Senior Technical Architect

We are looking for an established architect who can effectively and sensitively handle the expectations, and meet the needs, of a range of customers with varying and sophisticated needs.

Within HMRC's Chief Digital & Information Group (CDIO), specifically in the Enterprise Cloud Services (ECS) team we are redefining our offerings and growing the team of outstanding people to improve the Cloud Centre of Excellence. We are already a diverse team of 90+ technologists, creating a dynamic and inclusive working environment whose skills cover architecture, platform development, service design, platform operations and governance.

Job description

As a Senior Technical Architect within HMRC's Enterprise Cloud Services (ECS) you will be a key member of one or more Cloud product teams, providing hands-on technical leadership and architectural guidance.

Unlike traditional centralised architecture roles, you will be embedded directly within the product teams, working closely with engineers, product owners, and stakeholders to design, build, and evolve robust cloud-native solutions. Your expertise will help shape the technical direction of our products, ensuring they are secure, scalable, and maintainable.

Main duties

• Collaborate with engineers and product managers to translate business requirements into scalable technical solutions.
• Ensure best practices are followed in areas such as CI/CD, security, secrets management, DNS, and machine image pipelines.
• Provide hands-on support and mentorship to engineering teams, helping to resolve complex technical challenges.
• Drive continuous improvement in system reliability, performance, and security.
• Participate in architecture reviews, and technical workshops.

Maintain up-to-date knowledge of emerging cloud technologies and industry trends.

Person specification

Responsibilities:

• Architect and implement solutions in one or more of the following areas:
• CI/CD Tooling (e.g., Jira, Confluence, Gitlab, Artifactory)
• Security and Secrets Management (e.g. HashiCorp Vault, OpsView and Splunk feeds)
• DNS Management and Automation
• Machine Image Pipelines (AMI automation)
• Champion DevOps and Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) practices within the team.
• Ensure compliance with security and regulatory requirements.
• Collaborate with other architects and technical leads to align on architectural standards and patterns.
• Document architectural decisions, patterns, and best practices for wider adoption.
• able to balance short-term delivery with long-term technical vision.

Essential Criteria:

• Proven experience as a technical architect or senior engineer in cloud environments (AWS or Azure).
• Hands-on expertise in at least one of the following: CI/CD tooling, security/secrets management, DNS, or machine image pipelines.
• Strong knowledge of DevOps practices and Infrastructure-as-Code (e.g. Terraform, CloudFormation).
• Experience working as part of a product or feature team, not just in a centralised function.
• Excellent problem-solving and analytical skills.
• Strong communication and stakeholder management abilities.

Desirable Criteria:

• Experience with multiple cloud providers (multi-cloud environments).
• Familiarity with container orchestration (e.g. Kubernetes, ECS).
• Knowledge of monitoring, logging, and observability tools.
• Experience with automated compliance and security scanning.
• Relevant certifications (e.g. AWS Certified Solutions Architect, HashiCorp Certified: Vault Associate).