{"id":2924078,"url":"https://alion.io/job/scrumconnect-lead-technical-architect-ai","title":"Lead Technical Architect (AI)","company":{"id":3861039,"name":"Scrumconnect","domain":"scrumconnect.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/scrumconnect","size_band":"51-200","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Zoho Recruit","truth_index":null},"role":"AI/ML","role_family":"AI/ML","seniority":"lead","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom"],"countries":["GB"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":null,"salary_estimate":{"min_usd":95000,"max_usd":174000,"period":"year","method":"role_seniority_country_remote_cell","sample_n":25},"experience_years_min":null,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"Agile","optional":false},{"name":"AI Agents","optional":false},{"name":"CI/CD","optional":false},{"name":"Fine-tuning","optional":false},{"name":"RAG","optional":false},{"name":"Semantic Search","optional":false},{"name":"Semantic Search","optional":false},{"name":"AWS","optional":true},{"name":"Azure","optional":true},{"name":"GCP","optional":true},{"name":"Hallucination","optional":true},{"name":"LangChain","optional":true},{"name":"LlamaIndex","optional":true},{"name":"LLM","optional":true},{"name":"LLM Guardrails","optional":true},{"name":"LLMOps","optional":true}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-07-16T00:00:00Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-07-16","last_verified_at":"2026-10-20T21:02:16Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":97,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":97},"description":"About Scrumconnect Consulting\nScrumconnect Consulting is a multi-award-winning digital consultancy, recognised for delivering impactful and innovative technology solutions across UK government departments. Our work has positively influenced the lives of over 40 million UK citizens.\nWe are passionate about user-centred design, agile delivery, and building digital services that make a real difference; and we're now scaling that expertise into large, high-stakes AI adoption programmes across the public sector.\nOverview\nWe're looking for a Lead Technical Architect (AI) to act as the technical authority for a full-scale AI Operating Model and Responsible AI Governance Framework at a central government department. This is a large, high-visibility AI adoption and scale-up programme covering systems and services handling high-volume, sensitive public sector data.\nYou'll work as part of a collaborative \"Rainbow Team\" alongside civil servants, with a mission that goes beyond delivery: build sustainable internal capability so the department can eventually operate and govern its own AI capability without long-term reliance on external suppliers.\nKey Responsibilities\nArchitectural Leadership & IntegrationDesign and implement enterprise-grade AI platforms - including semantic search, Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), and broader generative AI/agentic capabilities - integrating cleanly with the department's complex legacy and multi-cloud environments.\nResponsible AI GovernanceEmbed end-to-end responsible AI controls across the full lifecycle: alignment with the Algorithmic Transparency Recording Standard (ATRS), NCSC \"Secure by Design\" principles, and active mitigation of algorithmic bias. Ensure every system operates as a decision-support tool that enforces meaningful human control.\nRisk & Value ManagementNavigate trade-offs between value, risk, pace, and quality using HM Treasury Orange Book and Technology-Organisation-Environment (ToE) frameworks. Identify and resolve systemic risks via Joint Risk Registers.\nZero-Dependency Handover & Capability UpliftCo-deliver within blended agile teams. Drive knowledge transfer using the OKUA (Ownership, Knowledge, Understanding, Awareness) framework and \"Docs-as-Code\" practices so internal staff can independently operate and govern AI capability long after the engagement ends.\nEnvironmental Sustainability (Green AI)Design low-modality, energy-efficient AI architectures aligned with \"Circularity Performance Requirements\" (Buy Better, Use Better, Use Longer), supporting Net Zero 2030/2040 commitments.\nRequired Skills & Experience\nMapped to the Government Digital and Data (DDaT) framework:\nTechnical Design Throughout the Life Cycle (Expert): technical designs for high-risk, high-impact, high-complexity systems; leading others toward organisational objectives; refining standards from feedback.\n\nArchitecture Communication (Expert): communicating complex or contentious architecture to technical and non-technical stakeholders at all levels; mediating difficult discussions; securing executive buy-in.\n\nMaking Architectural Decisions (Practitioner): medium-to-high-risk design decisions spanning multiple domains; active contribution to architectural governance and assurance boards.\n\nArchitect for the Whole Context (Practitioner): tracking emerging AI and technology trends; influencing colleagues across the organisation to solve or mitigate problems.\n\nStrategy Design (Practitioner): defining architectural principles, AI patterns, and strategic vision aligned to wider government objectives; building implementation roadmaps.\n\nCommunity Collaboration (Practitioner): proactive networking, resolving team-dynamics issues, using Agile health checks to strengthen the multidisciplinary delivery team.