Job summary
- Main area
- IT
- Grade
- Band 8a
- Contract
- Permanent
- Hours
- Full time
- Flexible working
- Job ref
- 025-AC131-0625
- Employer
- Digital Health and Care Wales
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- Hybrid working
- Town
- Cardiff
- Salary
- £54,550 - £61,412 per annum
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 29/06/2025 23:59
Employer heading
Senior Solution Architect
Band 8a
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
An opportunity has arisen in the National Data Resource (NDR) team for a Senior Solution Architect working in a ground-breaking product team to deliver the National Data Resource programme and the game changing use of data across the Health and Social care setting in Wales.
This role will support multiple architect projects within the NDR product team.
The role will build relationships with senior stakeholders, providing professional leadership and coaching to support the implementation of a vision which aligns with organisational objectives.
The role will develop technical roadmaps and designs, lead the planning and organisation of complex tasks and collaborate with cross-functional teams to ensure architectural alignment.
The ideal candidate will be familiar in embedding agile architecture principles into software development life cycles and have proven experience of designing complex solutions across large-scale architecture projects.
The ability to speak Welsh is desirable for this post; Welsh and/or English speakers are equally welcome to apply. The ability to travel across sites within Wales is essential.
Main duties of the job
The key duties of the role are to:
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Be an experienced solution architect and an expert in your field, exercising own judgement to plan and lead activities across a function.
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Lead and coach other solution architects, supporting others to follow best practice for solution architecture.
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Support multiple architecture projects and be proactive in identifying opportunities to improve the organisation.
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Find and use emerging technologies and approaches.
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Build relationships with senior stakeholders across different business or technical areas in the organisation.
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Be familiar with the systems development lifecycle and the typical problems associated with the implementation and operations of information systems, from initial concept through development and implementation to operation and support.
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Have detailed practical knowledge of the organisation's IT infrastructure and software development and maintenance methods, tools and techniques.
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Be conversant with the organisation's IT strategy, policies and standards, and any industry regulations/constraints.
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Have a good appreciation of risk management, change management, configuration management, reliability and safety methods and the use of metrics.
This post is a permanent full time post 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
Responsible for
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Providing professional leadership and coaching support to teams.
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Defining strategies and policies, providing guidance to others on working in the strategic context, and develop technical roadmaps that incorporate innovative solutions to enhance business agility and efficiency.
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Leading the planning and organisation of complex tasks, including solution design, stakeholder engagement, risk assessment, and resource coordination, within business change programmes, adapting plans to evolving business or user needs, and ensuring appropriate technical resources are made available.
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Creating technical designs, and make and guide architectural design, characterised by medium risk, impact, and complexity, ensuring solutions meet both business and technical requirements.
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Developing solution architecture governance and assurance to support quality, manage risks, and ensure consistent decisions across projects.
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Leading the communication of complicated, complex or risky architecture topics with technical and non-technical stakeholders.
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Evaluating, experimenting with, and integrating cutting-edge technologies, third-party solutions, and AI-powered systems to drive digital transformation, enhance system capabilities, and optimise performance, security, and scalability.
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Providing input to cost benefit and risk analyses for the service, to ensure that value for money is delivered across solution architecture activities.
You will be able to find a full Job description and Person Specification attached within the supporting documents or please click “Apply now” to view in Trac.
Person specification
Qualifications and Knowledge
Essential criteria
- A Master’s degree in an associated professional field (or equivalent qualification / experience).
- Further evidence of relevant higher-level education and/or training.
- Knowledge gained through practical experience of working at this level, across the range of work procedures and practices.
- Evidence of continuous professional development.
Desirable criteria
- Theoretical and specialist knowledge gained via relevant certification or training.
- 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
- Proven experience of designing complex solutions across large-scale architecture projects, applying industry best practices to ensure scalability, security, and alignment with organisational goals.
- Experience of successfully turning business and technical needs into clear solution designs and supporting their delivery into live service.
- Experience of ensuring quality and governance assurance across solution designs, including adherence to architectural standards, technical policies and effective design review processes.
- Familiarity with the planning and management of the secure integration of different systems to ensure interoperability, resilience and performance.
- Proficient level knowledge of IT infrastructure and service processes to design and operate sustainable and efficient digital services.
- Familiarity with the business context within own area of work, including own organisation and related entities such as customers, suppliers, partners, and competitors, and in applying this knowledge to align technical specialisms with organisational priorities and service delivery needs.
- Proficiency in the evaluation of IT solutions against defined criteria such as cost, performance, and user need to inform procurement and service design.
- Familiarity level knowledge of infrastructure components and configurations to maintain and enhance service reliability and performance.
- Proficiency in developing and testing prototypes to validate new digital solutions, reducing risk and ensuring alignment with user and organisational needs.
- Proficiency in the application of Agile delivery principles and practices to support iterative and incremental development of digital services, fostering inclusive collaboration, adaptability, and continuous improvement.
- Aware of coaching approaches that balance guidance and autonomy, supporting diverse learning styles and professional development needs.
- Familiarity with communicating effectively through accessible presentations, tailored to the audience and the communication environment (face-to-face or online).
Desirable criteria
- Experience in evaluating or designing AI-driven applications, including integrating machine learning APIs and automation tools and understanding ethical AI considerations and regulatory frameworks for AI deployment.
- Good understanding of Agile methodologies and their impact on architectural decision-making with experience in Agile backlog refinement.
Skills and Attributes
Essential criteria
- Analytical thinking skills to understand complex problems by breaking them down, selecting the most appropriate action and reflecting on outcomes to inform continuous improvement.
- Conceptual thinking skills to make sense of complex and ambiguous problems by developing high-level insights, recognising patterns, and testing ideas to explore innovative and user-focused solutions.
- Planning and organisation skills to break work into achievable steps, allocate resources effectively, and adjust plans when needed, being prepared for risks and ensuring clarity of roles and timelines.
- Customer focus skills to keep the needs, experiences, and voices of people using services at the heart of decision-making, building empathy and understanding to co-create inclusive, accessible, and equitable outcomes.
- Initiative skills to improve services, systems, or ways of working, anticipating opportunities and risks, and taking action to deliver positive outcomes
- Creativity skills to generate new ideas and approaches to improve outcomes, remove barriers, and deliver better services, encouraging experimentation, continuous learning, and inclusive collaboration.
- Cross-functional and inter-disciplinary awareness skills to build shared understanding across functions and disciplines, acknowledging others’ priorities, constraints and goals to enable effective, joined-up working.
- Interacting with people skills to build respectful, trusting relationships across backgrounds and disciplines, demonstrating clear, effective and compassionate communication, using inclusive dialogue
Desirable criteria
- Welsh language skills are desirable levels 1 or above in understanding, speaking, reading and writing in Welsh.
Employer certification / accreditation badges
Applicant requirements
Welsh language skills are desirable
Documents to download
Further details / informal visits contact
- Name
- Gareth Williams
- Job title
- Assistant Chief Architect
- Email address
- [email protected]
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