JOB DESCRIPTION
Title
Technical Architect
Primary location
Ince London office
Reports to
IT Projects and Programme Manager
Scope of role
Ince Global
Contract type
Fixed Term Contract
Hours of work
37.5 hours per week (09:30 to 17:30); although flexibility in working hours is a
requirement and you can expect that additional hours and evening work to be
required in order to meet deadlines and fulfil all the obligations of the role to the
required level. Travel to International offices may very occasionally be required.
Role Summary
The role has been created to provide technical architecture oversight and support for the Business Services
Change Programme (BSCP), a firm-wide initiative to improve and standardise the delivery of internal
business services that ultimately support the legal services delivered to the firm’s clients. Given the firm’s
significant dependency on IT, a substantial part of the programme involves the IT function either directly or
indirectly. Reporting to the IT Projects and Programme Manager and working closely with stakeholders of
the Business Services Change Programme, the role is critical to the successful delivery of IT projects.
Working within the BSCP Project Delivery Team, the role will support the delivery of IT projects within the
BSCP. The role holder will need to be flexible and adaptable, providing technical expertise and guidance on
a wide range of areas covering infrastructure, applications and data.
The role will own the design and governance of BSCP technology infrastructure, applications and data
architecture, providing guidance and endorsement for significant changes to the technology platform. The
role will create and maintain an architecture roadmap, setting global standards that will be used by projects
to guide implementation decisions. The role is key to advising the business on design decisions to ensure
any technology investment made by BSCP is leveraged to its full potential and is, as far as possible, future
proofed.
The role-holder will have excellent end-to-end IT technical architecture experience and a good
understanding of projects. The role-holder should have the aptitude and confidence to challenge / change
existing practices and support IT and business resources to drive projects to completion.
Key Duties & Responsibilities

Provide detailed technical architecture expertise to support the delivery of the BSCP IT Programme,
defining, developing, communicating and governing infrastructure, applications and data architecture.

Ensure the business is expertly advised on technology decisions, explaining the impact of potential
changes on current and future state architecture. Provide a reference point for the technical design of
systems and projects. Enable exploitation of available and new technologies to ensure solutions are
architected for global performance.

Participate in the BSCP IT Programme Design Authority to provide guidance and endorsement for
significant technology changes and the implementation of new systems required by the business.
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JOB DESCRIPTION

Set clear firm-wide IT standards and procedures for key aspects of technology architecture in line with
IT strategy, ensuring compliance with any standards set.

Build and maintain trusted relationships with key stakeholders in the IT function to ensure close
working relationships.

Liaise with external specialists and supervise their activities to ensure required strategic and technical
outcomes are achieved and IT standards are met.

Participate in any IT project initiatives external to BSCP, as required.
Specific duties

Develop, maintain and communicate a strategy and 3 year roadmap to cover infrastructure (operating
systems, networks, servers, storage, email, desktop and mobile devices, VOIP, security), applications
(integration, design principles) and data (data modelling, ETL, business intelligence, analytics, data
publication and consumption protocols).

Maintain strong architectural knowledge of the above areas including market trends, new ideas and
developments.

Identify ways to utilise current and future technologies to achieve efficiencies, adding value to the firm
with measurable payback. Identify and define product selection and influence product procurement.

Provide detailed design endorsement and serve as a technical authority for key architectural
decisions.

Collaborate closely with key personnel to develop roadmaps that are in line with the IT strategy.

Own and document infrastructure, application and data artefacts for use in governance activities.

Provide services to the IT function which institutionalise good architecture practice and maps to the
overall enterprise architecture.

Ensure that all projects are aligned to the architecture framework element of the overall enterprise
architecture.

Undertake regular reviews and audits of IT projects to ensure compliance with the architecture
framework.

Ensure that strategic developments support the global nature of Ince’s business model while adhering
to appropriate regulatory / compliance requirements.

Evaluate trends and best practices and establish whether they would benefit the development of
Ince’s business systems and drive competitive advantage.

Attend meetings to ensure stakeholders and the project delivery team fully understand any technical
impacts / implications of key technology decisions. Communicate both verbally and in writing to
various stakeholder groups and the wider business, as required.

Liaise with external suppliers to ensure successful technical delivery of projects.

Participate in post project reviews and apply lessons learned to improve future projects.

Complete any other tasks that may be required from time to time by the IT Projects and Programme
Manager.
Key Lines of Communication and Relationships

Reporting to the IT Projects and Programme Manager.
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JOB DESCRIPTION

Collaborative working across the entire IT department.

Liaison with external 3rd party vendors.

Liaison with a broad range of stakeholders across the business on projects, as well as internal and
external subject matter experts.
Essential Skills, Qualifications and Experience

End-to-end experience providing technical architecture expertise for the design and specification of
software and hardware solutions, systems, or products, ideally within a commercial law firm.

Detailed understanding of technology concepts and platforms, technical infrastructure and software
development methodologies. Demonstrated capability developing, maintaining and promoting
information architecture practices and processes.

Proven experience (5+ years) providing technical architecture expertise on legal IT projects with
expert legal application skills / knowledge and a solid understanding of infrastructure, application and
data concepts (server configuration; operating system image configuration; creation and distribution,
network topology; storage (SAN & NAS) design and technology; email architecture and configuration;
virtual server configuration; security concepts and their application in a multi-sited operation; data
centre operations; data warehousing; master data management; data modelling and integration;
business intelligence design and development; information security; mobile platforms and applications;
Active Directory; SQL; Citrix; Intranet and social platforms; SharePoint).

Strong analytical and problem solving ability.

Forward thinking, with excellent analysis skills. Displaying an eagerness for change and continuous
improvement.

Excellent oral and written communication skills, with the ability to communicate ideas in both technical
and user-friendly language across a broad group of stakeholders. Must have the ability to influence
others and work in a consultative manner to solve business issues and ensure the architecture
framework is well understood and accepted. Strong leadership skills.

Excellent organisational and time management skills with the discipline to manage a busy workload
and reconcile competing demands under pressure.

Highly self-motivated with a keen attention to detail. Pragmatic and flexible with a strong focus on
delivery. Must be a completer/finisher and have a logical and analytical approach with strong
documentation skills.

Highly proficient in MS Office applications including MS Project, Visio, PowerPoint, Word.

Educated to degree level (or equivalent) with additional technical qualification / certification e.g.
infrastructure or enterprise architecture qualification.
Beneficial

This role is global and international experience would be of great interest.
Supplemental
All other conditions of employment are described within the Terms and Conditions of Employment within the
Contract of Employment. The roles and responsibilities within this Job Description are not exhaustive and
may be vary to recognise future business needs.
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