Vacancy -- Associate Technical Architect

Working for the Civil Service

The Welsh Government's recruitment processes are underpinned by the principle of selection for appointment on merit on the basis of fair and open competition as outlined in the Civil Service Commission’s Recruitment Principles.

The Civil Service Code sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

Vacancy Details

Education and Public Services
Digital Learning Unit
HEO - £32,460 - £39,690
Starting salary £30,600 - A starting salary of up to £34,490 can be offered for exceptional candidates based on their skills and experience. This is in no way guaranteed and remains at the discretion of Welsh Government.
Full time (applications are welcome from people who work part time, as part of a job share or who work full time)
Permanent
Pan Wales
'Pan Wales' means that the location in which the vacancy can be based is flexible, subject to the needs of the business. Please note it may not always be possible to accommodate a preference for a specific office location, but requests will be taken into consideration.
TBC

Purpose of Post:

Background

The Welsh Government is the devolved government for Wales with an annual budget of around £15 billion. It is responsible for key aspects of public life in Wales including health, education, the economy, transport, agriculture and the environment.

Welsh Ministers are supported by a workforce of more than 5,000 civil servants with offices in Wales, London, Brussels and overseas.

Welsh Government priorities are outlined in Taking Wales Forward with an overall ambition to build a Wales which is self-confident, prosperous, healthy nation and a society which is fair to all. The Welsh Government has also set out clear priorities for Wales following the UK’s exit from the European Union.

The Welsh Government is looking to attract people who can provide excellent support and advice, can focus resources and have energy and expertise.  The Well Being and Future Generations Act provides context for our work. 

Digital transformation of public services is vital to delivering the services the people of Wales expect and need. Welsh Government currently delivers a number of digital services to people and business across Wales. We also provide information on our websites. 

Led by our Chief Digital Officer, the Welsh Government is increasingly delivering more services online. The Chief Digital Officer provides a consultancy service of digital and data expertise across Welsh Government.

The Role

As an associate technical architect you will support technical architects in putting forward designs as solutions to technology challenges, usually under supervision. At this level, you will work closely with developers when designing appropriate solutions and you must have an understanding of the overall strategy and how your work supports this.

We are currently recruiting roles in the following teams:

Hwb EdTech programme

The Minister for Education has made a firm commitment to improve Education Technology (EdTech) across Wales through the Hwb EdTech programme. This pivotal education programme provides stakeholders across Wales with consistent access to a wide range of centrally-funded, bilingual digital tools and resources that can support and assist the transformation of digital education practices.

The main purpose of this post is to support the technical design and build of a number of work streams including our national Azure Active Directory, Microsoft Office 365 tenancy and Google for Education domain. There are significant challenges directly related to the successful delivery of this project and the Associate Technical Architect will be part of a team responsible for their resolution and delivery to agreed timescales.

Key tasks:

  • Support the structured analysis of technical issues, translating this analysis into technical designs that describe a solution
  • Provide input into architectural designs and develop design patterns
  • Support the proactive identification of issues
  • Identify opportunities to collaborate and reuse components, communicating with both technical and non-technical stakeholders
  • Be aware of technological developments to keep activity relevant and targeted
  • Identify warning signs of things going wrong and provide a decisive response to delivery challenges

Development opportunities:

Your role will form part of Welsh Government’s Digital, Data and Technology (DDaT) profession.  This is a growing profession and you will have the opportunity to be part of shaping and growing it.

We are committed to developing the skills and capability of our staff and encouraging them to use five days of learning a year.  To support this we offer a range of opportunities which could include:

  • Shadowing
  • Mentoring
  • Work based learning
  • Qualifications
  • Coaching
  • Short Term Experience Programme (STEP)

Proactively making links and working with a wide range of Welsh Government teams and external partners including other Governments in the UK. 

Closing Date:

01/11/2021, 16:00

Eligibility

Posts recruited to as part of this recruitment campaign are broadly open to UK nationals, those with right to remain and work in the UK and those that meet the Civil Service Nationality Rules only. Check your eligibility here:

Prior to appointment, all successful applicants will be required to produce original, acceptable documents as part of the pre-employment checks. If it becomes apparent at a later stage in the process that you aren’t eligible to apply, your application will be withdrawn, or offer retracted.

Equality and Diversity

The Welsh Government is committed to providing services which embrace diversity and which promote equality of opportunity. This is underpinned by the Equality Act 2010 and will be adhered to at each stage of the recruitment process. Our goal is to ensure that these commitments are also embedded in our day-to-day working practices with all our customers, colleagues and partners.

We are committed to being an anti-racist organisation and increasing diversity in the Welsh Government by removing barriers and supporting all our staff to reach their potential. We are committed to recruiting Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic people and disabled people who are currently under-represented in Welsh Government.

We welcome applications from everyone regardless of age, marriage and civil partnership (both same sex and opposite sex), impairment or health condition, sex, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, gender identity or gender expression.

