Methods is a £100M IT Services Consultancy who has partnered with a range of central government departments and agencies to transform the way the public sector operates in the UK. Established over 30 years ago and UK-based, we apply our skills in transformation, digital delivery, and collaboration from across the Methods Group, to create end-to-end business and technical solutions that are people-centred, safe, and designed for the future.
Our human touch sets us apart from other consultancies, system integrators and software houses - with people, technology, and data at the heart of who we are, we believe in creating value and sustainability through everything we do for our clients, staff, communities, and the planet.
We support our clients in the success of their projects while working collaboratively to share skill sets and solve problems. At Methods we have fun while working hard; we are not afraid of making mistakes and learning from them.
Predominantly focused on the public-sector, Methods is now building a significant private sector client portfolio. Methods was acquired by the Alten Group in early 2022.
Role Description
Methods Technical Delivery and Software Engineering portfolio has achieved significant growth year-on-year. Our mission is to make Methods a ‘go-to' for technical delivery across Government. We're building our delivery capacity and capability by recruiting more permanent staff as the foundation for delivering sustained, profitable growth. We work in-line with Government and industry standards, and are platform-agnostic in our approach, working with our Clients' adopted technologies, and recommending the best tools to meet business and user needs.
As a Technical Architect, you'll be involved in projects during all parts of the lifecycle from initial reports or proposals (including pre-sales support) through to transition (where we take-on projects from others), design, delivery, and knowledge transfer; defining technical and solution approaches for digital services, and engaging with stakeholders.
Your responsibilities will encompass both technical areas (design, delivery, assurance etc.) and non-technical (e.g. stakeholder and client expectation management, line management, innovation etc). From the technical perspective, you will be responsible for the architecture across many domains and engineering outcomes across the full service and project lifecycle from design/inception through to BAU and Service Management across a portfolio of work. This is expected to make up 80% of your time; and the remainder includes growing and improving our architecture and engineering capability (supporting recruitment, assurance and general management), participating in our communities of practice (thought leadership and mentoring), and contributing to pre-sales (solution approach/estimates for bids, and presentation support).
Requirements
You will define, lead and assure the delivery of architectural artefacts on client projects, including technology roadmaps, vision statements, applying policies to high-level solution designs (HLSD), low-level designs (LLD), estimations (capability, capacity and time) and solution options reports (SOR), across multiple views (conceptual, logical, physical, etc) across several domains and aligned to the appropriate sector and industry frameworks e.g. NCSC, Technology Code of Practice, Well Architected/Cloud Adoption Frameworks, TOGAF, etc
You will be a hands-on leader, taking accountability for the assurance and validation of technical deliverables across the architecture and engineering space. This means knowledge and experience with modern public cloud platforms and software engineering techniques essential
You will be responsible for owning and producing designs/documentation to help drive key business decisions, and presenting them to clients, resulting in positive outcomes
You will have experience in some notation such as C4, ArchiMate, UML, BPMN, etc
You should be able to demonstrate experience of facilitating and managing Solution Architecture Board (SAB) or similar governance architectural review boards to govern solution designs and other architecture artefacts, ensuring alignment to strategies
You should be able to demonstrate experience of undertaking architecture and design review of lower-level design architectures, supplier proposals and other delivery team artefacts
You can evolve and define the governance landscape within a project, client and internal environment obtaining both technical and business approval at the appropriate stage to support delivery of the outcomes e.g. TDA, DDA, EAB etc
You can build and sustain strong working relationships with senior technical and delivery individuals within our customer organisations, building trust and advocacy for our services, helping promote us as a ‘go-to' vendor for technical delivery
You can influence how teams' work in-line with the delivery methodology, coach and mentor more junior colleagues and customer staff whilst providing technical leadership and assurance
You can define and promote opportunities to reuse components and common service patterns, understanding the patterns and interactions on a larger scale across portfolios, programmes and wider government context and how it will impact our portfolio of work
You promote technology and vendor agnosticism, whilst making evidence-based decisions when required and thereafter explain those decisions to all levels of both technical and non-technical stakeholders
You can make decisions characterised by high levels of risk and complexity. You can recommend mitigations and changes, as risk and complexity increase
You can carry out technical knowledge transfer outcomes (e.g. handover to clients, mentoring client staff)
You can assure your current projects (ensuring we operate efficiently, innovate appropriately, and build a reputation for engineering excellence)
You can support pre-sales activity by developing compelling solution approach summaries, high level designs, estimates, presentations, product demonstrations and discussions
You will actively participate in and help lead our Communities of Practice (with emphasis on Cloud and Technical Architecture), including mentoring more junior colleagues
You will actively support recruitment and general management, including interviewing, leading, and mentoring more junior colleagues
This role will require you to have or be willing to go through Security Clearance. As part of the onboarding process candidates will be asked to complete a Baseline Personnel Security Standard; details of the evidence required to apply may be found on the government website Gov.UK. If you are unable to meet this and any associated criteria, then your employment may be delayed, or rejected . Details of this will be discussed with you at interview.
Benefits
Methods is passionate about its people; we want our colleagues to develop the things they are good at and enjoy.
By joining us you can expect
Autonomy to develop and grow your skills and experience
Be part of exciting project work that is making a difference in society
Strong, inspiring and thought-provoking leadership
A supportive and collaborative environment
Development - access to LinkedIn Learning, a management development programme, and training