Job Advert
Flexible Location: Based throughout Scotland, NES is a remote friendly employer supporting office and hybrid working. We’re happy to talk about how you want to work.
Work Pattern: Full Time, 37 hours per week
Fixed-term or Secondment** opportunities until 30 March 2026
**For NHS applicants, an NHS secondment will be offered in the first instance. For non-NHS applicants, a fixed-term or secondment would be considered.
You must have eligibility and entitlement to work in the UK which is required to be maintained throughout your period of employment.
Who We Are
NHS Education for Scotland (NES) is the national health board with statutory responsibilities to effect sustainable change through workforce development, education and training across the health and social care system in Scotland, while working at UK level with partner organisations.
NES Technology Service (NTS) has created a strategic programme for the transformation of digital based services to allow NES to become a leading digital organisation in Scottish Health, digital by default and fully aligned with the Scottish Government’s technology strategies. It is in pursuit of this aim that NTS are working with partners to develop the National Digital Platform.
The National Digital Platform (NDP) is an open, standards-based platform, supporting technology for the health and care environment. It underpins our commitment to making health and care information and services more accessible. Working with those delivering solutions across health and social care to bring new and existing digital components onto the platform, for re-use.
The Opportunity
This is an exceptional opportunity to join NES as a Senior Solutions Architect supporting our National Digital Platform (NDP), a transformative initiative that will change how people in Scotland access their health and care information and services.
The National Digital Platform is a platform for people to get access to their health and care information and to health and care services, directly. It will allow people to access, self-manage, and contribute to their own health and care information online, forming a critical part of Scotland's Digital Health and Care Strategy.
Do you want to shape the future of digital health and care in Scotland?
Do you enjoy collaborating with engineering teams to deliver innovative platform solutions?
Are you interested in translating customer requirements into practical technical solutions?
Do you want to work at the intersection of customer needs and platform capabilities?
Do you enjoy working collaboratively across multidisciplinary teams to support product development and customer success?
Working within the NES Technology Service Directorate, you'll collaborate closely with engineers and the Head of Service for Engineering to maintain our overall architectural strategy, while supporting service owners and product managers in understanding customer technical requirements and designing solutions that leverage our platform services to meet their needs
Does this sound like you?
What We Love to See
Senior Solutions Architects offer a broad range of skills and experience, if you can offer some or all of these, we’d love you to apply:
- Significant experience in designing and delivering solutions using platform services and working with customers to understand their technical needs
- Relevant experience in collaborative solution architecture within cloud-native environments using platforms such as Azure or AWS
- Comprehensive background in healthcare technology systems and understanding of health data standards (FHIR, SNOMED, OpenEHR)
- Experience supporting service owners and product teams and working with customers to translate requirements into technical solutions
- Experience with microservices architecture, API design, and integration patterns
- Knowledge of modern agile development practices including DevOps, CI/CD, and infrastructure as code
- Ability to facilitate technical discussions between customers, service owners, product teams, and engineering teams
- Experience collaborating with engineering teams to develop new services and platform capabilities
- Ability to communicate complex technical concepts to both technical and non-technical stakeholders
- Demonstrate honesty, integrity, care and compassion when dealing with others, utilising tact and persuasion skills when necessary
- Ability to work on own initiative, to organise and prioritise own workloads, to meet strict deadlines
Benefits Which Matter
- Benefits Which Matter
- As a valued employee of NHS Scotland, you can enjoy an extensive range of benefits including:
- Life-work balance - with opportunities for flexible working and hybrid working
- Generous NHS pension scheme
- Annual incremental salary progression (up to the maximum of the salary band) plus annual NHS salary scale review
- Annual Leave - 27 Days increasing in line with service plus 8 days public holiday
- NHS discounts and more
Diversity and Inclusion
Developing a successful national service for Scotland is impossible without ensuring we consider the diverse needs, perspectives and backgrounds of everyone in Scotland in our work.
We are focused on hiring the very best talent available for NES, and actively encourage applications from candidates of all backgrounds and aim to ensure everyone is treated fairly, with respect and has a positive recruitment experience – regardless of the outcome.
It’s not essential to be in a Senior Solutions Architect role right now. You may be returning from a career break (e.g. maternity, paternity, caring for others) or returning after working in another field. Your experiences elsewhere can bring a fresh perspective to our work.
If you are considering applying and feel it would be helpful to discuss this initially, please contact Simon Maishman (Head of Service – Engineering) via simon.maishman@nhs.scot
Next Steps
**NHS candidates will be considered firstly on a secondment basis, and so are strongly encouraged to discuss this with their current NHS employer at the earliest opportunity, ideally prior to application.
All applicants who are shortlisted for interview will be contacted by e-mail.
In person OR online interviews (including a technical presentation) will take place between Wednesday 10 September and Monday 15 September 2025. The presentation topic will be sent to candidates selected for interview.
For further information please refer to the Job Information Pack below.
Unless otherwise stated the deadline for applications is 23:59 hours on the closing date. Please note, CV’s will not be accepted.
To work in the United Kingdom, there is a legal requirement for an individual to demonstrate that they have the relevant permission to work in the country. This permission is, without exception, granted by the UK Visa and Immigrations Service.
As part of the pre-employment checks for a preferred candidate, NHS Scotland Boards will check your entitlement to work in the UK. It can be evidenced through a number of routes including specific types of visa as well as EU settled and pre-settled status. To find out more about these routes of permission, please refer to the GOV.UK website here.
For specific types of post, if you do not have the necessary eligibility to work in the UK, it might be possible (though not guaranteed) to secure sponsorship via a UK Skilled Worker/Health & Care Worker Visa. However, this is only possible if the employer is a licenced Sponsor, and if the post does not fall below the current minimum salary threshold or ‘going rate’. Further information on these criteria can be found here.
It is ESSENTIAL that you have checked that you either already have an appropriate right to work in the UK or that the post would be eligible to be sponsored BEFORE submitting your application form.
If you have any queries regarding the NHS Scotland National Recruitment Portal or the recruitment process, please don't hesitate to contact our recruitment partners, the East Region Recruitment Service, at: EoS.ERRS@nhs.scot