Architecture: work in progress
Architecture profession
- Last reviewed
- 19 October 2026
- Owner
- Head of Architecture
Find architecture support in DfE including architecture leads, assurance guidance, recruitment support and professional communities.
What we do
Architecture in DfE follows a profession-led model. Architects are embedded in service delivery teams, portfolios or domains and are supported by the architecture profession.
The architecture profession:
- builds architecture capability across DfE, provides a capability framework, and supports recruitment, career pathways and professional development opportunities
- sets architecture and technical design standards, providing guidance and a proportionate assurance framework
- builds architecture and technical design communities, facilitating regular meet-ups with opportunities for all to share and learn
There is a large community of permanent, managed service and contingent architects across the department, as well as commercial frameworks to help meet your needs.
If you’re looking for architecture support for your project, discuss your needs with your architecture lead in the first instance.
Help to find an architect
The architecture profession will work with you and your architecture lead to meet your needs. This could be supporting you to recruit permanent staff or helping you bring in the right people or services through one of our compliant commercial routes to market.
This will enable you to:
- get the right architecture skills, at the right time, at the right price
- onboard architects into DfE consistently, so they understand our ways of working and assurance framework
- provide oversight and assurance of their outputs and deliverables
- link them into the wider DfE architecture profession and communities
- manage their departure professionally when their work is complete, with an appropriate handover and knowledge transfer
The profession can provide example job descriptions, structured recruitment materials and template statements of work (for managed services and contingent workers).
If you’d like to know more or discuss your needs in detail, contact the architecture profession at architecture.profession@education.gov.uk.
Architecture leads
Architecture leads work within a DfE portfolio or domain. They work closely with DDT business partners and other DDT specialists to support, steer and help join up delivery.
They assist, advise and guide programmes and projects, ensuring alignment with:
- technical strategies
- common patterns and components
- architecture principles
- architecture standards and assurance
Architecture leads can also help identify architects and other technical specialists needed to support delivery, specifically:
- support recruitment of the right people to meet the needs of the portfolio or domain
- work with delivery teams to align with architecture principles, standards and patterns
- help identify common goals or problems being solved across DfE and link up teams working on them
Use the table below to find out who your architecture lead is. You can contact the architecture profession at architecture.profession@education.gov.uk if you’re not sure.
| Portfolio or domain | Architecture lead(s) |
|---|---|
| Schools Digital (including Teacher Services) | Robert Rees |
| Children and Families | Pradeep Neelakandan |
| Regional Digital Services | TBC - speak to Mamood Sultan |
| Skills and Growth (including Apprenticeship Service) | TBC - speak to Craig Faulkner |
| Cyber Security | Martin Sivorn |
| End User Services | John Phillips |
| Operational Services | Mario Gledhill |
| Enterprise Architecture | Ant McCrea |
| Data Architecture | Zog Gibbons |
| Further Education/Data Collection | Pete Holding |
| National Careers Service | Chris Jones |
| Funding Service | Robin Darby |
| Standards and Testing Agency | Olufemi Ayilara |
Help with assurance
For most services, architecture is expected to emerge and evolve over time as services change in response to user needs and other drivers.
The benefit of iterative delivery is to release value to users as early as possible, then iterate and continuously improve to derive better outcomes based on user feedback. This requires ongoing architecture and technical design reviews to ensure services are developed sustainably and consistently across the portfolio or domain and the wider organisation.
Embedded architects work alongside product managers, developers, service designers and other roles to achieve this.
In DfE, we encourage an ‘in-line’ assurance approach, where decisions about architecture and technology are made within a portfolio or service team based on user needs, with assurance from wider technical communities where needed. By aligning with architecture principles and complying with technical standards in DfE, we believe that minimum-viable governance speeds up delivery. Architects can share and assure their work in communities, ensuring fit with broader organisational strategies.
To understand how your needs for architecture and technical design assurance might be best met, see our design assurance guidance.
Architecture capability framework
This content is being drafted. If you have any comments, email the architecture profession at architecture.profession@education.gov.uk.
This framework provides an outline of the roles, skills and experience that architects working in DfE have or would like to build. It describes some of the pathways into architecture and how to develop a career.
We've published DfE's architecture capability framework (opens in new tab, DfE SharePoint users only) (link opens in new tab), which initially focuses on our enterprise, solution, technical and security architect roles. We plan to expand it to include other architecture roles soon.
The framework should also help people who work and interact with architects, to understand what we do and how we do it.
It builds on the GOV.UK DDaT Capability Framework, extending the various skills, levels and mastery for the context of DfE.
Learning and development
Architects can find various self-serve learning and development resources on the architecture toolkit (opens in new tab, DfE SharePoint users only) (link opens in new tab). If you have any specific needs or would like to set up shadowing, coaching or mentoring, contact the profession team, email architecture.profession@education.gov.uk.
The architecture community will support you in developing your skills and experience. There are regular masterclasses and knowledge sharing sessions, as well as opportunities to hear from and engage with our suppliers. Learn about these on the architecture community page.
Pathways into architecture
Here are some examples of how architects come into the profession and what their career pathways might look like:
Further information
For any other information about the architecture practice, contact the architecture profession at architecture.profession@education.gov.uk.