Enterprise Architect

Grade A:  £55,172 - £68,348 (National) or £61,028 - £74,204 (London – for London office based or homebased workers within the boundary of the M25). For exceptional candidates a higher salary may be available. There is also an additional homeworking allowance of £600 per annum for those working from home. 

Contracted Hours: Full-time 37 hours per week. Talk to us about compressed hours or flexible working.

Contract Type: Permanent

Location: Home-based

Closing Date: Sunday 19 July 2026 at 11:59pm

 Picture this

You are helping shape the future architecture of a national regulator at a time of significant change. You are bringing clarity across business, data, application and technology landscapes, making sure investment decisions support our strategic direction and that change is joined up, proportionate and sustainable. You are balancing short term delivery needs with a clear long term target state, helping CQC build a more coherent, resilient and insight led digital estate.

• You might have defined enterprise principles, standards and target state architectures that gave multiple programmes a shared direction and reduced duplication, risk and technical debt.
• You might have worked with senior leaders, delivery teams and subject matter experts to shape roadmaps, govern major design decisions and make sure new services, data and platforms fit together as part of one enterprise view.

 The role

 This is a strategic architecture role with broad organisational reach. You will work across portfolios, services and technology domains to shape enterprise direction, support investment decisions and improve the quality and coherence of change. In this role, you will:

• Set enterprise architecture direction: Define and maintain enterprise principles, standards, models and target states across business, data, application and technology domains, ensuring alignment with CQC strategy and priorities.
• Shape decisions and govern change: Influence senior stakeholders, guide major design decisions and provide architectural assurance across programmes and projects so that change is well governed, practical and consistent with agreed direction.
• Plan for long term improvement: Develop enterprise roadmaps that show how platforms, services, integrations and data capabilities will evolve over time, balancing immediate delivery needs with sustainable long term outcomes.

 Show us

 We are looking for someone who can operate confidently at enterprise level and show clear evidence of the following in their application:

• Experience defining enterprise architecture in a large or complex organisation, including principles, standards, target states and roadmaps that guide investment and delivery decisions.
• Strong experience of influencing senior stakeholders and multidisciplinary teams, explaining options, trade offs and risks clearly, and using architecture governance to support effective decision making.
• Experience working across modern digital and technology landscapes, with a good understanding of areas such as cloud platforms, integration, data architecture, legacy modernisation, security, resilience and agile delivery. 

Compliance
To progress your application, you’ll need to provide evidence of your right to work in the UK. Without valid right to work you won’t be eligible for the role. We are unable to offer sponsorship for this role. Some roles may also be subject to a satisfactory DBS check.

Next steps
If you apply, you’ll need to create a profile and complete an online application form. Your application will be completely anonymous.  Please see our information for applicants for more details on the process. We contact every applicant to let them know the outcome of their application, so you will hear from us whether or not you are shortlisted.

You can read the full details of the role in the Job Description

If you’d like to have an informal chat about the role you can contact – Andrew Collins, Deputy Director of Architecture; andrew.collins@cqc.org.uk. For general enquiries, please email recruitment@cqc.org.uk.

The Benefits
We offer a wide range of benefits, including:

• Annual leave starting at 27 days per year, rising to 32.5 days with service, plus bank holidays (usually 8 days per year).
• Training and development opportunities.
• Wellbeing initiatives, such as gym discounts and meditation.
• NHS pension scheme, with around 14% employer contribution.
• Discount schemes (including eligibility for a Blue Light card, at a cost of £4.99 and valid for 2 years), reward vouchers, car leasing and more!

Please see our benefits page for the full list.

Equity for all
We know job descriptions can feel intimidating. Research shows they can cause some people to doubt whether they’re a good fit. This happens more often to people from underrepresented groups (e.g. ethnic minority backgrounds). If this role interests you, we encourage you to apply. Your unique perspective, skills, and experience could be exactly what we need.

We want every candidate to feel supported and able to do their best. If you need adjustments to our process, we’ll work with you to remove any barriers. Visit our accessibility page for more on this. If you’d like to chat, please contact recruitment@cqc.org.uk. Please note, if you have previously informed us of adjustments you need for interview or within your role these are not carried over and must be discussed for each individual application you make.

 We promote a workplace where fairness, respect and inclusion are a priority. Diverse teams make our work better, help us deliver our mission and make our culture stronger. See our ED&I page for more about this.

We welcome applications from everyone, and colleagues can find support and community among our many employee networks. This includes people of any:

• Age
• Sex
• Gender identity or expression
• Sexual orientation
• Religion or belief
• Ethnicity
• Disability

Values and vision
We are guided by our core values, which shape our work and our culture.
Excellence – being a high-performing organisation.
Caring – treating everyone with dignity and respect.
Integrity – doing the right thing.
Teamwork – learning from each other to be the best we can.
We are a disability confident employer and a carer confident employer.

A Note on AI
AI tools can be great for research and refining ideas, but we want to learn about you. If you use AI or Chatbots to help you with your application, keep these points in mind:

•        AI can support research, structuring and refining your writing, but your application must reflect your real skills and experience.
•        Spell-checking and condensing word counts are great ways to use AI effectively.
•        Do not copy and paste AI generated answers. These will not help you stand out; remember we want to hear about your skills and experience.
•        Providing false and insincere examples goes against our core values of honesty and integrity and may lead to your application being withdrawn or termination of your employment.