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About Us

We are MI5, we protect the UK from threats to national security such as terrorism and espionage. We gather intelligence and work closely with the police and law enforcement to detect threats and work out ways to stop them.

The Role

Architecture and technology leadership is crucial to MI5's ability to move at pace and deliver the strategic technology change we need to stay ahead. We need experienced technology leaders to help set and deliver our ambitious technology strategy.

We are moving into a product centered organization and, as we evolve in this direction, we need senior technologists to help us develop our capabilities ensuring we make best use of recent innovations in technology as well as pushing these barriers even further with our internal engineering teams.

We are looking for forward-leaning, experienced architects to join a successful team of engineers, architects, and product professionals, working within a dynamic and fast-moving environment.

Our Enterprise Architects are first and foremost experienced technical leaders able to bridge the gap between engineering teams, delivering new and exciting capabilities on the ground, and senior product and business leaders driving forward organizational change at the strategic level.

As a senior role, the successful candidate must have proven experience in a similar role and of the complete delivery lifecycle.

This role requires the individual to have and maintain an up-to-date understanding of technical trends and innovations as well as a technical specialism to ensure you can provide a digital perspective and credibility with engineering teams and other technical stakeholders.

The MI5's architecture community (guild) is responsible for designing and delivering real world architectural solutions to strategic requirements from fascinating business areas across our organization and our partners.

About You

We are looking for passionate leaders in the technology world who are excited to take the initiative, be creative and drive business change.

• You should have experience of leading successful technology deliveries in large-scale enterprise organizations using methodologies such as Agile.
• You have experience in problem definition and shaping including designing large or complex solutions and evaluating the merit of different technical/commercial options and approaches.
• You will have experience developing technology roadmaps with empowered product teams and ensuring their delivery and that they meet the needs of the business.
• You will have strong communication skills to explain the impact of your work to the business and technical community, and the desire to work collaboratively by sharing ideas and experience across the wider architecture and engineering teams.
• You have had a technical or technology strategy background.
• You have a strong passion for continuous learning and take proactive steps to ensure you and your teams can identify and seize opportunities presented by the changing technology landscape.
• First-hand experience using cloud technologies, services or completing on-premises to hybrid cloud operation.
• You will understand distributed architectures and how to design underpinning platform services

Evidence of experience in:

• Risk management
• Requirements definition and management
• Information systems coordination
• Ability to produce high quality architectural artefacts to support communication

It is beneficial for the candidate to have a background in maths, coding, software engineering or data science as this helps with credibility when working with technical staff on the ground.

Training and Development

Access to a personal training budget is available for books, e-learning and other training. Opportunities to attend technical conferences are also available.

The DDaT Career framework provide opportunities to identify training opportunities and if gaps can be filled by formal qualifications this can be arranged as part of your personal development plan.

Successful Applicants will have an introduction to the platform team as well as other stakeholder teams including the Head of Architecture and Head of profession for architecture.

Rewards and Benefits

You’ll receive a starting salary of London £86,758 - £92,918/ Manchester £85,668 - £91,510 plus other benefits including:

• 25 Days Annual Leave automatically rising to 30 days after 5 years' service, and an additional 10.5 days public and privilege holidays
• Opportunities to be recognised through our employee performance scheme
• Personal Learning Budget
• Interest-free season ticket loan
• Excellent pension scheme
• Cycle to work scheme
• Facilities such as a gym, restaurant and on-site coffee bars (at some locations)
• Paid parental and adoption leave.

Equal Opportunities

At MI5 diversity and inclusion are critical to our mission. To protect the UK, we need a truly diverse workforce that reflects the society we serve. This includes diversity in every sense of the word: those with different backgrounds, ages, ethnicities, gender identities, sexual orientations, ways of thinking and those with disabilities or neurodivergent conditions. We therefore welcome and encourage applications from everyone, including those from groups that are under-represented in our workforce such as women, those from an ethnic minority background, people with disabilities and those from low socio-economic backgrounds.

Find out more about our culture, working environment and diversity on our website:

https://www.mi5.gov.uk/careers/diversity

We’re Disability Confident

MI5 are proud to have achieved Leader status within the DWP’s Disability Confident scheme. This is aimed at encouraging employers to think differently about disability and take action to improve how they recruit, retain and develop disabled people. Being Disability Confident, we aim to offer a person-to-person interview to any candidate who self-identifies as disabled and meets the essential criteria for the role. This is our ‘Offer of Interview’ (OOI). To secure an interview for this vacancy, the essential criteria (in order of application process) are:

• Recent Experience working in a technology strategy / architecture role
• Recent Experience working with product delivery teams

What to Expect

Our recruitment process is fair, transparent, and based on merit. Here is a brief overview of each stage, in order:

• Application sift, looking at your motivation for the role and the organisation.
• Competency based interview with additional technical questions based on the role you are applying for.
• If successful, you will receive a conditional offer of employment, subject to vetting

Please note, you must successfully pass each stage of the process to progress to the next. Your application may take around 6 - 9 months to process including vetting, so we advise you continue any current employment until you have received your final job offer.

Before You Apply

To work at MI5, you need to be a British citizen or hold dual British nationality. You can read our full eligibility criteria here.

This role requires the highest security clearance, known as Developed Vetting (DV). It’s something everyone in the UK Intelligence Community undertakes. You can find out more about the vetting process here.

Please note we have a strict drugs policy, so once you start your application, you can’t take any recreational drugs and you’ll need to declare your previous drug usage at the relevant stage.

The role is based in London or Manchester, so you’ll need to live within a commutable distance. Please consider any financial implications and practicalities before submitting an application. A loan is available to support people relocating.

Please note, you should only launch your application from within the UK. If you are based overseas, you should wait until you visit the UK to launch an application. Applying from outside the UK will impact on our ability to progress your application. You should not discuss your application, other than with your partner or a close family member.

Right to Withdraw Statement:

Please be aware that we withhold the right to bring forward the closing date for this role from the original closing date once a certain number of applications have been received. Please be mindful of this and submit your application at your earliest convenience to avoid disappointment.