Defence Business Services (DBS) DDaT OCI Cloud Architect

at  Ministry of Defence

JOB SUMMARY

Are you a dedicated person who is passionate about making a difference?
Would you like to work for the Ministry of Defence?

Defence Business Services (DBS) is one of the largest shared service organisations in Europe that provides a wide range of corporate services, to over 1.2 million end users, including serving and past military and families, as well as MoD civil servants and industry. DBS delivers large scale administration and smaller specialist services to enable the wider MOD to focus on its core aims, maintaining the UK’s Defence and Security. Services include Human Resources, Pay, Veterans, Finance and Procurement.

• Our Vision - To support UK defence customers with outstanding service every time.
• Our Mission - Together we will proudly support Defence, continuously improving and delivering flexible, timely, sustainable and value for money services that underpin the whole force and enhance operational capability.

DBS is committed to creating a great place to work for all our colleagues. We are building an inclusive culture and respectful environment that reflects the diversity of the society.
We want to maximise the potential of everyone who chooses to work for us through opportunities to develop your skills and experience. We also offer a range of flexible working patterns and support to make a fulfilling career accessible to you and offer a Civil Service pension with an average employer contribution of 27%. Where your role permits, we support a blended working approach alternatively known as hybrid working.
Where business needs allow, some roles may be suitable for a combination of office and home-based working. This is a non-contractual arrangement where all office-based employees will be expected to spend a minimum of 60% of their working time in office, subject to capacity and any required workplace adjustments. Requirements to attend other locations for official business, or work in another MOD office, will also count towards this level of attendance. Applicants can request further information regarding how this may work in their team from the Vacancy Holder (see advert for contact details). Defence Business Services cannot respond to any questions about working arrangements.
DBS has recently undertaken a review of its operational locations in the Northwest, and have consolidated all activities in Norcross, Blackpool. A further move, to the new Government Hub at Talbot Gateway in Blackpool, is scheduled to take place in 2026.

JOB DESCRIPTION

You will join a team in DBS Digital, Information and Technology (DIT) responsible for exploiting and administering the DBS Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) platform, in support of Civilian People business needs. Working closely with cloud engineers, solution architects, business analysts and the wider Civilian People Change Delivery Services, your focus will be on designing and improving the OCI platform to enable DBS to provide its Civilian People services. This includes support to the Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) technologies facilitating the Oracle HCM Cloud Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) HR, Payroll and Expenses system MyHR.

STRONG WRITTEN AND ORAL COMMUNICATION SKILLS:

• Proactive and confident in engagement with business stakeholders, customers and technical colleagues
• Can clearly articulate recommendations in writing
• Can lead and focus meetings with a diverse range of stakeholders
• Able to persuade stakeholders to embrace recommendations where appropriate, whilst respecting their views and decisions

TECHNICAL SKILLS

We’ll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

• Communicating between the technical and non-technical (technical architect) - Level: Senior technical architect
• Turning business problems into technical design - Level: Senior technical architect
• Understanding the whole context - Level: Senior technical architect
• Governance and Assurance - Level: Senior technical architect

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £43,080, Ministry of Defence contributes £12,480 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

• An environment with flexible working options Monday-Friday
• 25 days paid annual leave rising (1 day per year) to 30 days upon completion of 5 years’ service (pro rata). In additional to 8 public holidays per year, you will also receive leave for HM The Sovereign’s birthday
• Hybrid working where role permits
• An opportunity to be considered for Reward and Recognition - £250-£5000 per year
• Family-friendly policies including - parental leave and adoption leave
• Learning and development tailored to your role
• Professional and personal development of skills
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
• Minimum of 15 days special leave in a rolling 12 month period for volunteer reserve commitments
• Special paid leave to volunteer up to 6 days per year
• A Civil Service pension with an average employer contribution of 27%

EXPERIENCE

• CV
• Personal statement
  At the interview stage you will be assessed against the following:

NATIONALITY REQUIREMENTS

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

ROLE SPECIFIC ACCOUNTABILITIES

• Implement the OCI Design process across CDS Civ Pers
• Adherence to Enterprise Architecture Principles,
• OCI Design and Technical Assurance,
• Security Assurance,
• Inform the technology roadmap to achieve the desired future state architecture and drive forward transformational technology initiatives, following a cloud-first strategy
• Create OCI design documents across all phases of the solution delivery lifecycle
• Ensure the correct accreditation and security assurance is delivered for projects and systems
• Ensure that CDS Civ Pers activities comply with agreed quality standards and adheres to contractual, MOD and legislative requirements
• Act as a gatekeeper for OCI change and improvement, leading on investigation and options analysis, ensuring alignment with DBS digital strategy and engaging with solution architects and cloud engineers as appropriate

ROLE SPECIFIC RESPONSIBILITIES

• Ensure that cloud solutions are interoperable, reusable and align with Government Digital Strategy
• Create baseline (‘as is’) and target (‘to be’) OCI architectures, ensuring designs and diagrams are kept up to date and gaps are articulated as technical requirements
• Provide technical oversight to projects and BAU Change Requests, ensuring proposed cloud solutions are technically feasible, supportable and secure
• Lead on creation of proof of concepts to investigate improvements in OCI environments – e.g. containerisation, DevOps pipeline, automated anti-virus for patching
• Identify opportunities for technology led business transformation to provide business benefit, including innovation or automation.
• Embrace and adhere to the Enterprise Architecture principles, standards, policies and solution governance for DBS by engaging in the Technical Design Authority (TDA) process
• Understand the business goals and drivers of DBS and recognise these in all technology planning activities
• Ensure security policies and procedures are in place during the development of applications and systems