Lead Business Architect

Job summary

As a Lead Business Architect, you operate at a strategic level within the Digital and Information Directorate (DID), reporting to the Principal Technical and Enterprise Architect. The role is pivotal in shaping the technical direction of digital services across multiple teams and projects. Its primary purpose is to ensure that systems are robust, scalable, secure, and aligned with organisational and government standards.

Key responsibilities include guiding technical design, making critical architectural decisions, and assuring solution quality through reviews and adherence to architecture principles. The role promotes reuse, interoperability, and cross-organisation and cross-government collaboration, identifying opportunities for shared platforms and services to deliver better value.

Beyond technical oversight, you play a leadership role in mentoring other architects and technical staff, fostering continuous learning and professional development. You will be a leader in the architecture community, embedding best practices and driving innovation and architectural alignment across delivery teams.

Strategically, the position requires maintaining awareness of emerging technologies, government digital strategies, and socio-political trends to ensure architectural decisions remain forward-looking. The architect will engage senior stakeholders to influence strategic direction and inform planning and investment decisions.

The Crown Prosecution Service is based in England and Wales. If you’re applying for this role and live in Scotland or Northern Ireland, you must let us know when accepting this offer as you need permission to work from your home address if hybrid working is part of your role. There’s no guarantee that we will grant this approval.

You must be aged 16 or over at the point of starting in this role. The expected start date is approximately 8–12 weeks after the application closing date. Candidates are expected to commence employment as soon as possible following the expiry of their notice period. Requests for significantly later start dates may not be accommodated.

As part of this role, you are expected to undertake direct line management responsibilities.

Job description

Your roles and responsibilities:

• Define and own technical architecture for complex digital services, ensuring alignment with organisational and government standards (e.g., GDS framework).
• Provide strategic technical leadership, influencing design decisions and guiding delivery teams across multiple projects.
• Assure solution quality through architecture reviews, governance, and adherence to enterprise principles such as scalability, security, and interoperability.
• Promote reuse and shared platforms, identifying opportunities for cross-government collaboration and cost-effective solutions.
• Mentor and develop technical staff, fostering a culture of continuous learning and professional growth within the architecture community.
• Engage senior stakeholders, translating technical concepts into business value and influencing investment decisions.
• Stay ahead of emerging technologies and trends, ensuring architectural decisions remain innovative and future-proof.
• Lead on risk management and compliance, including security standards and technical assurance processes.
• Champion best practices, embedding agile and DevOps principles into architecture and delivery approaches.

A copy of the full job description is attached.

Person specification

To be eligible to apply, you need to:

• Have substantial experience in technical architecture, including designing and assuring complex digital services that meet organisational and relevant sector standards, preferably HMG standards.
• Demonstrate strategic thinking, with the ability to see the bigger picture, align technical decisions to long-term organisational goals, and anticipate emerging technologies and trends.
• Show leadership capability, including mentoring technical staff, fostering professional development, and leading architecture communities to embed best practices.
• Possess strong stakeholder engagement skills, able to influence senior leaders and communicate complex technical concepts clearly to non-technical audiences.
• Be adept at promoting reuse and interoperability, identifying opportunities for shared platforms and cross-organisation and cross-government collaboration to deliver value.
• Have a proven ability to assure solution quality, through governance, reviews, and adherence to enterprise architecture principles such as scalability, security, and sustainability.
• Understand agile and DevSecOps practices, working with these principles in architecture and delivery approaches.

You also need to demonstrate the following technical skills:

• Business architecture

• Communicating information

• Consultancy

• Making and guiding decisions

• Methods and tools

• Strategic thinking

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Seeing the Big Picture
• Changing and Improving
• Making Effective Decisions
• Managing a Quality Service
• Communicating and Influencing

Technical skills

We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

• Business Architecture
• Communicating Information
• Consultancy
• Making and Guiding Decisions
• Methods and Tools
• Strategic Thinking

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £58,330, Crown Prosecution Service contributes £16,898 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).

Join the Crown Prosecution Service and find your purpose.

The Crown Prosecution Service is passionate about ensuring that we're a top performing organisation and a great place to work. We're a committed equal opportunities employer, creating a culture where you can bring your whole self to work, and individuality is truly appreciated.

This culture of inclusion is underpinned by our staff networks covering disability, faith and belief, LGBTQI+, race, social mobility alongside our mental health first aiders programme and wellbeing sessions.

The Crown Prosecution Service commits to offer its employees the following experience.

• You can do impactful, purposeful work that’s making a difference to your local communities.
• You are able to learn and grow, with access to the right opportunities and resources.
• We care about your wellbeing.
• We want you to feel valued, trusted and included.

We also offer the following range of benefits:

• Civil Service contributory pension of up to 28.9%
• 25 days’ leave, increasing to 30 days after 5 years
• £350 each year to spend on personal development
• lawyer training programme for all new prosecutors
• an extra privilege day to mark the King's birthday
• competitive maternity, paternity and parental leave
• flexible working including flexitime, and a family friendly approach to work
• Cycle2Work scheme, employee savings.

Diversity at the Crown Prosecution Service is about inclusion, embracing differences and ensuring our workforce truly reflects the communities we serve. We want you to feel that you belong and can thrive, whatever your background, identity or culture. As a Disa