Technical Architect
Olive Jar Digital
Security Clearance: SC Cleared
About Olive Jar
Olive Jar Digital is a growing digital consultancy delivering complex technology and transformation programmes across UK Central Government. We work with some of the most prominent government departments including DWP, DBT, GCA, DfE and the NHS, helping them design and deliver secure, scalable and user-centred digital services.
As we grow our permanent team, we are building a talent pool of experienced Technical Architects who share our passion for meaningful public sector work.
The Role
As a Technical Architect at Olive Jar, you will play a central role in shaping and delivering technical solutions across our government client programmes. You will work closely with delivery teams, client stakeholders and enterprise architects to define technical strategy, provide hands-on architectural leadership and ensure solutions are secure, scalable and aligned to GDS standards.
This is a role for someone who thrives in complex environments, can translate business requirements into clear technical direction and is comfortable operating at both strategic and delivery levels.
Key Responsibilities
- Define and own the technical architecture for digital services across Central Government programmes
- Produce and maintain key architecture artefacts including solution designs, technical blueprints, interface specifications and architecture decision records (ADRs)
- Lead technical design and assurance activities, including participation in Design Authority and Technical Design Authority (TDA) forums
- Translate business and user needs into scalable, secure and standards-compliant technical solutions
- Conduct AS-IS assessments of legacy systems and define TO-BE target architectures and transition roadmaps
- Champion GDS Service Standards, Government Technology Code of Practice (TCoP) and secure-by-design principles throughout delivery
- Provide technical leadership and mentoring to engineers, developers and junior architects within the team
- Engage with senior client stakeholders and cross-functional teams to align technical direction with business objectives
- Identify and manage technical risks, dependencies and constraints across programme workstreams
- Support pre-sales and bid activity including technical input to SOWs, proposals and tender responses
Skills & Experience Required
Essential
- Proven experience as a Technical Architect within UK Central Government or large public sector organisations
- Strong understanding of GDS Service Standards, Government Technology Code of Practice (TCoP) and DDaT frameworks
- Experience designing cloud-based solutions AWS, Azure or GCP including hybrid and multi-cloud architectures
- Solid understanding of API-first design, microservices architecture and modern integration patterns
- Experience conducting technical discovery, producing AS-IS/TO-BE analysis and defining target architectures
- Ability to produce high-quality architecture documentation including solution designs, C4 models and interface control documents
- Strong stakeholder engagement skills comfortable presenting technical concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences
- SC Clearance held or willingness to undergo clearance prior to commencement
Desirable
- Experience working across multiple government departments or programmes simultaneously
- Familiarity with TOGAF, ArchiMate or other enterprise architecture frameworks
- Experience of security architecture principles including NCSC guidelines and secure-by-design frameworks
- Knowledge of data architecture, data governance and data platform design within government contexts
- Experience supporting or leading GDS service assessments
- Relevant certifications AWS Solutions Architect, Azure Solutions Architect, TOGAF or equivalent
Technical Skills
- Cloud Platforms: AWS, Azure, GCP
- Architecture Frameworks: TOGAF, ArchiMate, C4 Model
- Integration: REST APIs, event-driven architecture, message queuing, microservices
- Security: NCSC guidelines, secure-by-design, identity and access management
- Tooling: Confluence, Jira, Miro, Azure DevOps, Lucidchart or equivalent
- Standards: GDS Service Standard, TCoP, GDPR, WCAG 2.2
What We Offer
- Competitive salary aligned to SFIA level and market benchmarks
- Hybrid working 3 days per week 2 days WFH
- Opportunity to work on high-profile, mission-critical government programmes
- Clear career progression from Technical Architect through to Lead, Principal and Head of Architecture
- A small, expert team where your voice and ideas genuinely matter
- Support for professional development and relevant certifications
Security Clearance
This role requires SC (Security Check) clearance. Candidates who hold current SC clearance are strongly preferred. Candidates without clearance but with a strong Central Government background will also be considered, subject to successful clearance being obtained prior to commencement.
Skills Required
- Proven experience as a Technical Architect within UK Central Government or large public sector organisations
- Strong understanding of GDS Service Standards, Government Technology Code of Practice (TCoP) and DDaT frameworks
- Experience designing cloud-based solutions (AWS, Azure or GCP) including hybrid and multi-cloud architectures
- Solid understanding of API-first design, microservices architecture and modern integration patterns
- Experience conducting technical discovery, producing AS-IS/TO-BE analysis and defining target architectures and transition roadmaps
- Ability to produce high-quality architecture documentation including solution designs, C4 models and interface control documents
- Strong stakeholder engagement skills; comfortable presenting to technical and non-technical audiences
- SC Clearance held or willingness to undergo Security Check clearance prior to commencement
- Experience of security architecture principles including NCSC guidelines and secure-by-design frameworks
- Familiarity with TOGAF, ArchiMate or other enterprise architecture frameworks
- Knowledge of data architecture, data governance and data platform design within government contexts
- Experience supporting or leading GDS service assessments
- Relevant certifications (AWS Solutions Architect, Azure Solutions Architect, TOGAF or equivalent)
What We Do
Olive Jar Digital has extensive experience in building highly secure, resilient, highly available and scalable websites. We focus on user experience and only build what the end user needs and understands. We deliver our projects using the Agile methodology, in particular Scrum and Kanban. This enables us to deliver on time, on budget and focus on priorities that could shift at any moment. The consultants we engage are either people that we have worked with over the years, have been recommended based on their performance, or have been interviewed and tested by us first. With Olive Jar you get a professional, honest service where we look to build a relationship with you and support you over the years to come. We believe that in order to track the quality of performance effectively, our delivery team, the end client, and our account management team need to buy into a Continual Service Feedback and Improvement ethos. The resources we can provide include: • Full Agile Teams • Delivery Managers • Business Analysts • Technical Architects • Scrum Masters • User Experience Designers • Visual Designer • User Researchers • Developers / Developers in Test • Testers Specialties: IT Consultancy, Software Support, Software Development, Website Design, Agile Delivery, Continuous Delivery
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