Lead business architect

Band 8b · Business architect · 613 job evaluation points

UK GDaD PCF level: Lead business architect

Most often performed at Civil Service grade G7 or G6.

A lead business architect uses their expert knowledge and experience to direct the work addressing high level and complex business scenarios. They support and lead other business architects.
At this role level, you will:
be accountable for outputs produced by the business architecture team
lead and direct the application of architectural principles, methods, and tools to business scenarios
use architectural methods to form a view of the whole enterprise in a way that is easily understood by stakeholders
work with stakeholders at executive levels
provide overall direction, guidance, and definition of business architecture to support strategy
develop and maintain a strong business architecture capability through coaching, mentoring, and training

Contains public sector information from the UK Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework (https://understand-digital-data-roles-skills.service.gov.uk/), licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. © Crown copyright.

Responsibilities

Lead the business architecture practice and be accountable for its outputs.
Maintain the organisation-wide view of capabilities, services, and care pathways, and keep it easy to understand.
Advise directors on the priorities for change and how investment portfolios fit strategy.
Work with partner organisations to agree shared capabilities and responsibilities across care pathways.
Lead and develop business architects.

Skills

Skill	Expected level	What this level means
Business architectureUK GDaD PCF	Expert (4)	You can: simplify complex business architecture frameworks into clear actions develop business architecture maturity in your organisation, such as through a community of practice lead or guide others in using best practice for business architecture, such as industry standards identify strategic misalignment within the organisation and make recommendations for improvement
Communicating informationUK GDaD PCF	Expert (4)	You can: mediate between people and mend relationships, communicating with stakeholders at all levels manage stakeholder expectations and host or moderate discussions about high risk and complexity, even within constrained timescales speak on behalf of and represent the community to large audiences inside and outside of government
ConsultancyUK GDaD PCF	Practitioner (3)	You can: provide advice and recommendations to stakeholders based on your significant specialist knowledge and experience lead the definition of guidance and inform how the organisation approaches delivery or uses digital and data skills more effectively
Making and guiding decisionsUK GDaD PCF	Practitioner (3)	You can: make decisions characterised by medium levels of risk and complexity, and recommend decisions as risk and complexity increase build consensus between services or independent stakeholders
Methods and toolsUK GDaD PCF	Expert (4)	You can: set direction and give others the means and authority to advise on the best methodologies and tools for the work, ensuring they are adopted consistently assess the effectiveness of different approaches (such as Agile or plan-driven) and recommend tools to support organisational collaboration and build capability
Stakeholder relationship managementUK GDaD PCF	Expert (4)	You can: direct the stakeholder relationship strategy for your teams ensure stakeholder's objectives are set and support teams to meet them influence and negotiate with senior stakeholders to resolve issues and enable progress
Strategic design and business changeUK GDaD PCF	Expert (4)	You can: demonstrate a strong understanding of business issues, events and activities and their short to long term impact define principles, patterns, standards, policies, roadmaps and vision statements effectively focus on outcomes rather than solutions and activities develop, maintain or update strategy in response to feedback and findings
Strategic thinkingUK GDaD PCF	Practitioner (3)	You can: define strategies and policies, providing guidance to others on working in the strategic context evaluate current strategies to ensure business requirements are being met and exceeded where possible
Understanding health and care servicesThis reference	Expert (4)	You can: shape organisational strategy using a deep understanding of the health and care system represent the organisation with health and care partners and leaders anticipate how policy and service changes will affect digital services and care
Clinical risk managementThis reference	Working (2)	You can: take part in hazard workshops and contribute to a hazard log follow the clinical risk management process for your work provide evidence for a clinical safety case, such as test results
Information governance and data protectionThis reference	Working (2)	You can: apply data protection principles to your work contribute to data protection impact assessments handle information requests and records correctly
Equality, diversity, and inclusionThis reference	Practitioner (3)	You can: carry out equality impact assessments build inclusive teams and practices
Organisational risk managementThis reference	Practitioner (3)	You can: run the risk process for a directorate or programme assess risks against the risk appetite and escalate them report on risks to committees
People managementThis reference	Practitioner (3)	You can: line manage a team, setting objectives and running appraisals support wellbeing and manage attendance, performance, and conduct plan the team's development and succession

Typical qualifications and experience

Extensive experience of leading business architecture in a complex organisation.

Band 8b outline

Knowledge: Expert knowledge across several disciplines or a large service.
Autonomy: Shapes policy and strategy for a large area.
Scope: Several services or teams, or a principal-level discipline.
Leadership: Manages managers, or is the principal authority in a discipline.
Accountability: Several services, their staff, and their budgets.

Job evaluation (illustrative)

Factor	Level	Level summary	Points
Communication and relationship skills	5	Gives highly complex or contentious information needing developed persuasion and negotiation, presents to large groups, or communicates where there are significant barriers to acceptance.	45
Knowledge, training, and experience	8	Advanced knowledge (doctorate plus further training or equivalent), or specialist knowledge across more than one discipline built over a long period.	240
Analytical and judgemental skills	5	Judgements on highly complex facts or situations needing analysis, interpretation, and comparison of options.	60
Planning and organisational skills	4	Plans a broad range of complex activities or strategies, adjusting them as needed.	42
Physical skills	2	Skills gained through practice, such as standard keyboard use or driving.	15
Responsibility for patient and client care	1	Helps patients, clients, or relatives during incidental contact.	4
Responsibility for policy and service development	4	Implements policy and develops policy or services for a service or several areas.	32
Responsibility for financial and physical resources	3	Authorises payments, buys some assets or supplies, monitors or holds a delegated budget, or maintains assets.	21
Responsibility for people	3	Manages a group of staff day to day, teaches core or specialist training, or gives core HR advice.	21
Responsibility for information resources	5	Designs and develops major information systems, or runs information systems for several services as the main duty.	34
Responsibility for research and development	3	Carries out research or development within formal programmes as a main duty.	21
Freedom to act	5	Works within general policies, and in most cases decides how to interpret them.	45
Physical effort	1	Sitting, standing, and walking, with little physical effort.	3
Mental effort	4	Frequent prolonged concentration, or occasional intense concentration.	18
Emotional effort	1	Rare exposure, or occasional indirect exposure, to distressing circumstances.	5
Working conditions	2	Occasional unpleasant conditions, frequent travel or outdoor work, or near-continuous screen use on most days.	7
Total (Band 8b: 585 to 629)			613