We are a Stonewall Diversity Champion and a Disability Confident Level 3 (Leader) organisation. Key to supporting this work and providing peer support are five Board sponsored Staff Networks (Disability Awareness and Support (DAAS); Minority Ethnic Support Network (MESN); Mind Matters (Mental health and well-being); PRISM (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex +) and Women Together.

Disability Confident

A Great Place to Work for Veterans

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans initiative.

Welsh Language Requirements

The Welsh Government is a bilingual organisation and Welsh language skills are considered an asset to the organisation. We encourage and support staff to learn, develop and use their Welsh language skills in the workplace. 

The following list of language requirements represents an objective assessment by the line manager on behalf of the Welsh Government of the Welsh language skills required to undertake the duties of this particular post.

Desirable
Can read some basic words and phrases with understanding
Can hold a basic conversation in Welsh
Can understand parts of a basic conversation
Can write basic messages on everyday topics

Social Partnership

In Welsh Government, the relationship between the employer and trade unions is based on social partnership. We believe our goals can best be achieved by management and trade unions working together.

Our 3 recognised trade unions are:
•         PCS
•         Prospect
•         FDA

This relationship is underpinned by a partnership agreement. This sets out how our unions work with Welsh Government on issues such as:
•         pay
•         terms and conditions
•         policies and procedures
•         organisational change.

Our Welsh Government trade union colleagues work together to give their members a real say in the workplace. They make sure that the interests of their members are promoted and protected. They also help reduce inequalities and improve terms and conditions.

The Welsh Government has an excellent track record of working in partnership with its trade unions. We encourage staff to get involved. We support you to join a recognised trade union, to ensure your voice is heard in the workplace. and to learn more about trade unions and partnership working.

Competencies / Job Specific Criteria

The following technical skills are ESSENTIAL for success in this role.  Please ensure you attach a CV, no longer than 2 sides of A4, which demonstrates your ability in relation to these skills.

  • Experience of administrating an Azure estate (ideally over 1k users) including:

- Configuration of Azure Active Directory and Microsoft 365
- Modern desktop technologies (Intune, Windows 10)

  • Demonstrable experience of supporting the development and configuration of a wide range of cloud services from well-known providers, such as Google Workspace, AWS and Azure
  • Support the delivery and integration of Cloud Services to increase user adoption and awareness
  • Knowledge of appropriate security controls for cloud technologies
  • Familiar with network protocols - TCP/IP, HTTP, SSL, etc.

Assessment Process

Throughout the entire assessment process, candidates will be assessed against Behaviours from the Civil Service Success Profiles and the Digital Data and Technology DDaT Capability Framework. Please ignore any references you might see relating to competencies within our application system. The behaviours which will be assessed through this process are:

Communicating and Influencing, Making Effective Decisions, Changing and Improving, Bridging the gap between technical and non-technical, Making and guiding decisions, Turning business problems into technical design and Understanding the whole context.

Your application will be assessed in three stages:

  1. An initial sift will be carried out against your CV and the essential job specific skills. As part of your application you will be asked to upload a copy of your CV. This should be no more than 2 sides of A4. Anything above 2 sides of A4 will be discounted and will not be considered as part of the sift. Please remove from your CV your name and address to support us in undertaking a “name free” sift.
  2. Candidates who have passed the initial sift will be invited to participate in a Technical Exercise
  3. Candidates who have passed the Technical Exercise will be invited to participate in an Interview

Further information about these stages will be provided following the sift stage.

Reserve List

Unsuccessful candidates who have achieved the minimum score across the assessment, will have the opportunity to be held on a WG ‘reserve’ list for 12 months from the date of the outcomes being issued.  If additional roles become available or existing roles become vacant during this time, WG may offer the role to the highest scoring candidate on the reserve list.  If they decline, WG may offer the role to the next highest scoring candidate and so on.

Other Information

  • Unless stated otherwise in ‘actual starting salary’, all candidates will start at the minimum of the pay scale being appointed to (this includes existing civil servants).This is not negotiable.
  • Unless stated otherwise in ‘type of opportunity’, this recruitment advert is not open on a Loan or Secondment basis.
  • For more information on the eligibility criteria and terms and conditions for Loan and Secondment positions in Welsh Government, please see external recruitment candidate guidance.
  • Unless stated otherwise in ‘Location of Post’ the role/s recruited to via this campaign can only be worked in the UK, not overseas.

'Pan Wales' means that the location in which the vacancy can be based is flexible, subject to the needs of the business. A list of the Welsh Government's offices can be found on our website (www.wales.gov.uk). Please note it may not always be possible to accommodate a preference for a specific office location, but requests will be taken into consideration.

