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Technical architect

Find out what a technical architect in government does and the skills you need to do the job at each level.

Last updated 31 May 2024 — See all updates

What a technical architect does

A technical architect provides technical leadership and architectural design.

Technical architect role levels

There are 5 technical architect role levels, from associate technical architect to principal technical architect.

The typical responsibilities and skills for each role level are described in the sections below. You can use this to identify the skills you need to progress in your career, or simply to learn more about each role in the Government Digital and Data profession.

1. Associate technical architect

An associate technical architect supports technical architects in putting forward designs as solutions to technology challenges, usually under supervision.

At this role level, you will:

  • work closely with developers when designing appropriate solutions
  • have an understanding of the overall strategy and how your work supports it

This role level is often performed at the Civil Service job grade of:

  • HEO (Higher Executive Officer)
  • SEO (Senior Executive Officer)
Skill Description

Architect for the whole context

Level: awareness

Awareness is the first of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • identify relevant information that can inform your architectural work, such as strategies, roadmaps, policies and technical trends
  • understand how your work supports the team in enabling change​

Architecture communication

Level: awareness

Awareness is the first of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • show an awareness of different ways of creating architecture representations for a limited audience, including technical and non-technical stakeholders
  • gather and explain information to be used in architecture representations

Community collaboration

Level: awareness

Awareness is the first of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • understand the work of others and the importance of team dynamics, collaboration and feedback

Making architectural decisions

Level: awareness

Awareness is the first of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • describe the reasoning behind architectural design decisions
  • gather information to inform decisions
  • understand architectural governance and assurance relevant to your work

Strategy design

Level: awareness

Awareness is the first of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • explain how organisational objectives link to designing strategy
  • describe the purpose and application of strategy, standards, patterns, policies, roadmaps, vision, and mission statements

Technical design throughout the life cycle

Level: working

Working is the second of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • create technical designs characterised by managed levels of risk, impact, and complexity
  • provide guidance and support to teams using technical designs throughout the life cycle
  • adapt a technical design if needed during delivery
  • work with well-understood technology and identify appropriate patterns

2. Technical architect

A technical architect is responsible for the design and build of technical architecture.

At this role level, you will:

  • undertake structured analysis of technical issues, translating this analysis into technical designs that describe a solution
  • be consulted about design and provide design patterns
  • identify deeper issues that need fixing
  • look for opportunities to collaborate and reuse components, communicating with both technical and non-technical stakeholders

This role level is often performed at the Civil Service job grade of:

  • SEO (Senior Executive Officer)
  • G7 (Grade 7)
Skill Description

Architect for the whole context

Level: working

Working is the second of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • align your work with the work being done by other architects and technical professionals
  • track emerging issues, strategies, roadmaps, patterns and technologies over time to assess opportunities and risks to your work
  • identify how other teams contribute to delivering outcomes through change

Architecture communication

Level: working

Working is the second of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • listen to the needs of technical and business stakeholders
  • create and use different architecture representations to communicate effectively, achieving agreement with technical and non-technical stakeholders
  • provide support in discussions about architectural topics within a multidisciplinary team

Community collaboration

Level: working

Working is the second of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • contribute to the work of others
  • motivate and empower teams
  • create the right environment for teams to work in, and can identify the best team makeup depending on the situation
  • recognise and deal with issues

Making architectural decisions

Level: working

Working is the second of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • work with others to make architectural design decisions characterised by managed levels of risk and complexity
  • identify and address architectural risks relevant to your team or domain, for example, business, data, or security
  • engage with architectural governance and assurance to effectively manage decisions and risks, with support

Strategy design

Level: working

Working is the second of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • support the development of a strategy or vision that aligns with organisational objectives
  • challenge requirements and assumptions, and identify opportunities to develop strategy
  • support the implementation of a strategy or vision, for example, by using a roadmap or plan
  • use architectural principles, patterns, and constraints when appropriate

Technical design throughout the life cycle

Level: working

Working is the second of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • create technical designs characterised by managed levels of risk, impact, and complexity
  • provide guidance and support to teams using technical designs throughout the life cycle
  • adapt a technical design if needed during delivery
  • work with well-understood technology and identify appropriate patterns

3. Senior technical architect

A senior technical architect works on large or multiple pieces of work that are complex or risky.

