Job Advert
On 1 April 2026, NSS and NES became one national organisation, focused on continuity today and a stronger, more connected service for tomorrow.
As part of this transformation, NHS National Services Scotland (NSS) and NHS Education for Scotland (NES) have joined to form a new organisation: Public Services Delivery Scotland (PSD Scotland). This new organisation will play a pivotal role in supporting the renewal and ensuring the long-term sustainability of health and care services across Scotland.
Flexible Location: PSD Scotland is a remote-friendly employer with staff based throughout Scotland. We support office-based and hybrid working arrangements. We welcome conversations about alternative working patterns—please get in touch during the application process to discuss.
Work Pattern: Fixed Term, Full Time, 36 hours per week
Fixed-term or Secondment** until 30th Sept 2027
**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
PSD Scotland unites expertise from NES and NSS in a way that will allow us to accelerate national programmes to support the NHS to deliver better care, now and in the future.
We support staff with education and training, provide the tools and data that improve services, and run vital national functions such as procurement, logistics and blood, tissue and cell services.
PSD Scotland Technology Service has created a strategic programme for the transformation of digital based services to allow PSD Scotland to become a leading digital organisation in Scottish Health, digital by default and fully aligned with the Scottish Government’s technology strategies
The Opportunity
To enable delivery of the PSD Scotland Strategy 2023 - 2026, and assist NTS in our contribution to delivering against the Scottish Government Digital Health and Care Strategy and Data Strategy, NTS is seeking a highly skilled and motivated Data Architect to oversee data architecture principles, best practice and support technical delivery for stakeholders.
Do you want to play a key role in leading the delivery of high quality and robust cloud architecture to meet key strategic objectives?
Do you enjoy playing a lead technical role in multi-disciplinary teams to bring technology solutions from inception to production and sustained operation?
Do you want to play a crucial role in delivering the NES Strategy, Digital Health and Care Strategy for Scotland?
Do you enjoy working at pace and being adaptive to an ever-changing environment?
Working within the PSD Scotland Technology Development team you will have the opportunity to define and drive innovation that will directly inform the development of digital services for health and care professionals, and the general public
Does this sound like you?
What We Love to See
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:
- Strong leadership skills with proven ability to deliver corporate programmes while engaging credibly with a range of stakeholders, business partners, and development teams to understand needs and guide implementation of long-term IT strategies that support business goals
- Reputable experience of working with multi-disciplinary teams and stakeholders to provide specialist application architecture expertise, analysis and direction.
- Extensive track record of delivering performant, scalable, resilient, secure and cost-effective Cloud solutions, with a strong understanding of best practices in accordance with well architected frameworks pertaining to cloud technologies.
- Proven experience in development and implementation of standards and best practices with the aim of producing best of bread technology solutions
- Extremely well-developed knowledge of system architecture principles and processes and how these are best applied to large, highly complex systems.
- Ability to Identify and address architectural risks that affect multiple teams or domains, using architectural governance and assurance to make design decisions and manage technical risks.
- 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
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 means considering the diverse needs, perspectives, and backgrounds of everyone in Scotland. We are focused on hiring the very best talent and actively encourage applications from candidates of all backgrounds. Our aim to ensure that everyone is treated fairly, with respect, and has a positive recruitment experience—regardless of the outcome.
We welcome applications from all under-represented groups, including racially minoritised people and disabled people. It is not essential to be in Solutions Architect role right now—you may be returning from a career break (e.g., maternity, paternity, caring) or coming from another field. Your experiences can bring a fresh perspective to our work.
If you are considering applying and would like to discuss the opportunity, any adjustments or alternative work patterns, please contact tom.reeve@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 interviews (including a presentation will take place on 20th – 22nd May 2026. 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, CVs will not be accepted.
- Please be advised that if you are successful in being offered the role following the recruitment process, you will be expected to attend the office prior to your start date to complete face-to-face pre-employment checks. If you require any adjustments to support this, please let us know.
- 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