Job summary
- Main area
- IT
- Grade
- Band 8c
- Contract
- Fixed term: 24 months (2 years FTC due to project length)
- Hours
- Full time
- Flexible working
- Job ref
- 025-AC071-0425
- Employer
- Digital Health and Care Wales
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- Hybrid working
- Town
- Location to be confirmed at interview
- Salary
- £75,405 - £86,885 per annum
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 16/04/2025 23:59
Employer heading
Principal Solution Architect - Cloud Infrastructure
Band 8c
Digital Health and Care Wales is an ambitious organisation created by Welsh Government to lead on the digital transformation of health and care. It builds on the digital architecture and national services put in place by the NHS Wales Informatics Service over the past decade.
The organisation will lead on large-scale developments that make a significant difference to the people of Wales as well as to health and care professionals, such as expansion of the digital patient record and the creation of a National Data Resource. It will improve the way data is collected, shared and used. Please check your email account regularly. Successful applicants will receive all recruitment related correspondence via the email account registered on the application form.
All applicants are invited to apply in Welsh, any application submitted in Welsh will not be treated less favourably than an application made in English.
Please be advised that there is a temporary top up for Bands 2 and 3 to reflect the incorporation of the top up to the living wage of £12.60 per hour - £24,638 per annum.
This temporary top up will be in place until the annual pay uplift for 2025/26 is confirmed
Job overview
Are you ready to lead the digital transformation of healthcare IT services for over 100,000 people? Join us in revolutionising NHS Wales!
Join a multi award-winning team and enjoy flexible working hours, professional development opportunities, and a collaborative work environment
We are undertaking a Cloud Transition Programme (CTP) to move 80 digital services, currently hosted on 1,600 on-premises servers, to Azure and GCP, over a period of around 2 years.
The focus of this role is to ensure that the underpinning infrastructure (such as networking, landing zones, identity, DNS, etc.) are designed, implemented and managed appropriately to enable the migrations and ongoing services to have minimal downtime. This role will work alongside two others (Cloud Migration Architect and Security Specialist)
A key part of the role will be lead a shift from a traditional on-premises infrastructure operating model to a new cloud-based operating model focussed on IaC, automation, self-service and adoption of open-source technologies.
This role requires a proactive and passionate individual, able to work autonomously in a complex environment, and highly focused on achieving results.
If you are an exceptional candidate ready to make a significant impact, apply now and be part of our transformative journey!
Main duties of the job
As Principal Solutions Architect (Cloud Infrastructure) you will:
• Own the design that ensures that the underpinning multi-cloud infrastructure meets the required reliability, performance and security requirements for the Cloud Transition Programme (CTP) and ongoing service delivery.
• Lead the technical engagement within the CTP and between the CTP, appointed technical suppliers and DHCW teams to enable that work progresses at-pace and resolve any issues as required.
• Develop work packages for suppliers to design and configure cloud infrastructure as required.
• Ensuring services and products are aligned to industry best practice and regulatory and contractual requirements.
• Enable and promote the use of automation and self-service.
• Provide technical leadership to operations, infrastructure, and Fin Ops teams to optimise the performance and costs of IT infrastructure.
• Work on high-profile systems and solutions delivered at the National scale, in line with the organisation’s commitment to agile delivery practices and a product-based approach.
• Be the escalation point for any technical programme issues and champion operational management across the community, working closely with other leaders.
This post is fixed term for 24 months due to - meet the needs of the service
Working for our organisation
Digital Health and Care Wales (DHCW) is an expert national body and part of NHS Wales. We work in partnership with NHS Wales colleagues and other key stakeholders to provide national digital and data services which support the delivery of health and social care in Wales. Modern health and care services depend on good digital tools, data and information. DHCW runs or works with more than 100 services and delivers major national digital transformation programmes to support this. In addition, DHCW provides expert advice in relation to cyber security and information governance. We give frontline staff the digital tools which help them provide safer and more efficient care. We are also giving patients and the public digital tools to better manage their own health and wellbeing, empowering people to live healthier lives. We put people at the heart of what we do, working to the highest standards to deliver quality and make digital a force for good in health and care.
Working for DHCW offers lots of employee benefits, including flexible working, a competitive salary, 28 days of annual leave plus Bank Holidays and opportunities for career development. We are committed to recognising and celebrating our staff as the most valuable part of our organisation.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
You will:
• Oversee the design and development of complex architectural solutions, ensuring technical integrity, consistency, scalability, performance and adherence to standards.
• Develop and maintain architectural cloud design roadmaps, optimise both cost value and performance efficiency.
• Develop and communicate cloud architecture principles and standards across the organisation.
• Support multiple teams, finding and using best practice and emerging technologies, to deliver cloud-based health solutions.
• Work with security, compliance and operational teams to meet regulatory requirements.
• Drive innovation and explore emerging technologies, to seek opportunities for digital transformation
• Champion best-practice architectural principles and patterns, ensuring our solutions are secure, scalable, resilient, maintainable, and interoperable. Lead governance, solving complex and high-risk issues or delivering architecture design.
• Define and lead the long-term architectural vision, strategy, and objectives.
• Ensure solutions are secure, scalable, resilient, maintainable, and interoperable.
• Participate in an on-call 24x7 management rota.
The ability to speak Welsh is desirable for this post; English and/or Welsh speakers are equally welcome to apply
Person specification
Qualifications and Knowledge
Essential criteria
- Master’s degree in an associated professional field (or equivalent qualification / experience).
- Further evidence of relevant higher-level education and/or training.
- Knowledge gained though practical experience of working at this level, across the range of work procedures and practices.
- Evidence of continuous professional development.
Desirable criteria
- FEDIP Leading Practitioner, or equivalent recognised Advanced Professional qualification.
- Theoretical and specialist knowledge gained via relevant certification such as: o TOGAF Certification o AWS, GCP or Azure Certification
- Comprehensive knowledge and understanding of the NHS, or other healthcare systems and services, including the political, strategic, and operational environments in which they operate.
Experience
Essential criteria
- Significant experience of successfully managing an architecture function within a large complex organisation, leading a team of specialists to work on multiple architecture projects or programmes.
- Expert in the IT environment relating to own sphere of work (own organisation and/or closely associated organisations, such as customers, suppliers, partners), in particular own organisation's technical platforms and those that interface to them through the specialism, including those in closely related organisations.
- Proficient in the analytical comparison of IT products against specified criteria (including costs) to determine the solution that best meets the business need.
- Proficient in software which forms part of the operating platform infrastructure.
Employer certification / accreditation badges
Applicant requirements
Welsh language skills are desirable
Documents to download
Further details / informal visits contact
- Name
- Carwyn Lloyd-Jones
- Job title
- Chief Cloud Officer
- Email address
- [email protected]
List jobs with Digital Health and Care Wales in Administrative Services or all sectors