Hybrid working model – remote and on-site as required
Overview
Ministry of Justice is seeking an experienced Senior Technical Architect to support Legal Aid Agency on a temporary consultancy engagement. The role provides architectural leadership across digital services that enable both citizens and legal professionals to access and manage legal aid services.
You will work within multidisciplinary delivery teams and act as a senior technical partner, shaping architectural strategy, informing key technology decisions, and ensuring services are secure, scalable and aligned to government digital and technology standards. This position demands a strong blend of technical breadth, stakeholder engagement, and the ability to influence across organizational boundaries.
Role Purpose
The Senior Technical Architect will analyze the Legal Aid Agency’s technology landscape, identify opportunities for improvement, and define architectures that support long-term digital transformation. You will collaborate closely with developers, SRE and security specialists, product managers, user researchers, designers, and delivery managers to guide technical direction across multiple service lines.
This role requires clear communication, structured thinking, and the ability to articulate technical concepts to both specialist and non-specialist audiences. You will also support the development of the architecture community, providing guidance, mentorship, and technical leadership across teams.
Key Responsibilities
Strategic Architecture & Technical Leadership
Work with the Lead Technical Architect to define and maintain the long-term architectural roadmap for the Legal Aid Agency’s digital systems.
Ensure product and delivery teams follow strategic architectural principles, integration patterns, and technology direction.
Maintain a holistic view of the end-to-end service ecosystem, identifying technical dependencies, risks, and opportunities for improvement.
Stakeholder Engagement & Communication
Explain complex architectural concepts in clear terms to senior stakeholders, enabling informed decision-making.
Facilitate alignment between technical and business leaders, balancing strategic direction with delivery needs.
Represent architecture in governance forums, supporting prioritization, risk discussions, and assurance reviews.
Design, Analysis & Governance
Create high-quality architectural artefacts including diagrams, data flows, integrations, future-state designs, and migration pathways.
Evaluate technology options and assess impacts across infrastructure, data, security, and operational areas.
Contribute to architectural patterns, principles, and standards to support consistency across the digital directorate.
Technical Oversight & Support
Provide expert oversight to ensure services are robust, secure, scalable, and maintainable.
Mentor and coach architects, tech leads, and senior engineers, supporting capability development.
Assist with recruitment and community-of-practice initiatives within the architecture and engineering functions.
Culture & Ways of Working
Promote open dialogue, collaborative problem solving, and continuous learning within the Legal Aid Agency’s technical community.
Champion inclusive working practices and support efforts to grow diversity across engineering roles.
Candidate Requirements
Essential Skills & Experience
Significant experience as a technical or solution architect in complex digital or enterprise environments.
Strong software engineering foundation, with practical knowledge of modern application architectures (e.g., microservices, APIs, distributed systems).
Proven ability to design and document architectures using visual modelling techniques such as C4, UML, and data flow diagrams.
Hands-on experience with at least one major cloud provider, ideally AWS, including Infrastructure as Code, platform services, networking, and security controls.
Deep understanding of secure and resilient system design, including authentication patterns, threat modelling, performance considerations, and observability.
Familiarity with Ruby, Python, or Java, and modern development practices such as CI/CD, TDD, and containerization.
Experience guiding technology decisions, evaluating options, and influencing senior stakeholders.
Strong understanding of data modelling, integration approaches, API design, messaging patterns, and interoperability challenges.
Exceptional communication skills, with the ability to simplify complex topics and build consensus across diverse groups.
Ability to work across the full delivery lifecycle, from discovery through implementation and service transition.
Desirable Skills & Experience
Experience with enterprise ERP platforms (e.g., Oracle E-Business Suite).
Knowledge of UK government digital service standards, architecture frameworks, and assurance processes.
Understanding of Domain-Driven Design or event-driven architectural approaches.
Exposure to SRE, platform engineering, or infrastructure architecture disciplines.
Experience contributing to architectural communities of practice or governance forums.
Prior consultancy experience working across multiple product teams or client environments.
Personal Attributes
Strong systems thinking and analytical capability, with the ability to understand complex environments quickly.
Comfortable operating in ambiguous or fast-changing environments while maintaining architectural clarity.
Collaborative, empathetic, and committed to building trust with stakeholders at all levels.
Dedicated to continuous learning, technical curiosity, and staying current with emerging technologies.
Pragmatic and outcome-focused, balancing long-term architectural quality with short-term delivery constraints.
Technical Environment
The assignment covers a diverse mix of modern cloud-native services and legacy enterprise platforms. Exposure to some of the following areas would be beneficial:
Modern languages and frameworks including Ruby, Java, and Python
AWS cloud services, Infrastructure as Code, platform as a service tooling
Engineering practices such as DDD, TDD, CI/CD, automated testing and Git workflows
Multi-tier platform strategies including centralized data and business logic layers
Enterprise Oracle software including ERP components
Mac-based development environments and public GitHub repositories
Our Values
We are committed to a culture built on purpose, transparency, collaboration, and respect. We welcome applicants from all backgrounds and support an inclusive environment where people can thrive.
关于高知特 (Cognizant)
高知特(Cognizant)（纳斯达克代码：CTSH）作为一家AI Builder和相关技术服务提供商，致力于通过打造全栈AI解决方案，帮助企业将人工智能投资转化为实际价值。公司凭借深厚的行业经验、流程优化和工程技术专长，将企业独特的业务场景融入科技系统，赋能组织释放人才潜能，推动切实成果，并帮助全球企业在瞬息万变的环境中保持领先。如需了解更多详情，敬请访问 cognizant.ai 或关注@cognizant。
补充雇佣信息
薪酬信息截至本职位发布之日为准。Cognizant 保留在适用法律允许的范围内随时修改该信息的权利。
申请人可能需要通过现场面试或视频会议的方式参加面试。此外，候选人在每次面试时可能需要出示其当前所在州或政府签发的有效身份证件。
Cognizant 是一家提供平等就业机会的雇主。在招聘过程中，您的申请和候选资格不会因种族、肤色、性别、宗教、信仰、性取向、性别认同、国籍、残疾、遗传信息、怀孕、退伍军人身份或任何其他受联邦、州或地方法律保护的特征而受到影响。
