NHS Business Services Authority

Technical Architect

The closing date is 14 August 2025

Job summary

Do you have significant experience in technical architecture, a proven track record of success and a desire to make a difference by supporting essential NHS services? Can you work closely with a talented and motivated team in a business-critical environment? If so, we have an exciting opportunity available and we'd love to hear from you!

We design, develop, test, support and operate applications from our digital transformation projects to support patients, colleagues and the public. We deliver relevant and valuable services to millions of users with various needs and abilities.

What do we offer? o 27 days leave (increasing with length of service) plus 8 bank holidays o Flexible working (we are happy to discuss options such as compressed hours) o Hybrid working model (we are currently working largely remotely) o Career development o Active wellbeing and inclusion networks o Excellent pension o NHS Car lease scheme o Access to a wide range of benefits and high street discounts!

Main duties of the job

The growth and innovation that cloud vendors provide challenge us to rethink our approach to developing optimal solutions that can drive down cost and timescales whilst enhancing quality. The NHSBSA follows multi-cloud and cloud first principles, technical architects are key to realising that ambition.

Collaborating with other professions such as user research, user experience design, development, test and DevOps, you will create available, secure and performant applications deployed in the AWS cloud that are continuously iterated in an agile manner.

Your role will be the technical design lead, ensuring services are developed in line with business expectation whilst utilising and challenging strategy, patterns, standards, and roadmaps.

You'll be part of our Architecture Community of Practice and help forward the profession. As a technical architect, you'll collaboratively identify technical challenges and the patterns and standards that can overcome these and enable the creation of consistent, testable, and modular services rapidly.

Technical Architects in the NHSBSA embrace the drive to be customer-centric and, following fundamental principles, have designed award-winning services that surpass the requirements of end-users:

  • To provide better service to connected consumers
  • To work inter-professionally
  • To set standards for the use of digital
  • To educate colleagues about the use of digital tools
  • To be open and transparent
  • To work in an agile, iterative and data-driven manner

About us

Here at the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA), what we do matters.We manage the NHS Pension scheme, process prescription payments and much more. Our services are used by NHS organisations, contractors and the public: we're proud to be part of something meaningful, that touches millions of lives.We design our services around customer needs and place people at the heart of our organisation. That's why when you join us, you'll be empowered and supported to help your career grow.As one of the UK's Best Big Companies to work for, we're connected to our values: Collaborative, Adventurous, Reliable and Energetic. We care about our people, our purpose, and your progress.We strive to offer a fantastic colleague experience, where every colleague is heard, supported and respected. Wellbeing, diversity and inclusion is at the centre of this, and you can join our Lived Experience Networks who help us bring our authentic selves to work.We're committed to being a flexible employer and we try to offer a working pattern that suits you where possible, through hybrid working, flexible hours and more.Alongside a competitive salary with pay progression, we offer a people-centric benefits package, connecting you to the rewards and benefits you value most!Ready to join us in delivering business service excellence to the NHS, helping people live longer, healthier lives? Apply today and see where the NHSBSA can take you.We are people connected to care.

Details

Date posted

31 July 2025

Pay scheme

Agenda for change

Band

Band 8a

Salary

£55,690 to £62,682 a year

Contract

Permanent

Working pattern

Full-time, Flexible working

Reference number

914-BSA7342955

Job locations

Stella House (Newcastle) or Ridgeway House (Middlebrook)

Goldcrest way, Newburn Riverside

Newcastle Upon Tyne

NE15 8NY


Job description

Job responsibilities

In this role, you are accountable for

1. Collaboratively define as-is and to-be architectures to develop full technical solutions designs including preparation of technical artefacts, and blueprints; providing a high quality of cost estimation for submission into internal and external business cases and assessments. 2. Undertake and lead on investigative analysis within multidisciplinary teams, providing technical authority, making credible and practical technical decisions, communicating these with sensitivity and diplomacy to ensure the right technical direction is followed. 3. Facilitate scoping and priority setting of large or complex changes, to enable the delivery to team to provides robust options appraisals and recommendations; harmonising across infrastructures and technologies wherever possible and selecting the most appropriate means to communicate information. 4. Proactively devising and managing initiatives to deliver capacity, performance and system availability improvements to meet or exceed targets. 5. Translating designs both logical and physical to support user friendly processes and systems, and communication of this across a variety of stakeholders including, business areas, projects or programme teams.6. Sets technical standards, tools, techniques and methods and advises and influences others to adopt these to ensure consistency across the organisational approaches to designs. 7. Monitoring the development of new and emerging tools, technologies and products to assess potential value and identifying opportunities to enhance capabilities, products and services within the organisation. 8. Taking a major role to identify and share good practices, participating in relevant communities of practice to drive adoption of design standards, trends and patterns. 9. Working under general direction; planning your own work to achieve agreed objectives, seeking information when unclear, and escalating as appropriate, any issues or conflicting priorities which may impact deadlines. 10. Actively participating and contributing to quality assurance reviews of your work through a variety of approaches such as peer review, learning logs, and engaging in appropriate communities.

