Architect (Software Development)

We're looking for an experienced Architect (Software Development) to provide technical leadership, architectural oversight and strategic direction across major software development, re-platforming and digital transformation initiatives. This is a high-impact leadership role where you'll guide technology choices, champion modern engineering practices and help deliver secure, scalable, digital services for our colleagues and tenants.

About the role

Reporting to the Director of Digital and Technology, you'll lead the architectural design and technical direction for software products and platforms, ensuring our solutions are secure, maintainable and aligned to our wider digital strategy and enterprise architecture. You'll also line manage and develop a small team of Software Developers, creating the conditions for high performance, continuous improvement and innovation.

What you'll be doing

• Lead architectural design and technical oversight for software re-platforming and digital transformation initiatives, applying secure-by-design and zero trust principles.
• Own architecture, tools and technology choices across digital products, ensuring solutions are scalable, reliable, secure and maintainable.
• Lead and develop a software development team, encouraging modern engineering practices, collaboration and continuous learning.
• Define and embed coding standards, architectural patterns, quality gates, CI/CD pipelines and Infrastructure as Code practices.
• Collaborate with Product, Design and delivery teams to shape technical roadmaps, assess feasibility, identify risks and support smooth agile delivery.
• Work closely with Cyber Security to ensure risk is understood, managed and designed into solutions from the outset.
• Review and assure code delivered by external providers before release into production, ensuring it meets architectural, security and quality expectations.
• Provide hands on expertise for live service support, including debugging, root cause analysis and resolution of complex technical issues.

What we're looking for

You'll be an accomplished technical leader with solid experience in software architecture, solution design and modern software delivery. You'll bring the confidence to guide technical direction, the curiosity to explore better ways of working, and the communication skills to make complex technical concepts accessible to a range of stakeholders.

Key experience you'll have includes:

• Software architecture, solution design and technical leadership.
• Delivery of large-scale re-platforming, modernisation or digital transformation projects.
• Leading, coaching and managing software developers.
• Using AI-powered development tools, such as GitHub Copilot, Cursor or Claude Code, to improve productivity and accelerate delivery.

You'll also be aware of accessibility standards such as WCAG and how to embed these into engineering practices.

If you're knowledgeable about modern software architecture, confident leading technical teams and excited by the chance to deliver secure, scalable digital solutions with real world impact, we'd love to hear from you.

As a smart working organisation, you can expect a balance of working from the office (Birmingham, Bath Row) and from home. Typically, you'll be working from the office three days per week and two days per week from home.

We are proud to be a Disability Confident Employer.