\n\nAlongside the DDaT competencies, given the scale of this programme, hands-on depth across the modern AI engineering stack is essential, not just RAG in isolation:\nSemantic search, vector/embedding infrastructure, and retrieval architecture design\n\nLLM orchestration and agentic frameworks (e.g. LangChain/LlamaIndex-style tooling, multi-agent patterns)\n\nLLM evaluation, guardrails, and red-teaming tooling (hallucination detection, safety/bias testing)\n\nLLMOps / MLOps: model versioning, deployment pipelines, monitoring, and rollback for AI services in production\n\nFine-tuning and parameter-efficient adaptation techniques where appropriate to use case\n\nData engineering for AI: ingestion, cleaning, and lineage across legacy and multi-cloud sources\n\nInfrastructure-as-Code and CI/CD practices adapted for AI workloads, with strong observability\n\nSecure-by-design engineering appropriate to sensitive public-sector data (identity, access control, data protection)\n\nDesirable Experience\nAWS / Azure / GCP architecture certifications, AI related certifications most desirable.\n\nExperience contributing to GOV.UK Service Standard alpha or beta assessments\n\nPrior delivery of AI or digital services within UK central government or wider public sector\n\nFamiliarity with ATRS submissions, HM Treasury Orange Book, or equivalent public-sector risk/assurance frameworks\n\nOpen-source contributions or active engagement in engineering/AI communities\n\nExperience designing for sustainability/Green IT commitments\n\nLocation and Working Pattern\nHybrid, based from Newcastle upon Tyne, with on-site attendance required for workshops, knowledge-transfer sessions, and onboarding. All production systems and data access must be performed solely from within the UK.\nHow We Work\nOur values:\nCollaboration: we are stronger as a team than as individuals; we tackle problems and celebrate wins together.\n\nCreate Value Early: we find the quickest route from idea to product, because our clients rely on us to do what's best.\n\nIntegrity: teamwork requires trust; we can always be relied upon to uphold the highest standards.\n\nCommitment: no matter what, no matter how, we give our 100% to keeping our promises and achieving our goals.\n\nDiversity and Inclusion: we believe diversity drives innovation and better outcomes, and we're committed to an inclusive environment where every individual is valued, respected, and supported. We welcome applications from candidates of all backgrounds, including women, people with disabilities, and diverse communities, as well as those seeking flexible working arrangements.\n\nDiversity and Inclusion\nAt Scrumconnect Consulting, we believe that diversity drives innovation and better outcomes. We are committed to fostering an inclusive environment where every individual is valued, respected and supported.\nWe warmly welcome applications from candidates of all backgrounds, and particularly encourage women and people from other underrepresented groups to apply, including people with disabilities, diverse communities, and those seeking flexible working arrangements. You don't need to meet every point above to be a great fit; we'd love to hear from you if this role resonates.\nAs a Disability Confident Level 1 employer, we are committed to providing reasonable adjustments throughout the recruitment process and during employment, to ensure equal opportunities for all.","description_format":"text","description_chars":7169,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":null,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":null,"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":["Flexible schedule"],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"United Kingdom","iso":"GB","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Artificial Intelligence","Government","Professional Services","E-learning"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-10-20T13:00:11Z"}],"visa":[{"country":"GB","licensed_sponsor":true,"evidence":"Licensed UK visa sponsor (Skilled Worker)","filings_12m":null,"filings_prev_12m":null,"green_card_filings_12m":null,"median_offered_wage_usd":null,"route":"Skilled Worker","cap_exempt":false,"checked_at":"2026-10-20T06:21:30+00:00","sources":["UK Home Office: register of licensed sponsors (workers)"],"filings_for_role_12m":0}],"liveness":{"score":10,"band":"cold","label":"Long shot","p_open":1,"p_active":0.347,"p_room":0.28,"age_days":97,"expected_fill_days":30,"reasons":["conf:2","win:tail","crowd:"],"computed_at":"2026-10-21T00:01:13Z"},"pay":null,"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/scrumconnect-lead-technical-architect-ai","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/scrumconnect-lead-technical-architect-ai.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-21T00:01:13Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":20,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-22T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":3861039},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=3861039"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fscrumconnect-lead-technical-architect-ai"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fscrumconnect-lead-technical-architect-ai"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fscrumconnect-lead-technical-architect-ai"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/scrumconnect-lead-technical-architect-ai\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fscrumconnect-lead-technical-architect-ai"}]}