Job Description

Department

Technology Roles

Location(s)

Central London

Salary

97,121 - 103,480 (dependent on skills and experience) with an opportunity to qualify for additional allowances and a skills-related payment under the (DDaT) Digital, Data and Technology capability Framework. 36 hours per week.

Job description

Flexible Working:

Flexi time is available for this role - there is the opportunity for flexible working such as fitting your working hours around your individual needs (subject to core hours and business need), term time and part time (minimum coverage of 3 days) and condensed hours. However, opportunities for remote or home working are not possible due to the nature of the work required.

About Us

MI5 keeps the country safe from serious threats like terrorism and attempts by states to harm the UK, its people and way of life. We carry out investigations by obtaining, analysing and assessing intelligence, and then work with a range of partners, including MI6 and GCHQ to disrupt these threats. Through our protective security arm, we provide advice and guidance to government, businesses and other organisations about how to keep themselves safe. A role in MI5 means you'll do unique and challenging work in a supportive and encouraging environment, making a real difference to UK national security.

The Role

Architecture and technology leadership is crucial to MI5's ability to move at pace and deliver the strategic technology change we need to stay ahead. We need technology leaders to help set and deliver our ambitious technology strategy. We are moving into a product centred organisation and, as we evolve in this direction, we need senior technologists to help us develop our capabilities ensuring we are making the best use of recent innovations in technology as well as pushing these barriers even further with our internal engineering teams. MI5 makes use of modern approaches and cloud technologies such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Azure, as well as on-premises platforms and long-established technologies and frameworks.


Our Enterprise Architects are first and foremost experienced and technical leaders within MI5. You'll be leading on and managing enterprise level architecture of new and exciting, secure, scalable and robust capabilities, while also owning and managing technology risk for the area(s) you are accountable for and supporting our technical architects and product teams in their technical decisions and designs. You'll be setting the strategic direction for our products and technologies and guiding decisions on the future of products, platforms or services, as well as enabling the decommissioning of legacy ones. Working with engineers and senior stakeholders, you'll be ensuring alignment of vision and you'll act as a force multiplier to improve our speed of delivery whilst managing technical and compliance risk. You'll also maintain coherence across the wider organisation's product landscape to ensure our systems work well together and we are getting the best return from our capability investments. You'll also contribute to wider organisation strategy or governance initiatives.



Bridging the gap between technical and non-technical stakeholders, you'll work with a range of technical specialists including engineers and product professionals, as well as senior mission stakeholders to make decisions on risk and technology strategy. You'll share our collective responsibility to keep the country safe and be keen to constantly improve yourself and others.


Providing the appropriate level of support, leadership and direction where required to aid the development and growth of others, taking various forms including coaching and mentoring across the technical community. Respecting the views, experience and knowledge of others whilst also providing critical challenge to ensure the best approach is being taken and that appropriate guardrails, standards, polices and governance processes are in place through the full delivery lifecycle.


MI5's architecture community (guild) is supportive and inclusive. It is responsible for designing and delivering real world architectural solutions to strategic requirements from business areas across our organisation and with our partners. Whether it's delivering a platform to enable the analysis of data systems to track the progress of our investigations, compliance services to ensure we are operating legally or tooling to improve our developer experience, the nature of our work presents unique and fascinating challenges. Due to the nature of our work, most of our teams only work from the office. There are limited be opportunities to work in a hybrid way, which is not guaranteed, and dependent on business need.

About You

We are looking for passionate leaders in the technology world who are excited to take the initiative, be creative, driving business change. You'll demonstrate experience of leading multiple successful large scale enterprise deliveries using methodologies such as Agile within the full delivery lifecycle. You'll have experience of problem definition and shaping, including the designing of large or complex solutions and evaluating the merits of different technical/commercial options and approaches. You can lead the development of technology roadmaps, with empowered product teams, ensuring their delivery meets the need of the business. We also value your passion for continuous learning and good communication skills, as you collaborate, share ideas and experience, as well as your ability to produce high quality architectural artifacts to support communication.

Training and Development

We're committed to developing our staff and recognise this will look different for everyone. We'll use the Digital Data Technology (DDaT) capability framework as a compass to provide guidance and tools to support you. There'll be opportunities to gain qualifications and pursue specialist pathways, as well as undertaking tailored training, coaching and mentoring. Individuals can also attend hackathons and you'll be provided with up to 20% of your time to be spent on innovation and personal development.



