ICT Director (Solution Architecture) (Canberra)

Executive Level 2 – ICT Technical Director (Solution Architecture) Locations: Canberra (ACT), Adelaide (SA), Sydney (NSW), Melbourne (VIC), Brisbane (QLD) Salary: $152,362 – $182,891 About the Department We are committed to empowering futures, ensuring rights and enriching lives. We support people to have safe, secure and well‑paid work with the skills for a sustainable future as we ourselves strive to be a model employer. We provide the framework for fair and productive relationships between employers and employees, and we also oversee skills development and training initiatives to support those entering the workforce or re‑training to take advantage of emerging employment opportunities. With us, your work directly contributes to shaping the employment landscape through policy development, program implementation, or direct support services – impacting job seekers, employees and the economy. The Role Reporting to the Assistant Secretary, the EL2 ICT Technical Director (Solution Architecture) provides senior architecture leadership across multiple delivery streams, operating with a high degree of independence and shaping the future direction of the Division. You will play a pivotal role in designing the next generation of Employment, Skills, Workplace Relations, and Education services, by putting customers at the centre, challenging conventional thinking, and using architecture to solve complex policy and delivery challenges to achieve better outcomes for the Australian community. In this role you will collaborate closely with other EL2 leaders, platform SMEs (e.g., cloud, identity, integration, data) and multidisciplinary delivery teams to design, assure and optimise DEWR’s digital solutions and platforms and inform technology investment plans. You will work within fast‑paced agile teams alongside Lead Delivery Managers, product owners, service designers, system and business analysts, engineers and security specialists to navigate complex technical challenges, resolve architectural decisions, uplift architecture governance and secure‑by‑design practices, and support delivery of modern, scalable, user‑centred systems. You will provide expert architectural guidance, coaching and mentoring to architects and engineers, building capability in solution architecture practices. As an EL2 you will exercise sound judgement and initiative, managing competing priorities, shaping delivery approaches, and ensuring coherence across teams and platforms to achieve high‑quality outcomes. Working independently under broad direction, you will be responsible for achieving agreed objectives and ensuring that risks, issues and dependencies are proactively managed. You will engage directly with senior executives and key stakeholders to influence organisational direction by providing clear, evidence‑based architecture advice and presenting complex issues in a way that enables shared understanding and timely decision‑making. Duties and Responsibilities
- Own end‑to‑end solution architecture for major initiatives, define current/state and target‑state architectures, conduct options analysis and trade‑off decisions, and specify non‑functional requirements (e.g., security, privacy, performance, availability, resilience, operability and cost).
- Develop and govern architecture patterns, guardrails and standards, ensuring alignment with enterprise architecture, whole‑of‑government direction and platform roadmaps, maintain Architecture Decision Records (ADRs) and ensure traceability.
- Lead and assure solution design across multiple teams, chair/participate in architecture and design reviews, resolve integration and interoperability challenges and ensure adherence to approved patterns and controls.
- Design for integration and data, including API‑led and event‑driven architectures, interface specifications, data contracts, lineage and authoritative sources, ensuring reuse, cohesion and maintainability.
- Influence investment and delivery decisions by providing explicit, evidence‑based architectural advice for business cases, delivery plans and governance forums, articulating risks, assumptions, costs and benefits.
- Produce high‑quality architecture artefacts, such as solution overviews, high‑level designs (HLDs), logical/physical architecture models, sequence diagrams, integration views, data models and migration approaches.
- Champion secure‑by‑design, privacy‑by‑design, accessibility and reliability through architecture, collaborating with security, risk, service design and delivery stakeholders to embed controls and user needs.
- Manage architecture RAID (risks, assumptions, issues and dependencies) at portfolio level, addressing technical debt, complexity and obsolescence and planning pragmatic pathways to target state.
- Operate effectively in high‑pressure, time‑critical environments, balancing competing priorities, tight deadlines and emerging issues while maintaining quality and governance standards.
- Exercise a high level of integrity, discretion and probity when working with sensitive, pre‑decision or politically sensitive matters, ensuring confidentiality and appropriate escalation of risks.
- Build strong relationships with business areas, delivery partners and vendors to enable coherent, scalable and sustainable solutions. Qualifications and Education
- 5+ years’ experience delivering large‑scale ICT initiatives, providing technical leadership across complex, multi‑team environments.
- Demonstrated ability to develop and apply architecture strategies, patterns and standards, and to provide clear, influential advice to senior stakeholders on complex risk and governance matters. Eligibility Citizenship – to be eligible for employment with the Department, you must be an Australian Citizen or, in limited circumstances, in the process of obtaining it. Security Clearance – the successful candidate is required to hold, or have the ability to obtain, and maintain a Baseline security clearance. #J-18808-Ljbffr Apply on Kit Job: kitjobau.com/job/3roely