About the Department

The role of the Department of Education is to support Victorians to build prosperous, socially engaged, happy and healthy lives. It does this by supporting lifelong learning and healthy development, strengthening families and helping to equip people with the skills and knowledge for a 21st century economy and society.

About the Division

The Information Management and Technology Division (IMTD) guides the department's digital capability and is leading digital transformation for the department including Victorian government schools. The Division architects, manages and supports the largest technology network in Victoria, supporting a user base of approximately 750,000 staff and students.

IMTD provides innovation and leadership in the transformation and management of the department's digital capability through the implementation of solutions on the department's cloud environment (IaaS), enterprise cloud platforms (PaaS) and software (SaaS), using agile practices with a focus on user experience, security, and integration.

About the Role

The Principal Architect is a pivotal leadership role that will provide technical design expertise to business areas and across the branch throughout the design process.

The Principal Architect will set the strategic direction from a technical perspective from the initial phase of conceptualisation to product development through to product delivery.

Making connections between Experience Architecture and business requirements, they will have the full gamut of understanding around technical design considerations including enterprise platforms, development modules, integration and data modelling, as well as knowledge around opportunities for increased user capability.

This position will play a key role in transforming research into solution design, while ensuring integrity and driving patterns and decision making for any new product development.  

Capabilities

The ideal candidate will be an excellent communicator, working closely with platform leads, architects, analysts, and other technical capabilities and business areas, with the ability to traverse technical and business speak.

They are strategic and focused on their outputs, working with documentation including experience design patterns and templates. They will map these technical designs across user journeys and lifecycles.

Desirable Qualifications and Experience

• Expertise in user experience design and specifications, working to ensure solutions align with the department's digital design principles, strategic planning, and roadmaps.
• Experience adapting to and finding new strategies, building commitment in others.
• Strong systems thinking approach, formulating actions to achieve objectives and champion this perspective across the department.
• Proven success in continuous improvement, establishing metrics for evaluating work effectiveness.
• Strong digital and technological literacy in aligning IT capabilities with business outcomes.
• Excellent critical thinking, problem-solving, and maintaining a customer-focused approach.
• Excellent influencing and persuasion skills, experience in developing comprehensive plans and negotiating effectively with stakeholders.
• Proven expertise in developing and managing experience architecture frameworks, enforcing configuration patterns, and designing strategic approaches for long-term viability.
• Experience developing data and system methodologies to enhance user experience, leading various research methods throughout the product development process.
• Tertiary qualifications in a related discipline would be advantageous.

Further Information

For more details regarding this position please see attached position description.

The department values diversity and inclusion in all forms - gender, religion, ethnicity, LGBTIQ+, disability and neurodiversity. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander candidates are strongly encouraged to apply. For more information about our work, working for the Department, diversity and inclusion, and our employment conditions visit the Department website and our Diversity and Inclusion page

For further information pertaining to the role, please contact Richard Jones – Recruitment Specialist via (03) 9059 5311 or richard.jones4@education.vic.gov.au.

Preferred applicants may be required to complete a police check and may be subject to other pre-employment checks. Information provided to the Department of Education will be treated in the strictest confidence.

Please let us know via phone or email if you require any adjustments to ensure your full participation in the recruitment process or if you need the ad or any attachments in an accessible format (e.g large print) due to any viewing difficulties or other accessibility requirements.

Applications close 11:59pm on 5 December 2023