Details
Reference number
426782
Salary
£67,609
Roles based in London will receive an additional London Weighting Allowance of £4,218 per annum, subject to annual review.
This position attracts a Recruitment and Retention Allowance (RRA) of £3,000 per annum as an addition to the advertised salary, subject to annual review.
A Civil Service Pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%
GBP
Job grade
Grade 7
NCA Grade 2 / Police Superintendent
Contract type
Permanent
Fixed term
Loan
Secondment
Length of employment
This role is available on a permanent basis. Candidates may opt for a 24-month Fixed Term Appointment, Loan or Secondment if appropriate.
Business area
NCA - DDaT
Type of role
Architecture and Data
Working pattern
Flexible working, Full-time, Job share, Part-time
Number of jobs available
7
Contents
* Location
* About the job
* Benefits
* Things you need to know
* Apply and further information
Location
Belfast; Birmingham; Bristol; Calder (Normanton); Leicester; London*; Warrington
* For roles based in London, your contractual place of work will be Stratford. While the Stratford site is expected to become operational from November 2025 – March 2026, you will be required to carry out your contractual duties from Vauxhall or another reasonable location on a temporary basis during the interim period. Please note that, as Stratford will be your contractual place of work, any subsequent move from a temporary location will not entitle you to payments for travel time or costs under the Relocation and Excess Travel Policy.
About the job
Job summary
The Digital Data and Technology (DDaT) Directorate is responsible for creating a cutting-edge technology and information environment that connects, empowers and enhances our Officers' crime fighting capabilities.
We are responsible for defining and delivering our data and technology strategy, policy and architecture, building and sustaining resilient services which are critical to our mission success. We work closely with our operational teams to help them do their job in the most effective and efficient way, understanding their challenges and combining this with emerging technologies/techniques to obtain and exploit data in innovative ways to ensure we stay ahead of the criminals who are committing some of most serious crimes and inflicting harm to our society.
Are you ready to join the team?
If you would like to find out more about this role and the application process we will be holding a virtual opening evening via MS Teams on Wednesday 17th September 2025 at 6.00pm.
This event is by invitation only.
To register, please click on the following link DDaT VIRTUAL EVENT.
You will be asked for your name and email address. Please ensure that you spell your email address correctly.
Registration will close on Tuesday 16th September at 12:00pm. You will not be able to register after this date and time.
Please see our Privacy Policy for details on how your data is handled.
Job description
The Digital Data and Technology (DDaT) Directorate is responsible for creating a cutting-edge technology and information environment that connects, empowers and enhances our Officers' crime fighting capabilities.
We are responsible for defining and delivering our data and technology strategy, policy and architecture, building and sustaining resilient services which are critical to our mission success. We work closely with our operational teams to help them do their job in the most effective and efficient way, understanding their challenges and combining this with emerging technologies/techniques to obtain and exploit data in innovative ways to ensure we stay ahead of the criminals who are committing some of most serious crimes and inflicting harm to our society.
Are you ready to join the team?
Duties and Responsibilities:
* Provide hands-on architecture support throughout the full solution lifecycle, from early discovery through to implementation and transition into service.
* Translate business, user and operational requirements into feasible, pragmatic technical solution designs that balance long-term sustainability with delivery constraints.
* Ensure all solution designs align with enterprise architecture principles, patterns and standards, and comply with internal governance and assurance processes at each relevant stage.
* Lead design assurance activities, proactively managing trade-offs between time, cost, security, performance and risk, and ensuring solutions meet both functional and non-functional requirements.
* Champion secure-by-design principles across all solutions, ensuring security requirements are identified early, embedded throughout the design process, and compliant with Agency and government standards.
* Guide engineering and delivery teams to implement solutions in line with approved architectures, offering direction on technical decisions, integration approaches and issue resolution.
* Act as a senior design authority across multiple programmes, workstreams and supplier environments, providing clear technical oversight and decision-making support.
* Promote architectural reuse, technical consistency, and coherence across platforms and services, helping to build a stable, secure and adaptable technology landscape for the Agency.
Person specification
* Extensive experience designing and assuring end-to-end technical solutions for complex, multi-disciplinary delivery programmes, ensuring solutions are fit for purpose, deliverable and aligned to strategic objectives.
* Deep knowledge of systems integration approaches, cloud architecture models (including hybrid and multi-cloud), and modern application design patterns that enable flexibility, scalability and maintainability.
* Proven ability to work effectively with cross-functional teams including business analysts, engineers, testers, product managers and security specialists to land viable, value-driven solutions in real-world delivery environments.
* Strong understanding of architecture governance processes and assurance frameworks, with the ability to ensure compliance, manage risk and maintain alignment with enterprise strategy and technical standards throughout the delivery lifecycle.
Desirable criteria, only to be assessed in the event of a tie break:
* The ability to stay up to date on technology trends and approaches.
* Can demonstrate and understanding of organisational objectives and external drivers, for example, legislation or financial constraints.
* The ability to design and document solutions so they can be implemented by the organisation.
* The ability to manage risks and decisions in a transparent way.
