AWS Technical Architect - SC CLEARED

We are looking for an experienced Technical Architect to bridge the gap between our well-defined business requirements and technical delivery. We have a clear set of objectives and a capable development team able to deliver against detailed tickets, but we need someone who can translate business needs into implementable technical work. As we expand our ambitions to improve data discoverability and access across the department, this ability to translate between business and technical will become increasingly critical.

Early business requirements are already clearly understood and documented; requirements gathering is not part of this role. Instead, the focus is on solution design, ticket decomposition, and ongoing architectural leadership.

For this job your tasks will be:

• Architecture Review & Assurance
  • Review the existing cloud platform architecture (AWS-based) and produce a prioritised set of recommendations for improvement
  • Ensure alignment with AWS Well-Architected Framework principles and government technology standards
  • Maintain architecture decision records and keep technical documentation up to date
• Solution Design & Ticket Decomposition
  • Translate clearly defined business requirements into system-level technical designs
  • Break down designs into discrete, actionable development tickets with clear acceptance criteria
  • Walk through tickets with the development team to confirm shared understanding before work begins
• Data Access & Security
  • Design and specify granular, role-based data access controls using AWS Lake Formation, IAM, and SSO integration
  • Design secure connectivity patterns enabling Power BI and Excel users to query the data lake directly via ODBC/Athena
  • Ensure consistent access enforcement across all tools and user interfaces
• Dashboard Hosting
  • Design the architecture for hosting interactive dashboards (eg Shiny, Streamlit) on the platform, including ingress, authentication, and deployment pipelines
  • Collaborate with the Service Design Lead to align technical setup with publishing and approval processes
• User Acceptance Testing Support
  • Assess and triage major technical issues arising from user acceptance testing
  • Design solutions and produce development tickets to resolve priority items
• Ongoing Architecture Leadership
  • Act as the primary point of contact for translating business needs into technical specifications
  • Support Agile delivery ceremonies including sprint planning, backlog refinement, and prioritisation
  • Provide architectural guidance on platform evolution, including migration of users from Legacy systems, onboarding of new teams, and introduction of modern data formats (eg Apache Iceberg)
  • Advise on cost optimisation, scaling, observability, and technical debt management
  • Contribute to security reviews and service assessments as required

The technical skills required for this role align with the Lead Technical Architect role in the GDaD capability framework. This includes:

• Excellent architecture communication skills, ensuring clear communication with a range of stakeholders on technical design decisions.
• Confidence in making architectural decisions of medium risk and complexity and setting up appropriate governance and assurance processes to manage the risk.
• Effective community collaboration, working closely with the CATS development team to realise the target architecture and support the resolution of complex technical challenges
• More specifically, the role requires strong technical understanding of:
• Cloud infrastructure, with a particular focus on AWS services, architecture patterns, and security principles.
• Identity and access management, including designing fine-grained access controls using IAM roles, policies and groups.
• Containerisation and orchestration, including practical understanding of Docker and Kubernetes in production environments.
• Software engineering fundamentals, including version control, modular design, testing practices, and maintainable code standards.
• Data engineering on AWS, particularly services such as Glue, Athena, Lake Formation, and modern data lake table formats (eg Apache Iceberg).
• The individual should also demonstrate the following additional soft skills:
• Ability to rapidly build context: the role requires developing a strong understanding of CATS business requirements and the wider strategic context in order to effectively translate these into technical deliverables
• Excellent technical drafting skills: producing clear, detailed technical tickets that enable the development team to implement work with minimal ambiguity
• Strong organisational and delivery management skills: taking ownership of their delivery timelines, proactively managing progress and blockers, and escalating issues in a timely manner
• Familiarity with Civil Service ways of working: operating effectively within a fast-paced, multidisciplinary team and quickly understanding the strategic importance of CATS