Overview
You understand modern and legacy integration patterns, and know how technologies like APIs, events, messaging, file transfer and cloud-based integration all fit together across a large, complex organisation. As a Lead Enterprise Architect, you will be at the heart of shaping DWP's future technology landscape. You'll develop and maintain the DWP Enterprise Architecture, guiding how our systems evolve and ensuring teams have the patterns, standards and frameworks they need to build services confidently and consistently.
Strategic Role
This role is deeply strategic. You'll work closely with senior stakeholders and executive boards, helping them understand architectural risks, trade-offs and opportunities - ensuring our technology direction stays aligned with DWP's business strategy. You'll lead horizon scanning, keep us aware of industry, government and digital trends, and translate emerging thinking into actionable recommendations for DWP. This position will also play a central role in influencing how we integrate platforms and services across the enterprise. This isn't command-and-control: success comes from chairmanship, collaboration and the ability to bring people together behind a shared architectural vision. You'll work across teams, portfolios and programmes to unblock challenges, shape roadmaps, spark pathfinder projects as well as help technical teams adopt modern integration approaches. As the expert in this domain, you'll often represent DWP across government, contributing to cross-department initiatives and briefing senior leaders (including ministers) on specialist topics. You'll mentor other architects, support Product Delivery Unit teams, and help ensure the architectural "jigsaw" across DWP fits together coherently. This is a role for someone who wants to originate strategy, shape technology direction at national scale, and leave a legacy that improves the way government works for years to come.
Qualifications
* You have experience leading enterprise‑scale architecture for major, business‑critical systems – not just designing individual solutions, but shaping whole ecosystems and guiding major technology decisions.
* You're confident presenting complex topics to a wide range of audiences – senior leaders, technical teams, cross-government partners and external stakeholders.
* You have experience running architecture governance that helps organisations make consistent, informed decisions.
* You know how to create reference architectures, principles and standards, and can explain them clearly to technical peers.
* You understand both modern architectural approaches (like microservices, APIs, cloud and event‑driven design) and traditional on‑premise monoliths – and how to bridge between them.
Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
Disability Confident
A Disability Confident employer will generally offer an interview to any applicant that declares they have a disability and meets the minimum criteria for the job as defined by the employer. In certain recruitment situations such as high‑volume, seasonal and high‑peak times, the employer may wish to limit the overall numbers of interviews offered to both disabled people and non-disabled people.
Join Us
Join us and shape how one of the UK's largest digital organisations connects, scales and secures the technology that underpins services for millions of citizens. As a Lead Enterprise Architect, you'll join DWP Digital's Enterprise Architecture community – a team that designs the strategic technology direction for our entire organisation. You'll lead the development of DWP's reference architectures and digital blueprints, ensuring our systems evolve in a secure, modern and sustainable way. Your work will influence multi‑billion‑pound services, helping us manage technical risk, reduce complexity and drive transformation across a vast and critical technology estate. This is a high‑impact, highly visible role. You'll be the recognised expert in integration architecture across DWP, shaping strategic decisions, guiding senior leaders and enabling the adoption of modern technologies. You'll balance big‑picture vision with deep technical insight, helping teams across DWP and government deliver better, more resilient services.
Compensation
We offer competitive pay of up to £99,836. Salary plus a Government Digital and Data Allowance of up to £24,810 subject to our assessment of your capability at interview. Pension: You'll get a brilliant civil service pension with employer contributions worth 28.97%. Holidays: A generous leave package starting at 26 days rising to 31 days over time. You can also take up to 3 extra days off a month on flexi‑time. You'll also get all the usual public holidays. Hybrid working, flexible hours, and great work‑life balance.
Benefits
* Flexible working including flexible hours and flex‑friendly policies
* Time off volunteering and charitable giving
* Bring your authentic self to work with "I Can Be Me in DWP"
* Discounts and savings on shopping, fun days out and more
* Interest‑free loans to buy a bike or a season ticket, so it's even easier for you to get to work and start making a difference
* Sports and social activities
* Professional development, coaching, mentoring and career progression opportunities.
Awards and Recognition
* DWP has been recognised as 2024 Diversity Employer of the Year at the Computing Women in Tech Excellence awards
* Diverse and Inclusive Leadership at Digital Leaders Awards 2024
* Commended as Best Place to Work in Digital category in the Computing Digital Technology Leaders awards 2025
* Recognised as one of the Best Public Sector Employers at 2025 Women In Tech Employer Awards
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