Lead Infrastructure Architect

Become part of a mission-driven digital team helping to build secure, resilient services used by millions across the UK. The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA), in partnership with Inspire People, is seeking a Lead Technical Architect with strong experience across infrastructure and cloud technologies, architectural governance, and the ability to lead technical design across complex digital services. Based in Swansea on a permanent appointment, this role offers hybrid working with a minimum 60% office-based in Swansea and a base salary of £57,515 plus a Digital and Data allowance of up to £24,915, plus 29% employer pension contribution plus excellent Civil Service benefits.

Shape the Future of Digital Services at DVLA

DVLA delivers national-scale digital services that support the safe and lawful use of vehicles across the UK, reaching millions of citizens and businesses every year. As DVLA continues to modernise its technology landscape, the organisation is investing in strong technical architecture capability to ensure services are secure, well-governed, scalable and aligned to wider government strategy.

As a Lead Technical Architect, you will work across DVLA's IT Services Directorate and business teams, collaborating closely with engineering squads to design, assure and deliver modern digital solutions. You will play a key role in shaping architectural patterns, influencing technical decisions and mentoring other architects.

As a Lead Infrastructure Architect you will:

• Lead the technical design of systems and services, justifying and clearly communicating design decisions
• Define and assure solution architectures, ensuring alignment with enterprise and government architecture strategy
• Work collaboratively with engineering teams to deliver new solutions and transition them into live service
• Establish and apply architectural governance, ensuring consistency, quality and security by design
• Assure service and system quality, identifying risks, dependencies and cross-domain impacts
• Explore opportunities for cross-government alignment and reuse
• Provide leadership and mentoring to other architects and technical colleagues
• Engage with senior stakeholders, communicating technical concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences

Essential skills for the Lead Infrastructure Architect include:

• A strong architectural and technical background, having worked in an architect or technical lead role delivering enterprise-scale solutions
• Experience designing and building cloud-native or hybrid solutions
• Strong understanding of networking concepts including LAN, WAN and WLAN
• Experience with identity and directory services, including Entra Active Directory, hybrid Active Directory and Microsoft 365
• Knowledge of cloud adoption principles, such as Microsoft's Azure Cloud Adoption Framework
• Experience applying data security principles to protect sensitive data
• Experience creating and maintaining solution designs in an iterative and collaborative manner
• Strong experience of architectural governance and assurance
• Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills

Desirable skills for the Lead Infrastructure Architect include:

• Experience with unified communications and omni-channel contact centre solutions
• Experience working in government or other regulated environments
• Exposure to large-scale digital transformation programmes
• Experience mentoring architects or senior engineers
• Familiarity with Agile delivery and modern CI/CD practices

In return, you can expect a flexible working culture, including:

• Hybrid working with a minimum 60% office-based in Swansea
• Flexible working patterns to support work-life balance
• A Civil Service pension with employer contributions of c.29%
• 25 days annual leave plus bank holidays and a privilege day
• Access to learning, development and digital career frameworks

Why Join?

This role offers the opportunity to shape and assure technology that supports nationally significant public services. You will work at scale, influence architectural standards across DVLA, and contribute directly to the organisation's long-term digital transformation.

If you want to help shape nationally significant digital services at DVLA, apply via the link and one of the Inspire People team will be in touch.