Skip to main content

These are exciting times at the Department for Education. We are transforming to become a user centred organisation, delivering better outcomes for all our users through agile and iterative software development and continuous improvement.

You will work with user researchers, product managers, designers, business analysts, delivery managers and content specialists as part of a multi-disciplinary team to directly deliver better outcomes for users. You will innovate to radically transform how public services are delivered and improved.

Read more about software development on the DfE Digital blog.

Lead business architect

As a lead business architect, you will provide strategic direction and leadership for the business architecture capability. Working with stakeholders you will set the vision for business architecture ensuring all business architecture activities align with business strategic goals. You will provide essential support and guidance for all other business architects.

The role

A lead business architect uses their expert knowledge and experience to direct work addressing high level and complex business scenarios, leading the development and deployment of business architecture in the wider organisation, supporting and leading all other business architects.

Your main responsibilities will include:

  • Be accountable for outputs produced by business architects
  • Lead and direct the application of architectural principles, methods, and tools to business scenarios
  • Use architectural methods to form a view of the whole enterprise in a way that is easily understood by stakeholders
  • Work with and influence stakeholders at executive levels
  • Provide overall direction, guidance, and definition of business architecture to support business and more general architecture strategy
  • Develop and maintain a strong business architecture capability through coaching, mentoring, and training

Skills you need

It is essential that you can demonstrate the following skills and experience in your application and at the first stage interview:

  • Simplifying complex business architecture frameworks into clear actions
  • Developing business architecture maturity in an organisation, such as through a community of practice
  • Leading or guiding others in using best practice for business architecture, such as industry standards
  • Identifying strategic misalignment within an organisation and making recommendations for improvement
  • Providing advice and recommendations to stakeholders based on your significant specialist knowledge and experience
  • Leading the definition of guidance and informing how an organisation approaches delivery
  • Making decisions characterised by medium levels of risk and complexity, and recommending decisions as risk and complexity increase
  • Building consensus between services or independent stakeholders

In addition, the following essential criteria will also need to be demonstrated at the second interview stage. You will need to show that you can:

  • Mediate between people and mend relationships, communicating with stakeholders at all levels
  • Manage stakeholder expectations and host or moderate discussions about high risk and complexity, even within constrained timescales
  • Speak on behalf of and represent the community to large audiences inside and outside of government
  • Set direction and give others the means and authority to advise on the best methodologies and tools for the work, ensuring they are adopted consistently
  • Assess the effectiveness of different approaches (such as Agile or plan-driven) and recommend tools to support organisational collaboration and build capability
  • Direct the strategy towards stakeholder relationships
  • Set stakeholder objectives and ensure that they’re met
  • Influence important senior stakeholders and provide mediation
  • Demonstrate a strong understanding of business issues, events and activities and their short to long term impact
  • Define principles, patterns, standards, policies, roadmaps and vision statements
  • Effectively focus on outcomes rather than solutions and activities
  • Develop, maintain or update strategy in response to feedback and findings
  • Lead the design and implementation of strategy, directing the evaluation of strategies and policies to ensure business requirements are being met

It is desirable that you demonstrate the following:

  • Experience of business analysis
  • Experience of systems thinking abilities, seeing the big picture
  • Excellent listening and interrogating skills, asking questions to extract valuable business information

Please note that desirable criteria will only be considered to make an informed decision in the event of a tie.

Selection process

Application

Candidates should complete the advertised Civil Service Jobs application by submitting a completed application form and CV, explaining how they meet the essential criteria specified under the Selection Criteria heading in the advert.

CV details need to be included in the template within the application form which is accessible through the Civil Service Jobs advert. Emailed CVs will not be considered.

Sift

Applications will be sifted by a panel who will look further at the evidence provided. The CV will be assessed in-line with the essential criteria listed in the advert.

Depending on the number of candidates who meet the minimum pass mark at sift, you may be invited to a first stage interview.

First stage interview

Longlisted candidates may be invited to attend a preliminary interview, which will be conducted via telephone, typically involving a commitment of up to 1 hour. The interview will consist of a series of questions to further assess the essential criteria listed in this advert.

As interviews will be conducted via telephone, please ensure that you are in a suitable location to hear and answer the questions.

If successful, candidates will then be invited to a second interview, which will be conducted via a video call.

Second stage interview

At this interview, candidates will be asked to provide evidence of the essential skills, specified as being assessed at the second stage interview, under the Selection Criteria heading.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview.