NEC Software Solutions (NECSWS) is looking for an Architecture Practice Operations Lead to ensure the smooth and effective operation of our Architecture and Design practice. This people and process-focused role is central to supporting the team's performance through operational coordination, leadership, and continuous improvement.
What You'll Do
- Provide line management to architecture team members, including regular one-to-one check-ins.
- Manage timesheets, annual leave, absence reporting, and routine people‑management tasks.
- Support the performance review lifecycle (objective setting, mid‑year, and year‑end reviews).
- Identify early wellbeing, behavioural, or performance concerns and escalate appropriately.
- Foster a supportive, inclusive, high‑trust team culture.
- Champion practice behaviours, role‑modelling professionalism, accountability, and continuous improvement.
- Maintain the practice’s workload tracker with accurate, up‑to‑date information.
- Record and validate new work requests, assign resources and perform prioritisation.
- Track progress, ownership, dependencies, and priorities across all workstreams.
- Highlight delays, risks, or blockers promptly to relevant leads.
- Support coordination with Engineering, Delivery, Security, and Product teams.
- Prepare summaries and insights for monthly practice workload and capacity review sessions.
- Produce clear, structured reports and dashboards using Excel and Power BI.
- Track practice KPIs including throughput, work quality, lifecycle efficiency, and Learning & Development (L&D) engagement.
- Analyse trends to support planning, prioritisation, resourcing, and operational decision‑making.
- Provide insight on work patterns, delays, demand, and capacity utilisation.
- Maintain data quality standards across operational reporting.
- Maintain and continuously improve operational guides, work‑instructions, templates, and onboarding materials.
- Support consistent ways of working across the practice.
- Identify opportunities to simplify workflows, reduce friction, and improve operational efficiency.
- Work with other teams to align operational improvements, tooling, and governance frameworks.
- Promote participation in learning sessions, workshops, knowledge‑shares, and communities of practice.
- Track L&D activity, maintain training records, and provide insight on development engagement.
- Support practice events, retrospectives, planning sessions, and initiatives that strengthen team culture.
- Maintain shared knowledge resources, documentation libraries, and repeatable assets.
- Encourage collaboration and ensure visibility of best practices and reusable artefacts.
What We're Looking For
- Proven experience in people leadership, including 1:1s, coaching, performance management, and wellbeing support.
- Strong stakeholder management and relationship‑building skills across technical and non‑technical groups.
- Experience coordinating or supporting project, operational, or delivery functions, including tracking actions and escalation paths.
- Solid understanding of technology‑enabled environments and modern delivery practices.
- Excellent organisational and prioritisation skills, with strong attention to detail.
- Strong communication skills, including clear written reporting and constructive challenge.
- Confidence with data, reporting, and dashboarding (Excel, Power BI).
- Ability to identify issues early, address behavioural risks, and hold individuals accountable fairly.
- A proactive, improvement‑oriented mindset with a passion for enabling team effectiveness.
- Eligible for UK Security Clearance.
Nice to Have
- Experience in IT, engineering, architecture, or digital delivery teams.
- Familiarity with work‑intake management, requirements elicitation, or clarifying stakeholder needs.
- Understanding of delivery lifecycles, operational workflows, and architecture/design processes.
- Experience in workflow improvement, operational optimisation, or governance frameworks.
- Coordination experience for L&D, capability development, or team training activities.
- Familiarity with planning tools, workload trackers, portfolio reporting, or work management platforms.
Technical Stack
- Excel
- Power BI
Team & Environment
You will be part of the Architecture and Design practice, supporting a diverse architecture team comprising enterprise, security, and technical solution architecture specialists. You will report to the Architecture Practice Manager.
Benefits & Compensation
- Private Medical Cover funded by NEC for Employees (with the option to add family members at an additional cost).
- 25 days paid holiday with the option to buy/sell (FTE).
- 4 x basic salary life assurance cover funded by NEC (with the option to increase cover at an additional cost).
- A Group Pension Plan with fantastic employer contributions up to a maximum of 8.5%.
- A selection of flexible benefits to suit your individual needs.
- All colleagues get free access to LinkedIn Learning. Over 15000 courses covering a huge breadth of subjects.
Work Mode
This role operates on a hybrid basis and is open to candidates based in the UK.
NEC Software Solutions is an equal opportunities employer, welcoming applications from all communities. If you require any reasonable adjustments or have specific accessibility needs during the recruitment or interview process, please feel free to share these with us. We are committed to ensuring an inclusive and accommodating experience for all candidates.