At this role level, you will:

  • define strategy and be central to assuring services
  • regularly collaborate and find agreement with senior stakeholders, providing direction and challenge
  • be proactive in identifying problems and translating these into non-technical descriptions that can be widely understood
  • mentor and coach junior colleagues

This role level is often performed at the Civil Service job grade of:

  • G7 (Grade 7)
Skill Description

Architect for the whole context

Level: working

Working is the second of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • align your work with the work being done by other architects and technical professionals
  • track emerging issues, strategies, roadmaps, patterns and technologies over time to assess opportunities and risks to your work
  • identify how other teams contribute to delivering outcomes through change

Architecture communication

Level: practitioner

Practitioner is the third of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • lead the communication of complicated, complex or risky architecture topics with technical and non-technical stakeholders
  • communicate with senior stakeholders across your organisation
  • adapt your message and communication techniques to your audience
  • advocate on behalf of a team to other stakeholders
  • manage stakeholder expectations effectively

Community collaboration

Level: practitioner

Practitioner is the third of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • work collaboratively in a group, actively networking with others
  • adapt feedback to ensure it’s effective and lasting
  • use your initiative to identify problems or issues in the team dynamic and rectify them
  • identify issues through Agile ‘health checks’ with the team, and help to stimulate the right responses

Making architectural decisions

Level: working

Working is the second of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • work with others to make architectural design decisions characterised by managed levels of risk and complexity
  • identify and address architectural risks relevant to your team or domain, for example, business, data, or security
  • engage with architectural governance and assurance to effectively manage decisions and risks, with support

Strategy design

Level: working

Working is the second of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • support the development of a strategy or vision that aligns with organisational objectives
  • challenge requirements and assumptions, and identify opportunities to develop strategy
  • support the implementation of a strategy or vision, for example, by using a roadmap or plan
  • use architectural principles, patterns, and constraints when appropriate

Technical design throughout the life cycle

Level: practitioner

Practitioner is the third of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • create technical designs characterised by medium risk, impact, and complexity
  • maintain appropriate quality and architectural coherence of a technical design in response to change
  • use feedback to optimise and refine technical designs throughout the life cycle

4. Lead technical architect

A lead technical architect works with multiple projects or teams on problems that require broad architectural thinking.

At this role level, you will:

  • be responsible for leading the technical design of systems and services, justifying and communicating design decisions
  • assure other services and system quality, ensuring the technical work fits into the broader strategy for government
  • explore the benefits of cross-government alignment
  • provide mentoring within teams
  • provide leadership to other architects

This role level is often performed at the Civil Service job grade of:

  • G7 (Grade 7)
  • G6 (Grade 6)
Skill Description

Architect for the whole context

Level: practitioner

Practitioner is the third of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • work to support wider organisational objectives beyond your immediate goals​
  • track emerging internal and external issues over time that could affect the work of teams across the organisation
  • take action to solve or mitigate problems by influencing colleagues across the organisation

Architecture communication

Level: expert

Expert is the fourth of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • communicate with technical and non-technical stakeholders at all levels, and across organisations, using architecture communication techniques​
  • mediate between people in difficult architectural discussions
  • gain support from business and technical stakeholders for architectural initiatives with high levels of risk, impact and complexity
  • coach and support others in architecture communication

Community collaboration

Level: practitioner

Practitioner is the third of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • work collaboratively in a group, actively networking with others
  • adapt feedback to ensure it’s effective and lasting
  • use your initiative to identify problems or issues in the team dynamic and rectify them
  • identify issues through Agile ‘health checks’ with the team, and help to stimulate the right responses

