JOB SUMMARY

Please note this role requires you to pass Security Check clearance. For further information, please see ‘Selection process details’.
Are you an experienced Technical Leader with a passion for driving enterprise-scale data transformation and leading teams through complex technical evolution?
Do you excel at guiding cross-functional teams to deliver resilient, scalable platforms that support critical public services?
If so, come join us as a Senior Technical Lead.
Within Working Age Services Digital we’re responsible for a number of services that support the core of society - including the department’s highest-profile benefit: Universal Credit. As part of the Universal Credit programme, we’re transforming how we deliver digital services for around 6 million citizens. Our platforms - all with significant data persistence footprints - are undergoing major modernisation to support wider departmental ambitions. This role will be central to that transformation.
We’re looking for an outstanding Senior Technical Lead to help shape and deliver high-impact digital services for the UK Government. The products you’ll help build have the potential to transform the lives of millions, especially those facing difficult times.

In this role, you’ll:

• Spearhead the data strategy for Universal Credit, New Style JSA & ESA, and other critical Working Age benefit systems.
• Lead across the Working Age Services space, with line management responsibility for Senior Engineers.
• Champion technical standards, practices, and capability growth across the organisation.
• Architect and implement scalable enterprise-grade data patterns, supporting tooling, data lifecycle management processes, and backup and retention policies.
• Ensure system resilience, performance, and security across our data platforms.

The role requires deep experience in leading and building enterprise-scale data management solutions; someone who brings strategic thinking, technical excellence, and a collaborative mindset to a complex and evolving environment.

JOB DESCRIPTION

As a Senior Technical Lead, you will:

• Provide technical leadership across multiple teams, setting and evolving engineering standards with a focus on data persistence and transient data technologies. (We primarily use MongoDB and Kafka, although experience with other technologies is welcome).
• Drive the transition from monolithic to microservices architectures, ensuring data strategies are robust, scalable, and aligned with long-term service goals.
• Lead the definition and implementation of the data strategy for Working Age Services, including Universal Credit and related systems.
• Influence and embed a culture of engineering ownership, including infrastructure-as-code, observability, and platform reliability.
• Collaborate with multidisciplinary teams to optimise data modelling, storage, retrieval, and query performance across distributed systems.
• Ensure adherence to data security, compliance, and disaster recovery standards, including backup, archival, and retention strategies.
• Lead on modern data storage solutions by applying deep expertise in database technologies and cloud-based platforms. This includes managing the full data lifecycle, ensuring resilience, and optimising performance across systems.
• Design and implement asynchronous messaging systems, with a focus on event-driven, eventually consistent architectures. You’ll be responsible for shaping data flow strategies across distributed environments.
• Contribute to cloud-native platform development, particularly within AWS, overseeing the full lifecycle from initial design through to deployment and ongoing support.
• Champion modern platform engineering practices, including the use of Infrastructure-as-Code and CI/CD pipelines, to drive automation, scalability, and reliability.

In addition, you will be part of a wider Technical Leadership capability where you will:

• Mentor and line manage Senior Engineers, supporting their growth through coaching, pastoral care, and alignment with engineering practices.
• Identify and shape capability development opportunities, including training, community building, and knowledge sharing.
• Play a key role in recruiting and growing the Tech Lead community, ensuring we attract and retain top-tier talent.

Check out these blogs about careers in DWP Digital.

TECHNICAL SKILLS

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

• Data Strategy

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)
• 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

In this role, you’ll:

• Spearhead the data strategy for Universal Credit, New Style JSA & ESA, and other critical Working Age benefit systems.
• Lead across the Working Age Services space, with line management responsibility for Senior Engineers.
• Champion technical standards, practices, and capability growth across the organisation.
• Architect and implement scalable enterprise-grade data patterns, supporting tooling, data lifecycle management processes, and backup and retention policies.
• Ensure system resilience, performance, and security across our data platforms