Behaviours
We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
* Leadership
* Seeing the Big Picture
Technical skills
We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:
* Extensive experience designing and assuring end-to-end technical solutions for complex, multi-disciplinary delivery programmes, ensuring solutions are fit for purpose, deliverable and aligned to strategic objectives.
* Strong understanding of architecture governance processes and assurance frameworks, with the ability to ensure compliance, manage risk and maintain alignment with enterprise strategy and technical standards throughout the delivery lifecycle.
Benefits
Alongside your salary of £67,609, National Crime Agency contributes £19,586 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.
New entrants to the NCA receive 26 days annual leave, rising to 31 on completion of 5 years continuous service, plus 8 bank holidays.
If qualifying criteria is met new joiners from UK Police Forces or the UK Intelligence Community (UKIC) will have service with those employers taken into account for continuous service purposes for annual leave entitlement only, this will be up to a maximum of 31 days leave (including 1 privilege day).
Other benefits include:
* Flexible working, including flexi-time, compressed hours and job sharing (in line with business requirements).
* Family friendly policies, notably above the statutory minimum.
* Learning and Development opportunities.
* Interest free loans and advances, including season tickets, childcare and rental deposits.
* Housing schemes - Key Worker status.
* Discounts and Savings with a wide variety of services including Cycle to Work, Smart Tech schemes, dental insurance, gym discounts and savings on everyday spending, available through the Reward Gateway, Edenred and Blue Light Card schemes.
* Staff support groups/networks.
* Sports and social activities, including membership to the Civil Service Sports Council (CSSC).
Things you need to know
Selection process details
This vacancy is using Success Profiles, and will assess your Behaviours, Experience and Technical skills.
Artificial Intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.
How we will assess you
Your application will be assessed against the following:
Experience - This will be assessed by the following:
CV
Please include your full career history, training, qualifications, key responsibilities, and achievements. Explain any employment gaps in the last two years. Ensure all accreditation dates are accurate.
Details of what is expected within you CV are as follows: Your CV should consist of your career history, qualifications and skills including any key achievements in each role. It will be used to provide further context on your personal statement and scored against the skills and experience set out in the person specification, detailed in the job description.
Statement of Suitability
Please provide a 1250 word personal statement demonstrating how you meet the criteria below:
The Personal Statement should be aligned to and demonstrate how you meet the skills and experience set out in the person specification, detailed in the job description.
A panel will assess how well your application demonstrates the requirements outlined above.
You will receive an acknowledgement once your application is submitted.
We aim to have sift completed and scores released within 10 working days of the closing date of the advert. For high volume campaigns this timeframe may be extended.
Scores will be provided but further feedback will not be available at this stage.
For guidance on the application process, visit: NCA Applying and Onboarding
Assessment 1
The format of this assessment will be Interview which will be tested on the criteria listed in the Success Profiles at Assessment section.
Success Profiles at Assessment
Behaviours
* Leadership
* Seeing the Big Picture
Technical
* Extensive experience designing and assuring end-to-end technical solutions for complex, multi-disciplinary delivery programmes, ensuring solutions are fit for purpose, deliverable and aligned to strategic objectives.
* Strong understanding of architecture governance processes and assurance frameworks, with the ability to ensure compliance, manage risk and maintain alignment with enterprise strategy and technical standards throughout the delivery lifecycle.
Experience
* Architectural thinking, relevant experience and how you approach complex delivery within the given domain, aligned to the person specification, detailed in the job description.
Presentation
Applicants that are invited to interview will be asked to deliver a presentation based on the below criteria:
You will be asked to deliver a 10 minute presentation at interview. This will be on the Experience criteria listed within the advert. The presentation scenario will be provided ahead of the interview.
Assessment Outcome
Outcomes will be communicated via the NCA recruitment portal.
If successful but no role is immediately available, you may be placed on a reserve list for 12 months.
In the event of a tie at the assessment stage, available roles will be offered in merit order using the following order:
* Lead criteria (behaviours/technical/experience)
* If still tied, desirable criteria will be assessed (if advertised)
* If still tied, application sift scores will be used
Feedback is provided only to those who attend an assessment.
You will be subject to vetting and pre-employment checks before appointment.
Once the vacancy closes, the advert will no longer be accessible. Please save a copy for your records.
We encourage all candidates to visit the NCA Careers Page for more information.
Full advert details for this vacancy can found on the advert on the NCA Recruitment Portal. Please follow the link to apply at advertisers' site.
Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.
Security
Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is developed vetting .
See our vetting charter .
People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.
Nationality requirements
This job is broadly open to the following groups:
* UK nationals
* nationals of the Republic of Ireland
* nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
* nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
* nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
* individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
* Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service
Further information on nationality requirements
Working for the Civil Service
The Civil Service Code sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.
We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles .
The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.
The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.
Diversity and Inclusion
The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy .
Apply and further information
This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans initiative.
Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.
Contact point for applicants
Job contact :
* Name :
* Email :
Recruitment team
* Email :
Further information
If you believe your application has not been treated fairly, email: (quoting the vacancy reference). If unresolved, you may escalate your complaint to the Civil Service Commission.