical stakeholders, particularly where user experience is impacted by cross‑domain dependencies
Support and develop architectural capability through mentoring and collaboration
This role suits an experienced Technical Architect who can balance strategic thinking with hands‑on design leadership in a complex organisational environment, including operating in situations where technology, ownership, and dependencies are not always fully defined.
You will lead the architecture for complex and high‑risk services and change initiatives, defining domain standards, patterns, and roadmaps aligned to enterprise strategy, security requirements, and cross‑government standards. This includes operating across a mixed estate of modern platforms and legacy technologies, ensuring continuity of user services as the organisation transitions away from legacy delivery models.
Working across multidisciplinary teams, you will:
Lead and assure technical designs and architectural decision‑making, particularly where services operate across device, operating system, and application runtime boundaries
Guide teams and suppliers to deliver coherent, secure, operable, and value‑for‑money solutions across both modern and legacy environments
Identify and manage architectural risks across multiple services, including those arising from legacy platforms, dependencies, and unclear ownership
Communicate complex technical issues clearly to both technical and non‑technical stakeholders, particularly where user experience is impacted by cross‑domain dependencies
Support and develop architectural capability through mentoring and collaboration
This role suits an experienced Technical Architect who can balance strategic thinking with hands‑on design leadership in a complex organisational environment, including operating in situations where technology, ownership, and dependencies are not always fully defined.