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Lead Data Architect
Crown Prosecution Service
Apply before 11:55 pm on Sunday 15th March 2026
Location
This post can be based in any location within England and Wales where a CPS office is located. Whilst it's an expectation of the role to travel to CPS locations as per business needs, CPSis disability confident employer and all reasonable adjustments will be considered in line with Equality Act of 2010.
About the job
Job summary
Join the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) as a Lead Data Architect and be a vital part of the criminal justice system in England and Wales. Operating independently, the CPS' work upholds the rule of law and ensures that justice is served fairly and impartially for victims, witnesses, and defendants.
This is a unique opportunity for you to contribute to the UK's justice system through the development and maintenance of a modern data platform.
As part of the Data Platform team, you will engage with both technical colleagues and business stakeholders to understand requirements, advise on data solutions, and ensure that the systems you build are both functional and user focused.
Your expertise as a Lead Data Architect will help shape a data-driven culture within the CPS, ensuring that the organisation remains responsive and effective in a rapidly evolving data landscape.
The Crown Prosecution Service is based in England and Wales. If you're applying for this role and live in Scotland or Northern Ireland, you must let us know when accepting this offer as you need permission to work from your home address if hybrid working is part of your role. There's no guarantee that we will grant this approval.
Job description
Your roles and responsibilities:
. you deliver data products and services that meet the needs and expectations of users and stakeholders, ensuring alignment with organisational objectives and priorities.
. you establish and maintain clear communication channels with users and stakeholders, soliciting feedback and managing expectations throughout the data life cycle.
. you inspire and guide the team by setting a clear vision for the data platform, aligning it with the organisation's strategic goals, and fostering a culture of innovation and continuous improvement.
. you ensure compliance with data policies, standards, and regulations, applying quality assurance methods and tools to monitor and improve data quality and integrity.
. you engage with senior stakeholders and users throughout the decision-making process, ensuring that their views and needs are understood and considered, and that they are informed of the outcomes and implications.
. you manage data risks and issues effectively, escalating and resolving them in a timely manner, and implementing mitigation strategies to prevent recurrence
. you monitor and assess the impact and outcomes of decisions, using feedback and data to measure performance and identify areas for improvement and innovation.
Person specification
To be eligible to apply, you need:
. experience in designing conceptual, logical, and physical data models.
. expert in turning business problems into data design, with hands-on experience with orchestration tools.
. experience in designing end-to-end data platforms including data lakes, warehouses, and lakehouses.
. experience in implementing data governance frameworks, including data cataloguing, metadata management, data governance and anonymisation.
. experience with role-based access control (RBAC) in data systems.
It is desirable that you have the below experience, but this is not required to apply:
. Experience with Azure Cloud, Databricks, Azure Data Factory and Python language.
Behaviours
We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
. Managing a Quality Service
Benefits
Alongside your salary of 58,330, Crown Prosecution Service contributes 16,898 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides. We offer a hybrid working policy. You must spend at least 40% of your contracted hours over a four-week period at court, in an office or another official workplace depending on business need and the kind of work you're doing.
Recruitment process
The recruitment process consists of an online application, interview and assessment. These are expected to take place on w/c 6 April 2026.
Your interview takes place online through Microsoft Teams.
Assessment
We ask you to complete an assessment as part of the recruitment process for this role. We will provide details immediately before your interview.
Personal statement
We ask you to complete a personal statement of no more than 750 words. You need to demonstrate the following experience/technical skills required for this role:
. experience in designing conceptual, logical, and physical data models.
. expert in turning business problems into data design, with hands-on experience with orchestration tools.
. experience in designing end-to-end data platforms including data lakes, warehouses, and lakehouses.
. experience in implementing data governance frameworks, including data cataloguing, metadata management, data governance and anonymisation.
. experience with role-based access control (RBAC) in data systems.
Behaviours
You are also asked to complete a statement of no more than 250 words for each behaviour setting out how you consider your personal skills, qualities and experience match the specified behaviours and requirements:
. Managing a Quality Service
Interview/Assessment
We use behaviours to help us understand your experience, to see if you're a good fit for the role. You are assessed against Grade 7 in the Civil Service success profiles [4] behaviours framework. We are assessing 1 behaviours at interview/assessment stage
. Managing a Quality Service - interview
Essential Experience will also be assessed through the assessment
If you're unable to cover three years through employment or academic history, you must provide a character reference for clearance purposes.
Other
This is a Full time post. We do consider requests for flexible, part time working and job share, always considering the operational needs of the department.
Please note that the CPS is unable to offer visa sponsorship. Therefore, if you require visa sponsorship to work in the UK, you will not meet the eligibility criteria for this role.
Clearance
If successful, you are required to secure Security Clearance, for which you must have a current valid UK address.
The job you're applying for is covered by Article 3(a) of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975, consequently Section 4(2) of that Act doesn't apply. You're required to disclose all previous convictions and cautions including spent convictions. Failing to make a full declaration will result in withdrawing your offer of employment if our checks reveal convictions that haven't been disclosed.
To be cleared to Security Clearance level, you have to be able to meet the residency requirement in the Cabinet Office guidance. For the Crown Prosecution Service, this is three years within the last five years.  |
