Principal Technologist

You will be part of the Technology Management team, alongside lead technologists, engagement leads and a delivery manager. The team leads cross-government work on technology strategy, with a strong focus on addressing Legacy IT risk and enabling sustainable modernisation across the UK public sector.

In this role you will:

1. Set a clear 10-year intent and strategy for your aligned technology domain, including how it contributes to reducing and preventing Legacy IT, and secure endorsement from senior stakeholders.
2. Identify, develop and promote principles, standards and best practice for managing and remediating Legacy technology, or convene and lead cross-government groups of technologists to create these where they do not yet exist.
3. Work with suppliers to maximise their offer to the UK public sector, including new and more effective approaches to Legacy remediation, and partner with the Government Commercial Function on strategic and complex commercial engagements.
4. Build and maintain a strong network of senior technical and delivery peers across the UK public sector to support shared problem-solving on Legacy IT and broader technology challenges.
5. Promote the team's work through content, speaking engagements and the delivery of community and supplier events.
6. Help upskill public sector organisations in your specialist area, including improving capability to manage, modernise and avoid creating new Legacy systems.

These roles operate at significant scale and impact. The team is routinely involved in commercial engagements worth billions of pounds, provides advice to ministers on pan-government technology issues including Legacy IT risk, and engages with international governments seeking to learn from the UK's approach to technology management.

This role requires:

• You must have experience setting a vision and leading digital and data change
• You must have experience designing and building technology and be able to use this to build credibility with others, evaluate proposals and decide an execution approach
• You should have experience engaging with suppliers/vendors both formally and informally
• Communication in this role is key: you should be comfortable in creating written content and presenting to senior stakeholders, both technical (such as CTOs/CDOs across Government) and non-technical (including ministers and permanent secretaries)
• Learning should be Embedded in the way you approach your working week, and you should be keen to share your learning with those around you through coaching and mentoring
• You should be at the top skill levels in your Digital & Data specialism, most likely from the Architecture, Data, IT Operations or Software Development groups.
• You should hold relevant industry certifications for your technical specialism.