The Welsh Government offers a variety of employee benefits, including:

  • Support for improving or gaining Welsh language skills for all employees
  • Frequent development discussions and the training you need for your role and to grow
  • Annual pay increments, allowing you to progress to the top of your pay scale within 3-4 years
  • 31 days annual leave, (plus 10 public and privilege holidays)Generous parental leave, including 26 weeks at full pay for qualifying employees
  • Generous pension scheme with employer contributions
  • Childcare Vouchers Scheme, saving up to £933/year
  • Cycle to Work Scheme: choose a brand new bike up to £1000, saving at least 32%
  • Advances of Salary: request advances for Christmas, computer equipment or Tenancy Deposits
  • Season Ticket Loans
  • Flexitime policy
  • The latest ICT kit
  • Death in service cover
  • Green Car Scheme

Our Commitment to Equality

Due to current under-representation in the organisation, candidates who declare that they are disabled or from a black or minority ethnic (BAME) background will automatically be put forward to the Assessment Gateway if their application meets the minimum criteria. We can only do this if candidates provide this information in their application. Information on BAME candidates will be taken from the equality monitoring form and it is important that you complete this as part of your application.

Recruitment Adjustments

Welsh Government is committed to the social model of disability and to making reasonable adjustments to remove any barriers in the recruitment process for staff with impairments, health conditions or who use British Sign Language.  We can make adjustments to any part of the recruitment process (the application as well as the assessment centre) and we will ensure that disabled candidates are matched to roles which are compatible with workplace adjustments. We can provide advice to staff who think they do or might need reasonable adjustments but who need to know more about the assessment process and what sort of adjustments we could make to ensure fair assessment. 

If you know you need (or think you might need) any type of reasonable adjustment in order to make an application, please contact the recruiting team via ddat@gov.wales as soon as possible to discuss any required adjustments.

Following the closing date for applications we will contact all candidates with details of how disabled candidates can request and have agreed any adjustments that they may need for the assessment event. This will include the opportunity for 1-1 advice sessions for candidates who are unsure whether or what reasonable adjustments they could or should ask for in order to ensure that they can perform to their best.

In the meantime, disabled candidates may wish to refer to Annex A of the Candidate Guidance (link) for our new Recruitment Adjustments Form which we are piloting. 

Contact point for further information  

ddat@gov.wales

How to apply

All applications for this vacancy should be made online via the Welsh Government's online application system. 

If you have an impairment or health condition, or use British Sign Language and need to discuss reasonable adjustments for any part of this recruitment process, please e-mail ddat@gov.wales to request an application pack in an alternative format, or to request a reasonable adjustment related to an impairment in order to submit your application.

To apply, you'll need to have an account on our online application system.  Click the 'Apply' button below, and you'll be asked to 'Log in' if you already have an account, or 'Register' if you don't yet have an account.  Registration takes just a few minutes to complete.  You'll need an e-mail address to be able to register.  Once you've registered for an account and logged in, you'll be taken to the online application form, which you'll need to fully complete and submit before the deadline on the closing date.  

If you’d like to apply for either vacancy in Welsh, please use the ‘Newid Iaith / Change Language’ link at the top of this page, to take you to the Welsh version of this advert, from which you can apply in Welsh.

**Please note:  If you already have an Appoint account and would like to update your username and e-mail address to the new @gov.wales address, simply log in using your old details, click on your name in the menu bar, and select ‘Edit Personal Details’ in the dropdown list.  You can update any of your registered personal details on this page.**

Virtual Information Sessions

If you want to find out more about these posts and working in Welsh Government, you should attend one of our virtual information sessions.  During these sessions you will find out more about Welsh Government, you’ll get to meet people from the teams, ask questions about the roles we’re recruiting and find out what to expect from the recruitment process.  Below is a list of the upcoming sessions, to register your interest in attending one of these sessions please e-mail ddat@gov.wales

  • 8th October 13:00 – 14:00
  • 22nd October 13:00 – 14:00

 



ddat@gov.wales

How to apply

All applications for this vacancy should be made online via the Welsh Government's online application system.  If you have an impairment which would prevent you from applying on-line, please e-mail SharedServiceHelpdesk@gov.wales to request an application pack in an alternative format, or to request a reasonable adjustment related to an impairment in order to submit your application.

To apply, you'll need to have an account on our online application system.  Click the 'Apply' button below, and you'll be asked to 'Log in' if you already have an account, or 'Register' if you don't yet have an account.  Registration takes just a few minutes to complete.  You'll need an e-mail address to be able to register.  Once you've registered for an account and logged in, you'll be taken to the online application form, which you'll need to fully complete and submit before the deadline on the closing date.  

If you’d like to apply for this vacancy in Welsh, please use the ‘Newid Iaith / Change Language’ link at the top of this page, to take you to the Welsh version of this advert, from which you can apply in Welsh.

For further information regarding the Welsh Government recruitment process, please see the Recruitment Guidance for External Candidates (link).

When evidencing your suitability for the post, it is recommended that you refer to the Civil Service Competency Framework (link)

Grievance and Complaints

Anyone who believes they have been treated unfairly, or has a grievance or complaint, about how the process was conducted should either write to the Head of Resourcing, Welsh Government, Cathays Park 2, Cardiff CF10 3NQ or email SharedServiceHelpdesk@gov.wales.  If you are unhappy with the outcome of the complaint raised with the Welsh Government and feel that the principles of appointment on merit through fair and open competition have not been met you have the right to pursue your grievance with the Civil Service Commission.

This vacancy is closed to applications.