Working hours: 35 hours per week, Monday to Friday

Duration: Permanent 

Location:  Gloucester

Job ref: 200738

About the role

We have a fantastic opportunity to join our business Ecclesiastical Insurance in Gloucester

As a Technical Architect within Group Technology you are responsible for driving the development standards, practices and processes across the software development lifecycle, ensuring that solutions are fit-for-purpose, align to architectural principles and deliver business value.

Where required, the individual is to technical lead on proof-of-concept work and project delivery, with the ability to traverse between architecture and design, to hands-on software development. Coaching and mentoring of team members is an integral aspect of the role, to grow capability and embed a culture of continuous improvement.

Key responsibilities

• Develop appropriate solution design artefacts, ensuring understanding and adoption across teams of business and technical requirements and constraints
• Provide technical consultancy for specified domain, platform or technology
• Establish and ensure alignment of coding standards, documentation and development practices
• Participate in and support review of standards, processes, ways of working and any audit requirements
• Maintain technology toolchain and strategic selection of tools, technologies and frameworks
• Maintain technical debt and improvement backlog
• Lead on proof of concept and innovation work where required, either independently, leading a team or with delivery partners
• Able to communicate effectively verbally and in writing with technical staff, with operational business staff and management, external suppliers and customers
• Positive influence on the team to establish and promote the right culture and behaviours
• Act as a technology and development practice coach and mentor

Knowledge, skills and experience

• Extensive background in software design and engineering, test automation, continuous integration/deployment, infrastructure-as-code, enterprise integration practices
• Proven experience of delivering large-scale, complex business solutions
• Experienced people leader, with ability to influence and drive change across technical teams
• Experienced agile practitioner and coach (Scrum / Kanban / SAFe)
• Experience of technical authoring, developing and embedding coding standards, patterns and practices
• Strong communicator with the ability to converse and translate between technical and non-technical stakeholders
• Technical experience of:
  • .NET Core, C#, SQL Server, No Sql, JavaScript/Typescript
  • Event driven architecture with Azure Service Bus (or other systems)
  • API development and integration platforms
  • Git
  • BDD, TDD, Selenium, Unit test frameworks
  • Docker / Container (including DAPR)
  • Cloud based platforms: Azure / AWS / Infrastructure-as-Code (such as BICEP); CI/CD pipeline build, Azure DevOps, Nuget

What we offer

• A competitive salary - Let's discuss it
• Flexible working 
• Competitive Group Personal Pension - up to 12% employer contribution
• Annual Bonus scheme up to 30%
• 28 days annual leave plus bank holidays 
• A holiday buy and sell scheme 
• An array of health and wellbeing benefits, including private healthcare, income protection and life assurance

About us

We are a unique financial services organisation, owned by a registered charity, Benefact Trust. We are a financially secure, professional and award-winning organisation. We pride ourselves in donating a significant proportion of our profits to good causes. To find out more about us and our fantastic achievements please visit https://benefactgroup.com/

Committed to making a difference

We think that people are looking for something worthwhile in a company beyond the workplace. Our employees are encouraged to take at least one day a year to help a charity of their choice, offering practical and professional support, as part of our MyGiving programme.

Our staff know how to work hard but also how to enjoy themselves! We pride ourselves on creating an appropriate work-life balance, valuing wellbeing, flexibility and being part of a team.