Job description

Job responsibilities

In this role, you are accountable for

1. Collaboratively define as-is and to-be architectures to develop full technical solutions designs including preparation of technical artefacts, and blueprints; providing a high quality of cost estimation for submission into internal and external business cases and assessments. 2. Undertake and lead on investigative analysis within multidisciplinary teams, providing technical authority, making credible and practical technical decisions, communicating these with sensitivity and diplomacy to ensure the right technical direction is followed. 3. Facilitate scoping and priority setting of large or complex changes, to enable the delivery to team to provides robust options appraisals and recommendations; harmonising across infrastructures and technologies wherever possible and selecting the most appropriate means to communicate information. 4. Proactively devising and managing initiatives to deliver capacity, performance and system availability improvements to meet or exceed targets. 5. Translating designs both logical and physical to support user friendly processes and systems, and communication of this across a variety of stakeholders including, business areas, projects or programme teams.6. Sets technical standards, tools, techniques and methods and advises and influences others to adopt these to ensure consistency across the organisational approaches to designs. 7. Monitoring the development of new and emerging tools, technologies and products to assess potential value and identifying opportunities to enhance capabilities, products and services within the organisation. 8. Taking a major role to identify and share good practices, participating in relevant communities of practice to drive adoption of design standards, trends and patterns. 9. Working under general direction; planning your own work to achieve agreed objectives, seeking information when unclear, and escalating as appropriate, any issues or conflicting priorities which may impact deadlines. 10. Actively participating and contributing to quality assurance reviews of your work through a variety of approaches such as peer review, learning logs, and engaging in appropriate communities.

Person Specification

Personal Qualities, Knowledge and Skills

Essential

  • Business change, rationalisation and transformation and implementation of strategic approaches, plans, activities and solutions.
  • Evaluation, interpretation, translation and communication of complex data/information from multiple sources and requirements to inform decision making.
  • Design of cost effective and scalable enterprise solutions, from development through to implementation in a multi-supplier environment.

Desirable

  • A variety of approaches to hosted solutions and data centers including co-Location (and integration into Service Management models)
  • Working to GDS Principles and having participated in GDS assessments

Experience

Essential

  • Provide business assurance of supplier's designs and proposals.
  • A range of experience across a diverse and detailed technical knowledge, covering web applications and services, cloud technology, information, infrastructure, cloud and managed service architectures.
  • Planning and organisational skills across a broad range of activities to support the delivery of project planning and resource management.
  • Communicating and negotiating with external bodies, suppliers and organisations to reach satisfactory outcomes for the NHSBSA, including assurance of external design proposals.

Desirable

  • Analysing digital / web services in a fast-paced environment
  • Open source and cloud technologies and their sourcing.
  • Experience of migrating services across different Data Centre locations and legacy application consolidation
  • Solution and service design and delivery within an Agile development environment.

Qualifications

Essential

  • An IT related degree or equivalent, plus significant demonstrable experience in two of the following: IT Architecture (digital and service), System Design, Business and Technical Analysis and/or Management of a significant ICT implementation

Desirable

  • TOGAF certification or equivalent
  • Experience of working in an agile environment
  • ITIL or SIAM Certification
  • Undertaken GDS Assessor training
Person Specification

Personal Qualities, Knowledge and Skills

Essential

  • Business change, rationalisation and transformation and implementation of strategic approaches, plans, activities and solutions.
  • Evaluation, interpretation, translation and communication of complex data/information from multiple sources and requirements to inform decision making.
  • Design of cost effective and scalable enterprise solutions, from development through to implementation in a multi-supplier environment.

Desirable

  • A variety of approaches to hosted solutions and data centers including co-Location (and integration into Service Management models)
  • Working to GDS Principles and having participated in GDS assessments

Experience

Essential

  • Provide business assurance of supplier's designs and proposals.
  • A range of experience across a diverse and detailed technical knowledge, covering web applications and services, cloud technology, information, infrastructure, cloud and managed service architectures.
  • Planning and organisational skills across a broad range of activities to support the delivery of project planning and resource management.
  • Communicating and negotiating with external bodies, suppliers and organisations to reach satisfactory outcomes for the NHSBSA, including assurance of external design proposals.

Desirable

  • Analysing digital / web services in a fast-paced environment
  • Open source and cloud technologies and their sourcing.
  • Experience of migrating services across different Data Centre locations and legacy application consolidation
  • Solution and service design and delivery within an Agile development environment.

Qualifications

Essential

  • An IT related degree or equivalent, plus significant demonstrable experience in two of the following: IT Architecture (digital and service), System Design, Business and Technical Analysis and/or Management of a significant ICT implementation

Desirable

  • TOGAF certification or equivalent
  • Experience of working in an agile environment
  • ITIL or SIAM Certification
  • Undertaken GDS Assessor training

Employer details

Employer name

NHS Business Services Authority

Address

Stella House (Newcastle) or Ridgeway House (Middlebrook)

Goldcrest way, Newburn Riverside

Newcastle Upon Tyne

NE15 8NY


Employer's website

https://careers.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)


Employer details

Employer name

NHS Business Services Authority

Address

Stella House (Newcastle) or Ridgeway House (Middlebrook)

Goldcrest way, Newburn Riverside

Newcastle Upon Tyne

NE15 8NY


Employer's website

https://careers.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)


Employer contact details

For questions about the job, contact:

Lead Technical Architect

Glen Robson

glen.robson@nhsbsa.nhs.uk

Details

Date posted

31 July 2025

Pay scheme

Agenda for change

Band

Band 8a

Salary

£55,690 to £62,682 a year

Contract

Permanent

Working pattern

Full-time, Flexible working

Reference number

914-BSA7342955

Job locations

Stella House (Newcastle) or Ridgeway House (Middlebrook)

Goldcrest way, Newburn Riverside

Newcastle Upon Tyne

NE15 8NY


Supporting documents

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