Building on its award-winning experience in digital preservation, The National Archives has developed a new Digital Records Infrastructure (DRI) system to acquire, store and preserve our rapidly increasing digital collection. Operating at petabyte-scale, this system will ensure the long-term preservation of the UK government’s records. Records such as government websites, the records of significant public inquiries, the decisions and deliberation of senior officials, ministers and prime ministers and the nation’s digitised history from the 11th to the early 21st century are all to be preserved in the system. 

At the heart of the DRI system are internationally-acclaimed digital preservation tools PRONOM and DROID and your main responsibility will be the on-going development of the innovative and high-profile file format identification tool DROID, ensuring that the latest digital records can be handled as new record formats are presented to the archives for permanent preservation. You will influence the future design of the product and will also be responsible for setting technical direction, mentoring staff, undertaking code review and writing code yourself. You must be an expert in at least one or more programming languages, with a good level of knowledge of others; familiarity with Linux would also be an advantage. 

You should be passionate about technology and information management, and your own skill development. Your creativity and experience will be essential to the organisation to inform and shape the design of new workflows that you will need to translate into efficient operational code. You will be motivated to find solutions to complex problems and will frequently look for opportunities to do things better. You will liaise with Heads of Department, technical staff throughout the Digital Directorate, and colleagues across The National Archives and beyond; the role will be varied and challenging. 

Role and responsibilities 

• Work with the Head of Digital Preservation to define an achievable roadmap to sustain and develop the DROID tool for use both within the DRI system and in addition as a discrete software tool for use in government and the wider digital preservation community 
• Undertake design, development and maintenance of DROID and other systems developed by the Digital Preservation department; setting technical direction, developing code, supporting less experienced members of the team and working with external product suppliers as and when required 
• Work closely with the Head of Digital Preservation to liaise with key stakeholders, including the Heads of Information Management and Government Transfer and Access, to ensure that the needs of the business and users are met effectively 
• Develop and promote the use of relevant software development standards to ensure product quality 
• Mentor team members in existing and new technologies, undertaking code review and agreeing goals for continuous self-improvement 
• Undertake production system support, taking ownership of issues through to successful resolution so that the operation / availability of this key system is maintained effectively 
• Be an active part of the wider external development community, identifying good practices we can adopt and sharing our experiences 
• Evaluate and recommend relevant software technologies and products to ensure that The National Archives gains optimum benefit from technological advances 
• Develop and maintain a high degree of knowledge of digital preservation technologies and the latest world-wide developments in the field ensuring that TNA colleagues are kept appropriately informed 
• Deputise for the Head of Digital Preservation, representing the department as and when necessary, and take an active role in departmental and directorate planning 

SC-level Security Clearance or willingness to obtain SC clearance is mandatory for this role and requires that you have lived in the UK for the last 5 years.