Digital roles

About our digital teams

The National Archives' digital teams cover a wide range of work. Its departments create, manage and maintain:

• The National Archives’ website
• The UK Government Web Archive
• The digital archive (including services for faster transfer of records, digital preservation and access for our users)
• The online catalogue and taxonomy
• The government legislation service and The Gazette, the UK’s official public record

We are committed to creating high-quality, user-focused digital products and services. We have adopted Agile working practices and are now growing our digital capability to build multi-disciplinary, agile product teams.

This is a great time to join us as we prepare to take on a fresh set of challenges, including:

• reviewing our current web estate with a view to making it more user-focused and intuitive
• creating a search that will help our users find what they want quickly
• building fast, easy and secure services for sending digital records to the archive
• increasing the capacity and capability of our world-leading digital preservation service
• opening up new routes for access to our digital public records and data
• working with the billions of digital objects in our web archive

How we work

The National Archives' have strong in-house digital teams who design, build and support most of our digital services. These teams offer a supportive environment where our people can develop and thrive. Additionally, some services are delivered by external partners or through a commercial off-the-shelf model where we integrate our workflows and data with commercial products.

We are keen to harness new technologies. We use a diverse set of technologies across our digital products. These do, or will in the near future, include:

• Unix platforms with significant open source technology stacks
• Microsoft Server/SQL Server and associated application development tools
• Django
• Wagtail
• Cloud platforms
• RDF, NoSQL and graph databases

The National Archives has a strong research focus. It encourages and support our staff to excel in their chosen field, speak about their work and submit papers to conferences or journals. Many of our roles offer opportunities for collaborative research and development with industry specialists and academic partners.

What our staff say

Here are some thoughts about what it is like to work at The National Archives from members of our digital teams.

James Biggs: Software Development Technician

What do you enjoy most about your job?

I do all sorts! I’ve done both front- and back-end development, dealt with stakeholders, and attended meetings.

I really enjoy the technical challenges that you face day-to-day as a Software Developer, and I enjoy learning from these.

I also – surprisingly – enjoy attending meetings! I’m sure there aren’t many people who can say that about their work! The team are a lovely group of people (as well as the wider organisation) and I enjoy hearing all what they have to say.

What’s it like working at The National Archives?

Everyone is really friendly and welcoming. Although most of my time at The National Archives has been spent online (I started this role a day before lockdown), I have been received really well into the team and I’m grateful for the experience they have given me so far – even during a really tough time.

The Digital Services team is full of kind, knowledgeable workers who are always willing to help.

There is great flexibility in the hours you can work, and lots of benefits, such as the Civil Service Sports Council (CSSC), which is a great community for anyone who enjoys sports.

You also get free admission to lots of heritage and historic sites across the UK, such as Kew Gardens, which is only a short walk away from the office.

All in all, I’d say working at the Archives is great if you like a challenge, but also like to have a team of friendly faces around you to support you while you tackle the challenge.

Karl Kern: Lead Infrastructure Engineer

What type of work do you do?

I joined the National Archives over four years ago now and started right at the beginning of migrating our services into the Cloud.
This was a great opportunity to define the role of a Lead Infrastructure Engineer and help TNA securing its’ digital future, providing vital services to the public and across the government.

I’m responsible for our Cloud infrastructure including DevOps. My team is responsible for many legacy applications and services as well as being involved in new projects which is sometimes challenging but being surrounded by great colleagues and the possibilities to constantly expand my knowledge make up for it. The potential of personal development, working together and being supported by everybody is one of the biggest benefit.

What’s it like working at The National Archives?

Working here is never boring and can’t be called monotonous. We often liaise with external suppliers, work across the directorate and other government departments, having to adapt to different requirements of projects quickly and take ownership of our work.

Digital blog

Read about the latest updates and expert opinion on the subjects of digital media, digital archiving, taxonomy and management of data.