Technical Architect

An exciting opportunity for talented, tenacious individuals looking to join our team and take lead in creating world-class services in the Prison and Probation environment. Conducting Service Discovery to identify and deliver high-quality, user‑centred products that positively impact the lives of offenders, prison staff and society as a whole.

Region Yorkshire and the Humber

Organisation the work is for National Offender Management Service (NOMS)

About the work

We're building a team of around 70 experts in Web Development, Design and User Research. This is a brilliant opportunity to be part of a growing team from its nascent stage and play an active and continued role in the strategic development of both the team and the studio approaches. Immediate team:
Service design team of a Service Designer and Service Manager (Sheffield). Wider Service Area team:
Service design team working across up to 3 Product Delivery Teams (Sheffield). Community of User Researchers and Head of User Experience in Sheffield, wider MoJ community and Cross‑Government Community

What the specialist will work on

Service mapping of the prison/probation service, identifying opportunities for service improvement
-Discovery/delivery of the 'allocate a prisoner to a prison' service-delivering efficiency improvements
-Hands‑on technical leadership in development, operation and improvement of services
-Work with product managers to understand user needs for new/existing services
-Technical authority in prospective meetings with other departments, evaluate technical proposals from suppliers, implementation recommendations to stakeholders
-Work with delivery teams breaking technical requirements down, identify API requirements for integration with internal/external systems
-Lead development of user‑driven prototypes, identify technical options/inform architectural approaches, working with team members to write tests, code and documentation for new/existing systems.

Work setup

Address where the work will take place Furnace Hill, Sheffield & St James' Park, London

Working arrangements You will be working on‑site in Sheffield and London, with at least three to four days per week based in Sheffield, for face to face engagement with the rest of the team. There is a £500 limit on travel expenses, where expenses will only be covered for research trips and meetings outside of Sheffield. Travel between Sheffield and the supplier's location will not be covered.

Security clearance Basic clearance required

Skills and experience

Essential skills and experience

• Comprehensive and recent experience designing and implementing complex software systems, ie is an active software developer currently engaged in architecting and building high‑volume digital services
• Proven capability in managing technology implementation projects and in presenting to/working with stakeholders at every level of seniority
• Demonstrable track record of successfully taking an evolutionary architecture approach to software architecture
• Knowledge of Agile product management, in particular determination of vision, objectives, goals and success criteria

Nice‑to‑have skills and experience

• Experience of developing product roadmaps, backlogs and measurable success criteria, and of writing user stories, i.e. can establish a path to delivery for breaking down stories
• Experience organising and performing prototyping and proof of concepts
• Experience with Agile methodologies (TDD, SCRUM, Kanban, etc)
• Building and scaling high‑traffic websites and/or high volume transaction processing and analysis platforms

All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.