Making architectural decisions

Level: practitioner

Practitioner is the third of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • make and guide architectural design decisions characterised by medium risk and complexity
  • identify and address architectural risks that affect multiple teams or domains
  • use architectural governance and assurance to make design decisions and manage technical risks at the appropriate level
  • contribute to the development of architectural governance and assurance

Strategy design

Level: practitioner

Practitioner is the third of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • define strategies or visions across teams that align with organisational objectives
  • direct the implementation of a strategy or vision, for example, by creating roadmaps or plans
  • define architectural principles and patterns
  • develop or maintain strategy in response to feedback and findings

Technical design throughout the life cycle

Level: expert

Expert is the fourth of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • create technical designs characterised by high risk, impact, and complexity
  • lead and guide others in creating technical designs that achieve organisational objectives
  • use feedback to optimise and refine standards for technical designs throughout the life cycle

5. Principal technical architect

A principal technical architect leads at the highest level and is responsible for making sure the strategy is agreed and followed.

At this role level, you will:

  • network and communicate with senior stakeholders across organisations
  • proactively seek opportunities for digital transformation
  • support multiple teams, finding and using best practice and emerging technologies
  • inspire other architects and help them understand how to deliver the goals of the organisation
  • be responsible for governance, solving complex and high risk issues or delivering architecture design

This role level is often performed at the Civil Service job grade of:

  • G6 (Grade 6)
Skill Description

Architect for the whole context

Level: practitioner

Practitioner is the third of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • work to support wider organisational objectives beyond your immediate goals​
  • track emerging internal and external issues over time that could affect the work of teams across the organisation
  • take action to solve or mitigate problems by influencing colleagues across the organisation

Architecture communication

Level: expert

Expert is the fourth of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • communicate with technical and non-technical stakeholders at all levels, and across organisations, using architecture communication techniques​
  • mediate between people in difficult architectural discussions
  • gain support from business and technical stakeholders for architectural initiatives with high levels of risk, impact and complexity
  • coach and support others in architecture communication

Community collaboration

Level: practitioner

Practitioner is the third of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • work collaboratively in a group, actively networking with others
  • adapt feedback to ensure it’s effective and lasting
  • use your initiative to identify problems or issues in the team dynamic and rectify them
  • identify issues through Agile ‘health checks’ with the team, and help to stimulate the right responses

Making architectural decisions

Level: expert

Expert is the fourth of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • make and guide architectural design decisions characterised by high levels of risk and complexity
  • identify and address architectural risks across the organisation or wider government
  • lead and evolve architectural governance and assurance
  • represent architectural governance as part of wider governance, for example, legal or commercial

Strategy design

Level: expert

Expert is the fourth of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • define and connect strategies or visions across the organisation or wider government
  • enable the implementation of strategies or visions across the organization or wider government, for example, by advocating for resources and removing blockers

Technical design throughout the life cycle

Level: expert

Expert is the fourth of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • create technical designs characterised by high risk, impact, and complexity
  • lead and guide others in creating technical designs that achieve organisational objectives
  • use feedback to optimise and refine standards for technical designs throughout the life cycle
Role Shared skills
Solution architect

Architect for the whole context

Architecture communication

Community collaboration

Making architectural decisions

Strategy design

Technical design throughout the life cycle

Enterprise architect

Architect for the whole context

Architecture communication

Community collaboration

Making architectural decisions

Strategy design

Change and release manager

Community collaboration

Command and control centre manager

Community collaboration

Graphic designer

Community collaboration

Updates

Published 7 January 2020

Last updated 31 May 2024

31 May 2024

  • Technical architect now includes the skills 'architect for the whole context', 'architecture communication', 'community collaboration', 'making architectural decisions', 'strategy design', and 'technical design throughout the life cycle'.
  • The skills 'communicating between the technical and non-technical (technical architect)', 'governance and assurance', 'making and guiding decisions', 'strategy', 'turning business problems into technical design' and 'understanding the whole context' have been removed from the role.

31 July 2023

  • Technical architect was moved to the new architecture role group.

7 January 2020

  • First published.