Solutions Architect

We are committed to listening, learning and improving on our approach to ensure these principles remain at our heart, helping us all to thrive.

Job overview

SCW is seeking a Solution Architect to work on its exciting portfolio of digital projects. Primarily on network, cloud and infrastructure projects and modern workplace projects.

Other areas of specialist projects include enterprise-wide enhancements to: Identity, Security, BYOD, Device Management, Big Data (Trusted Research Environments).

This is an interesting, dynamic role where there is a wide scope of work and opportunities to lead change.

• Provide subject matter expertise in the above domains.
• Liaises with stakeholders, communicating highly complex technical concepts and complex issues, clearly and accurately, and adapting communication style to suit the recipient.
• Produces written information of a high quality, which clearly sets out architecture designs (HLD, LLD), roadmaps, key issues, options, and outcomes.
• The post holder must be able to communicate effectively, with stakeholders with good reasoning and negotiation skills.
• Contribute to the technical delivery of a service, ensuring it is cost effective and delivered on time within agreed budgets.
• Works cooperatively and productively with others to achieve results within their team.

You will be expected to work independently under the guidance of one of our Senior SME’s, and as such will need to be able to translate basic customer requirements into a design.

Working for our organisation

• Work closely with our senior Solution Architects.
• This role can be delivered in a flexible hybrid way with any travel, site visits or meetings arranged by agreement on a very occasional basis.
• We are a geographically dispersed team; we make good use of MS teams to create a virtual team working environment.
• Supportive environment.
• Applicants should be aware that you may not be eligible for skilled worker sponsorship if you apply for this post. If you require sponsorship, please ensure you have checked your eligibility via https://www.gov.uk/skilled-worker-visa/your-job or alternatively, please contact us via email on [email protected] to confirm the requirements of sponsorship can be met.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

For further information on our specific requirements for this role, please refer to the Job Description and Person Specification.

If you do experience a delay in the shortlisting stage of the recruitment cycle, please bear with us while this process is completed, and contact the named contact if you have any questions.

Person specification

Values & Behaviours

• Patient First – Customer Excellence
• Aspirational
• Collaborative
• Insightful
• Respectful

Education

• Educated to masters’ level or equivalent level of experience of working at a senior level in specialist area
• Evidence of post qualifying and continuing professional development

• Member of relevant professional body

Knowledge & Experience

• Experience in communications and stakeholder management
• Experience of leading a team across multiple workstreams, managing conflicting priorities.
• Experience of conducting staff performance reviews
• Understanding of commercial awareness and approaches to service delivery organisations

• Understanding of the public sector
• A good understanding of the health and social care environment and roles and responsibilities within it

Skills & Capabilities

• Developed communication skills for delivering key messages to a range of stakeholders/customers both internal and external (including outside the NHS) to the organisation, some at very senior level
• Good presentational skills for conveying complex concepts
• Ability to make decisions autonomously, when required, on difficult issues, working to tight and often changing timescales and within financial constraints
• Excellent customer service skills; Team working skills; Self-motivated; Ability to move between details and the bigger picture. Demonstrates honesty and integrity and promotes organisational values
• Experience of delivering detailed design, documentation and successful implementation of new or changed operational processes through options appraisal techniques.
• Ability to interpret contracts and SLAs to ensure effective delivery within the terms of the agreement
• Must be able to provide and receive complex, sensitive or contentious information, negotiate with senior stakeholders/customers on difficult and controversial issues, and present complex and sensitive information to large and influential groups/customers
• Excellent understanding of infrastructure management, backup methodologies and implementation.
• Experience in hybrid cloud technologies and migration of on prem to Public Cloud services
• Excellent understanding of data centre compute and storage technologies
• Experience in technically architecting an enterprise scale routing and switching infrastructure
• Experience in technically supporting enterprise scale data centre architectures and technologies
• Experience of the design, documentation and successful implementation of new or changed enterprise architectures.
• Evidence of managing large scale 3rd party contracts
• Experience in supporting and implementing public Cloud services (Azure)

• Evidence of commercial awareness ensuring solutions are commercially viable and deliver to Return on Investment forecasts

Office location can be flexible within the NHS SCW estate and will be agreed upon offer of contract.

NHS SCW staff that are in posts considered to be agile will not be expected to attend office space for general working but will be required on occasions to attend face to face meetings and collaborative working sessions that may require travel to their home base or other locations across the estate or customer sites.

Please feel free to contact the Recruiting Manager of this vacancy to discuss further the working arrangement.

Some of our sites have accessible parking provision which is free or paid for work purpose this not contractual entitlement.

We make every effort to contact all candidates to let them know the outcome of their application. However, if you haven't heard back from us within 2 weeks after the closing date, please assume that your application has not been successful.

This is an exciting time to join NHS SCW

We are an NHS support and transformation organisation that helps health and social care organisations deliver the best possible care to people. As partners of choice to more than 200 organisations that support millions of people, our mission is to help deliver the NHS Long Term Plan, improving the health and wellbeing of communities.

We’re supporting clients whose vision and quest for innovation requires us to be flexible, adaptable and open to adventure; giving us the freedom to work in new ways, looking at things from a different angle and challenging the norm.

We are an equal opportunities employer committed to attracting and retaining the best people in order to provide the best possible services to our customers. Our people enjoy challenging, rewarding roles, supporting our customers to improve their local health and care services.

We want our people to fulfil their potential so we offer a wide range of training, opportunities to gain qualifications, as well as access to coaching, mentoring schemes and employee wellbeing and support for a healthy work-life balance.

We were selected as an NHS Employers Diversity and Inclusion Partner for three consecutive years 2015-2018 and are now proud to be Alumni of this programme.

If you are successful in your application, we will value your experience, your contribution and we will give you the knowledge to succeed as part of your specialist team and as part of our organisation.

Our values

Insightful: As experts in our fields, we understand the bigger picture and its complexities, we challenge convention, and we uncover opportunities.

Respectful: We treat everyone with respect and hope it will be returned. Recognising and valuing their knowledge, we involve our customers, teams and partners in decisions.

Please note NHS SCW asks successful candidates to upload their Right to Work and Identity documents for digital verification. If you are unable to provide the required documents for the digital verification or do not have access to a smartphone or tablet, this will result in the verification being done face-to-face.