Solutions Architect


Premium Job From Met Office

Recruiter

Met Office

Listed on

9th June 2021

Location

Exeter

Salary/Rate

£45150 - £49890

Type

Permanent

Start Date

09/06/2021

This job has now expired please search on the home page to find live IT Jobs.

Our reward package

The Met Office is recruiting for a Solutions Architect.

The starting salary will be £45,150 with opportunities to progress to £49,890 over time. New joiners to the Met Office will start on the salary band minima.

This role attracts a market forces supplement of £4,500 per annum paid quarterly, pro-rated from the date of taking up the appointment to 31 March 2022 - this scheme is currently under review.

Our total reward package is potentially worth up to £68,111 per annum, which includes basic salary, market forces supplement, potential corporate bonus, employer pension contributions.

The Benefits:

Outstanding Civil Service pension

Discretionary corporate bonus

Flexible hours and homeworking

Annual Leave starting at 27.5 days (plus Bank Holidays) rising to 32.5 days (plus Bank Holidays) after 5 years

Option to buy or sell up to 5 days per year of annual leave

Cycle to work scheme for the purchase of a bicycle and equipment for healthy, low carbon travel

Access to discounted shopping on a range of retail, leisure and lifestyle categories

This role will nominally be based in Exeter but we will consider applicants wishing to work elsewhere within the UK.

About us

The weather. It impacts all of us, all the time. But for some people, those impacts can mean real suffering. Landslides, floods, snowfall, and other extreme weather events can cost lives.

At the Met Office, we can't control the weather, but we can try to forecast these life changing events and help to reduce the impacts by allowing people time to prepare. We're great at doing this already, but we can be better, and that's why we need your help.

The UK Government has invested heavily in Met Office IT, with a £1.2B investment in a new supercomputer capability that will help us to increase our forecasting capability, but IT is only as good as the teams that can exploit it.

We're looking for Solution Architects to work with us to create outcomes from this investment, people who want to make a difference to the world we live in, who want to save lives and livelihoods across the world, not just the UK.

A career at the Met Office opens a wealth of opportunities to not only work with world class partners, such as Microsoft, ESRI, Amazon and many others, but also to challenge them to create solutions for Met Office problems.

You'll be able to see your work on millions of devices through our award winning weather app, and know that solutions that you helped to build are helping third world countries prepare for climate change.

We believe that well supported teams deliver the most effective outcomes and that's why you will enjoy the benefits of a flexible working day, aligned as much as possible around you and your lifestyle.

We're globally connected and as a Met Office solution architect you can expect to be able to attend and speak at conferences and events in the UK and abroad. Events such as MetTech in Switzerland, AWS re:Inventin Las Vegas and AMS in Boston all of which will allow you to grow your own profile and network, whilst also forming critical relationships between the Met Office and global IT leaders.

We're the Met Office, come and join us and help us to make a difference.

Job Purpose

We require an innovative Solution Architect to develop systems architecture that will meet business needs. You will work collaboratively with product managers and delivery managers to carry out activities that take place during solution ideation, solution design, and solution implementation. Be responsible for an architectural domain and assess the current software systems in place to identify areas of improvement. You will oversee development teams including mentoring Tech Leads to become the next generation of Solution Architects.

Essential Qualifications, Skills & Abilities

Leadership and Governance - You can lead and mentor internal and external delivery teams with differing degrees of maturity working on concurrent deliveries. You collaborate with your colleagues to meet your area's goals in a secure sustainable manner. Have an agile driven mindset while being realistic to the internal constraints in any organisation. You can understand technical governance and participate in or deliver the assurance of a service.

Bridging the gap between the technical and non-technical - You can translate technical concepts relating to software engineering, delivery management and service management so they are understood by all.

Making and guiding decisions - You can make and guide effective decisions, explaining clearly how the decision has been reached. You must have the ability to understand and resolve technical disputes across varying levels of complexity and risk.

Strategy - You can produce a strategy for technology that meets business needs. You can create, refine and challenge patterns, standards, policies, roadmaps and vision statements.

Turning business problems into solution designs -You can work with business and technology stakeholders to translate business problems into secure technical designs. You can create an optimal design through an iterative process, aligning the user need with the system requirements and organisational objectives.

Understanding the whole context -You can look beyond the immediate technical problem and identify the wider implications. You can 'zoom out' in 3 dimensions: knowing relevant historical context and future impact; understanding how current work fits in broader strategies; and looking for deeper underlying problems and opportunities.

Solution design - You explore different approaches to solving problems, applying technical knowledge and experience to create or design workable prototypes. You can create the specification and design of solutions to meet defined business and user needs and are able to visualise views and viewpoints to articulate the ideal service to meet user needs.

Desirable Qualifications, Skills & Abilities

BCS Certified Enterprise and Solution Architect practitioner or equivalent;

Familiar with modelling notations; C4, UML, Archimate, BPMN;

Experience with a cloud platform, e.g. Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure.

How to apply and additional information

To apply, please click on the link below and attach the most recent version of your CV, along with a cover letter which briefly states your experience against each essential and desirable criteria.

Closing date 27/06/2021 with interviews commencing from 12/07/2021 . We update all applicants once the vacancy has closed and applications have been reviewed.

At present, all interviews are taking place remotely via Microsoft Teams.

We are an equal opportunities employer and we welcome applications from those with all protected characteristics.

We recognise that Great Minds Don't Think Alike and are committed to being a more diverse and inclusive organisation. We are a Disability Confident, Mindful Employer and we hold an Athena Swan Bronze award for our work on gender equality. We apply the Civil Service Code to ensure that everyone is recruited on merit, fairness, and open competition.

If you are considering applying and need assistance to do so, please contact us. You can request adjustments either within our application form or via email.

We offer disabled applicants the option of requesting their application is considered under the Guaranteed Interview Scheme. To be invited to interview/assessment under this scheme, your application must meet the minimum criteria for the role. Should you be offered an interview, please be aware there may be a selection exercise which could include a presentation, written test or a scenario-based activity.

We can only accept applications from those eligible to live and work in the UK - please refer to GOV.UK for information. Our roles sometimes require higher level Security Clearance, which generally requires living in the UK for at least three out of the last five years, but applicants not meeting this criteria may be considered.

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