Lead Solution Architect

Overview

In this Lead Solution Architect role, you shape national-scale architectures for NHS data and digital platforms. You translate strategy into practical designs and reusable patterns that support the 10 Year Health Plan. You lead governance, coordinate cross-directorate work, and mentor a multidisciplinary team. You will engage with executive stakeholders to set technical direction for multi-million-pound initiatives. This is a chance to impact care delivery through data, AI at scale, and secure, interoperable systems.

Pay / Benefits

• Permanent contract
• Salary Band 8d (113,227 to 130,576 pa) including 20% RRP
• Flexible working
• Office-base 40% expected
• Opportunity to influence national strategy
• Inter Authority Transfer (IAT) via ESR

Responsibilities

• Lead and coordinate a team of 5–10 staff across directorates and programmes
• Own architecture across a portfolio of national products and programmes with internal and supplier teams
• Guide decision-making and provide mentoring within the team
• Manage executive stakeholder relationships at board level (CxO)
• Oversee NHS England technical governance, roadmaps, and strategic planning
• Apply broad technical expertise across Data, Security, Applications and Platforms
• Develop and mentor staff and contribute to the architecture function and governance community
• Participate in architecture governance and board-level activities
• Influence direction across NHS England, DHSC, arm’s length bodies and suppliers
• Contribute to multi-million-pound spending direction without direct financial responsibility

Key requirements

• Substantial IT industry experience with deep specialist knowledge
• Proven technical leadership across large, complex programmes
• Experience implementing large-scale Big Data platforms
• Knowledge of architecture frameworks, methodologies and application of methods
• Team leadership with matrix-management experience
• Development and management of technical governance processes
• Excellent communication and stakeholder engagement skills
• Experience leading architectural work for national-scale systems
• Ability to align architecture with external and internal customer requirements

• strong communication
• stakeholder engagement
• leadership
• major cloud platforms and enterprise-scale multi-cloud solutions
• security controls, identity management, cost optimization
• Apache Spark data platform services

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