Solution Architect in Portsmouth, United Kingdom

This Project, drives the Royal Navy’s capability by delivering digital solutions that increase operational efficiency, effectiveness, and availability. Operating across Official and Secret domains, from shore to sea. 

Data & Navy Applications (DNA) provides end-to-end support for bespoke and procured applications. 

Solution Architect

The Solution Architect is responsible for the end-to-end design of secure, scalable and user-centred technology solutions for the Royal Navy, delivered in line with Government Digital Service (GDS) practices. Working as an embedded member of a multidisciplinary agile team, you will shape architecture iteratively through discovery, alpha, beta and live. Your designs will stay coherent and fit for purpose as user needs and requirements evolve.

You will lead technical design for services of moderate risk and complexity. You will challenge assumptions, make and record architectural decisions at the right time, and turn a high-level vision into an incremental, deliverable roadmap.

Architecture & Design

• Produce just-enough architecture at each phase of the GDS lifecycle. Evolve designs through iteration and feedback rather than big design up front.
• Make architectural decisions transparent and traceable, for example through Architecture Decision Records. Revisit them as the team learns more about users and constraints.
• Interpret organisational and Navy Digital roadmaps to develop solution strategies that align with long-term digital goals.
• Challenge requirements and assumptions so the team chooses the simplest effective technical path to meeting user needs.

GDS Standards, Governance & Assurance

• Ensure solutions meet the Government Service Standard and the Technology Code of Practice, including open standards, cloud first, security, and reuse of common components and patterns.
• Identify, document and mitigate architectural risks that affect multiple teams or domains.
• Apply established architectural principles, patterns and constraints, and contribute to improving architectural governance so it supports agile delivery rather than slowing it down.

Agile Collaboration & Delivery

• Work day to day within a blended multidisciplinary team alongside user researchers, delivery managers, developers and product owners. Take part in sprint planning, show and tells, peer reviews and retrospectives.
• Communicate complex technical concepts clearly to senior leadership, users and external customers, and build consensus on key design decisions.
• Keep architecture documentation proportionate and current in Navy Digital Confluence, SharePoint and GitHub.
  

Requirements

Top 3 requirements:

1. Experience applying GDS practices as an architect: the Service Standard, the Technology Code of Practice, and delivery through discovery, alpha, beta and live.
2. Experience of agile architectural working: evolving architecture incrementally inside a multidisciplinary team, producing representations that give everyone a shared understanding of the problem throughout the lifecycle, and recording decisions as you go.
3. Strong communication skills, including explaining complicated, complex or risky architecture topics to technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Must haves:

• Experience delivering services through the GDS lifecycle, and an understanding of what architecture needs to deliver at each phase.
• Experience working as an architect within agile, multidisciplinary teams, using iterative and evolutionary design rather than big design up front.
• Experience with containerisation technologies such as Kubernetes.
• Experience of Red Hat OpenShift or VMware Tanzu is an advantage but not essential.
• Proven ability to guide design choices in environments of moderate complexity and risk, balancing the big picture with the technical detail of a domain.
• Strong interpersonal skills and a track record of managing expectations across diverse stakeholder groups.
• Understanding of modern security principles, including Secure by Design and Zero Trust Architecture.
• Understanding of cloud architectures across Azure, AWS and other platforms.
• Ability to produce high-quality solution designs and application architectures aligned with the Data & Analytics architecture principles and strategy.

Nice to haves:

• Experience working in Defence.

• Tracking emerging issues, strategies, patterns and technologies to assess opportunities and risks.

SFIA Level: 5

Benefits

Start date: ASAP

Day rate: Up to £740 (depending on experience)

Initial contract length: 6 months (with possible extension)

Location: Portsmouth

Minimum security level: SC without caveats

Nationality Specification: Sole Britisch Citizen (due to Client security specifications)

Number of days expected on site: 2-3 days p/w on site, with flex if needed

Outside IR35