As you develop, grow, and maintain your technical skills, you will have the opportunity to progress through DDaT pay points. You'll need to regularly demonstrate and accredit your skills based on the framework. If you don't maintain the required skills, you'll be given the opportunity and support to rectify this, as you could revert to a lower level of capability and pay.

Rewards and Benefits

You'll receive a starting salary of

97,121 - 103,480

(dependent on skills and experience) plus other benefits including:

25 Days Annual Leave automatically rising to 30 days after 5 years' service, and an additional 10.5 days public and privilege holidays. Opportunities to be recognised through our employee performance scheme. Interest-free season ticket loan. Excellent pension scheme. Cycle to work scheme. Facilities such as a gym, restaurant and on-site coffee bars (at some locations). Paid parental and adoption leave.

We operate a capability-based pay approach for specific DDaT roles, recognising and rewarding specialist expertise. Salaries include consolidated (pensionable) and non-consolidated (non-pensionable) elements. The approach consists of three pay points per grade aligned to capability levels, allowing greater pay progression within role. As you develop, grow, and maintain your technical skills, you will have the opportunity to progress through the pay points.

Equal Opportunities

At MI5 diversity and inclusion are critical to our mission. To protect the UK, we need a truly diverse workforce that reflects the society we serve. This includes diversity in every sense of the word: those with different backgrounds, ages, ethnicities, gender identities, sexual orientations, ways of thinking and those with disabilities or neurodivergent conditions. We therefore welcome and encourage applications from everyone, including those from groups that are under-represented in our workforce such as women, those from an ethnic minority background, people with disabilities and those from low socio-economic backgrounds.


Find out more about our culture, working environment and diversity on our website:

https://www.MI5.gov.uk/careers/diversity

We're Disability Confident

MI5 is proud to have achieved Leader status within the DWP's Disability Confident scheme. This is aimed at encouraging employers to think differently about disability and take action to improve how they recruit, retain and develop disabled people. As a Disability Confident Leader, we aim to ensure that a fair and proportionate number of disabled applicants who best meet the essential minimum criteria for this position, will be offered an interview, if it is practical for us to do so. (This is known as Offer of an Interview.) To secure an interview for this role, the minimum criteria, assessed at the application form stage are:

The ability to lead multiple successful large scale enterprise deliveries within the full delivery lifecycle. Expertise in problem definition and shaping, including designing of large or complex solutions and evaluating the merit of different technical/commercial options and approaches. Demonstrate capability of leading the technology roadmaps with empowered product teams. As well as, guiding and supporting less experienced individuals.

There is a wide range of extra support available throughout the recruitment process to enable you to do your best. See our website https://www.mi5.gov.uk/careers/applying-for-jobs/application-process for information on the reasonable adjustments we can offer.

What to Expect

Our recruitment process is fair, transparent, and based on merit. Here is a brief overview of each stage, in order:

You'll be invited to upload your CV and complete an online application form. If you pass, you'll be invited to an online interview where you will be asked questions relating to your motivation and our core competencies. If you pass, you'll be invited to a face-to-face technical skill-based interview based on the DDaT (Digital Data and Technology) capability framework for the role drawing upon your experience. Conditional offer of employment, subject to vetting.

Please note, you must successfully pass each stage of the process to progress to the next. Your application may take around 6 - 9 months to process including vetting, so we advise you to continue any current employment until you have received your final job offer.

Before You Apply

To work at MI5, you need to be a British citizen or hold dual British nationality. Read about our eligibility criteria.



This role requires the highest security clearance, known as Developed Vetting (DV). It's something everyone in the UK Intelligence Community undertakes. Find out more about the vetting process.


Please note we have a strict drugs policy, so once you start your application, you can't take any recreational drugs and you'll need to declare your previous drug usage at the relevant stage.


Before you apply, we advise you to consider setting up a separate email address for your contact with us, to ensure your personal and application correspondence remain separate. Try to avoid having identifying features in your email address, such as your first and/or surname and date of birth. This is good practice and will help you to manage your application with us more securely.


The role is based in central London so you'll need to live within a commutable distance. Please consider any financial implications and practicalities before applying. An interest-free loan is available to assist with relocating into privately rented accommodation to take up the offer of employment.

Please note, you should only launch your application from within the UK. If you are based overseas, you should wait until you visit the UK to launch an application. Applying from outside the UK will impact on our ability to progress your application. You should not discuss your application, other than with your partner or a close family member.

Right to Withdraw Statement:

Please be aware that we withhold the right to bring forward the closing date for this role from the original closing date once a certain number of applications have been received. Please be mindful of this and submit your application at your earliest convenience to avoid disappointment.