Technical Architect for NOMS Digital Studio

Tender description

Summary of the work An exciting opportunity for talented, tenacious individuals looking to join our team and take lead in creating world-class services in the Prison and Probation environment. Conducting Service Discovery to identify and deliver high-quality, user-centred products that positively impact the lives of offenders, prison staff and society as a whole. Specialist role Technical Architect Latest start date mid-September 2016 Who Speclialist Work With We're building a team of around 70 experts in Web Development, Design and User Research. This is a brilliant opportunity to be part of a growing team from its nascent stage and play an active and continued role in the strategic development of both the team and the studio approaches. Immediate team: Service design team of a Service Designer and Service Manager (Sheffield). Wider Service Area team: Service design team working across up to 3 Product Delivery Teams (Sheffield). Community of User Researchers and Head of User Experience in Sheffield, wider MoJ community and Cross-Government Community What Specialists Work On -Service mapping of the prison/probation service, identifying opportunities for service improvement -Discovery/delivery of the 'allocate a prisoner to a prison' service-delivering efficiency improvements -Hands-on technical leadership in development, operation and improvement of services -Work with product managers to understand user needs for new/existing services -Technical authority in prospective meetings with other departments, evaluate technical proposals from suppliers, implementation recommendations to stakeholders -Work with delivery teams breaking technical requirements down, identify API requirements for integration with internal/external systems -Lead development of user-driven prototypes, identify technical options/inform architectural approaches, working with team members to write tests, code and documentation for new/existing systems Skills & Experience • Comprehensive and recent experience designing and implementing complex software systems, ie is an active software developer currently engaged in architecting and building high-volume digital services • Proven capability in managing technology implementation projects and in presenting to/working with stakeholders at every level of seniority • Comprehensive and recent experience designing and implementing complex software systems, i.e. is an active software developer currently engaged in architecting and building high-volume digital services • Proven capability in managing technology implementation projects and in presenting to / working with stakeholders at every level of seniority • Demonstrable track record of successfully taking an evolutionary architecture approach to software architecture • Knowledge of Agile product management, in particular determination of vision, objectives, goals and success criteria Nice to Haves • Experience of developing product roadmaps, backlogs and measurable success criteria, and of writing user stories, i.e. can establish a path to delivery for breaking down stories • Experience organising and performing prototyping and proof of concepts • Experience with Agile methodologies (TDD, SCRUM, Kanban, etc) • Building and scaling high-traffic websites and/or high volume transaction processing and analysis platforms • Experience of developing product roadmaps, backlogs and measurable success criteria, and of writing user stories, ie can establish a path to delivery for breaking down stories Work Location Furnace Hill, Sheffield & St James' Park, London Working Arrangments You will be working on-site in Sheffield and London, with at least three to four days per week based in Sheffield, for face to face engagement with the rest of the team. There is a £500 limit on travel expenses, where expenses will only be covered for research trips and meetings outside of Sheffield. Travel between Sheffield and the supplier’s location will not be covered. Security Clearance Basic clearance required No. of Specialists to Evaluate 6 Cultural Fit Criteria • We challenge the status quo: we aim to understand the reason behind ‘the way things have always been done’ to see if there is a better way to do things • We respect each other in our different opinions and are constructive in feedback • The unit of delivery is the team: we have no individual heroes, the stars are the teams as whole entities • We aren’t afraid of conflict - we surface tensions and conflict early, and address them promptly • We believe empowered teams deliver the best products; those who are doing the work should and do have the greatest understanding of the work - so ask the team! • We inspect and adapt regularly to continuously improve • Working product in the hands of users early and often • Products degrade quickly, so we regularly iterate and improvement our products ongoing • Collocating the people, skills and knowledge you need is the best way to deliver • Measure progress by what value you deliver • Keep focus on quality, making sure the whole team is aware of any debt taken on • Keep it simple and do less; whether that’s features in the product or the way you are delivering • Everyone is responsible for quality Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 60% Cultural fit 15% Price 25% Questions from Suppliers 1. *AMENDMENT - EXPENSES* You will be working on-site in Sheffield and London, with at least three to four days per week based in Sheffield, for face to face engagement with the rest of the team. There is a £5,000 limit on travel expenses, where expenses will only be covered for research trips and meetings outside of Sheffield. Travel between Sheffield and the supplier’s location will not be covered. 2. Please can you confirm contract length? 6 months minimum, up to 24 months 3. Please can you confirm potential day rate budget? We are not currently in a position to confirm our day rate budget. We do have an overall indicative budget for the project and an idea of a breakdown per role, but we expect Suppliers to quote for an appropriate day rate without our guidance. 4. Does the £5000 expenses limit cover the duration of the contract? The expenses limit is subject to review further into the project when we have a firmer idea of the duration of the contract. 5. Are there any coding languages (hands on) that the specialist will require for this particular position? We're looking for demonstrable in-depth and hands-on software development experience. Exposure to multiple languages and frameworks is an advantage. There's expectation to be hands-on in some capacity- although relating to technical design, software design and code review, they would not be expected to lead on actual development. Existing services have been developed in Python and Ruby but it's likely that development teams will be Java based in the future. Expertise in one of these languages and experience as a software engineer working with teams developing in these languages (regardless if it's not their primary skill set) are 'nice to haves'. 6. *AMENDMENT - LOCATION* The role is Sheffield based, but there may be travel involved to other regions of the country including London. 7. For the last procurement you conducted you asked for a matrix to be e-mailed by the application closing date. Do you intend to do that this time or are you going to rely upon the Yes/No answers only at this stage? Thanks We are asking for CVs to be submitted to kiah_rose.sheppard@justice.gsi.gov.uk by 9am Wednesday 14th September. Any questions feel free to contact me on the above address. 8. Will there be opportunities for the person to work remotely for one day or more a week (e.g. Friday)? Although it does depend where the person will be, remote working is permissible for one day a week. However this will be after the initial stage during which the Studio and its work will be starting and building up- during this time it is likely that they will need to be onsite 5 days a week.