The Deputy Director Policy Co-ordination, Capability and Governance plays a key leadership role in building policy capability and resilience for HMRC. This high-profile role requires excellent stakeholder management skills, involving interaction with Ministers and senior officials in HMT, as well as with HMRC's Permanent Secretaries, Directors General and Directors across various business areas. There will also be some external and cross-government stakeholder engagement through its lead role in HMRC's Policy Profession.

You will play a pivotal role in driving strategic workforce planning, building capability, and ensuring resilience across HMRC's Policy Profession, as well as shaping HMRC's relationship with Ministers.

You will provide visible leadership of a talented, diverse and multi-profession team of c.54 FTE based in 9 HMRC locations across the UK. You will be responsible for developing the capability and skills of the team, ensuring the appropriate resources are in place to meet stakeholder and departmental needs.

As a member of the Strategic Policy into Delivery senior leadership team, you will also play an active role in the leadership and management of the directorate, ensuring it is a great place to work.

Specific responsibilities will include:

• Act as Deputy Head of the Policy Profession for HMRC, setting the strategic direction for the profession within the organisation, as well as responding to and influencing development of the profession's cross government work in line with HMRC's objectives.
• Drive a strategic approach to workforce planning for HMRC's Policy Profession , ensuring the profession has the right skills, grade and location mix for the future. Convene senior HMRC policy leaders and expand use of profession levers to influence workforce change. This includes completing a strategic review of HMRC's policy workforce in 2025/26, which will inform Spending Review plans.
• Build on HMRC's successful approach to flexible working in policy by leading HMRC's policy Flexible Resource Pool, maintaining a skilled and agile cadre of talented policy professionals that support short term priority policy projects, anticipating needs and reviewing alternative flexible resourcing approaches.
• Shape and influence HMRC's relationship with Ministers by developing our Advice to Ministers service, collaborating with senior HMRC and HMT colleagues to strengthen HMRC's ability to influence and respond to political direction for tax and tax administration.
• Act as a super connector for HMRC's policy community and the Policy Partnership with HMT , developing trusted networks across grades, locations and subject areas so that you can represent the community across the organisation, including through governance boards and strategic approaches.
• Innovatively assess, build and future proof policy skills in HMRC and beyond, evaluating the impact of our learning offer and exploring how AI will change policy making .
• Provide a co-ordinated and holistic view of HMRC's policy landscape , enabling alignment with ministerial priorities and cross-government objectives, as well as supporting coherent decision-making and delivery. This includes providing a critical checkpoint in HMRC's change governance process via HMRC's Policy Keyholder role .
• Drive forward the Policy Profession's resilience approach within HMRC, considering wider government activity and collaborating with HMRC's Security and Strategy functions. Act as deputy Silver commander for crisis policy response , leading cross-cutting issues, including HMRC's response to policy and governance aspects of the UK Covid-19 Public Inquiry.
• Be accountable for HMRC's Policy Profession budget demonstrating sound financial management and value for money to deliver organisational objectives.

This is a cross-cutting role, so the responsibilities will iterate and evolve in line with departmental needs and Ministerial steers.

Person specification

Your CV and Statement of Suitability will be assessed against the following essential criteria:

Essential Criteria:

• Exceptional interpersonal skills, with the capacity to build and maintain strong trusting relationships with internal and external senior stakeholders. You will have demonstrable experience of successfully collaborating with and delivering through colleagues across organisational boundaries at all levels, particularly in a high-pressure setting.
• Strong communication skills, with the ability to secure confidence of senior leaders and/or Ministers, communicating with and influencing them effectively on a range of complex and sensitive topics.
• Excellent leadership skills, with the ability to confidently lead and inspire teams across multiple locations. You will be able to set direction, vision and goals while also coaching and motivating colleagues through periods of ambiguity and uncertainty, building capability within and across teams.
• Proven ability to lead on complex and crosscutting initiatives, ideally within a Learning and Development, professions or capability building setting. You will have experience of analysing complex challenges, identifying innovative solutions, and developing and implementing robust strategies to deliver them.
• Policy experience, ideally working with tax and customs policy issues, including engagement with senior leaders and/or Ministers

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £81,000, HM Revenue and Customs contributes £23,465 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

• Learning and development tailored to your role
• An environment with flexible working options
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

Things you need to know

Selection process details

How to apply

All applications should be submitted via Civil Service Jobs no later than 23:55 on Monday 16th June and must include:
• A CV detailing your career history, key responsibilities and achievements
accounting for any employment gaps within the last two years.
• A Statement of Suitability (no longer than 2 pages) demonstrating how
your experience meets the essential criteria.

Your CV and suitability statement will be assessed against the criteria set out in the person specification. Please include your full name on both
documents.

Shortlist

The panel will assess the evidence provided in your CV and statement. Candidates whose applications best meet the essential criteria will be selected for interview.

Assessment

If shortlisted, you will take part in a Staff Engagement Exercise (SEE) which is a presentation and Q&A with a representative staff group from across HMRC.

Assessments are designed to support the panel's decision making and highlight areas for further exploration at interview and do not result in a pass or fail decision.

Interview

You will attend a panel interview for a more in-depth discussion of your previous experience and professional competence. This will include a 5-minute verbal presentation (further information will be issued in advance).

Interviews are expected to take place virtually on Teams.

Offer and Feedback

Unfortunately, due to the anticipated number of applicants for this role, we are unable to provide feedback to those not successful at shortlist stage.

Candidates who are shortlisted and attend an interview will be offered feedback from a member of the interview panel. We will also send you a copy of the report for any assessment you have undergone.

Is security clearance required?

Yes. Appointment is conditional upon achieving SC level of security clearance. You are required to have or obtain the national security vetting clearance level as indicated.

All Criminal Record Checks applications are considered fairly in accordance with the DBS Code of Practice and the Recruitment of ex-offenders Policy.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

This role has a minimum assignment duration of 3 years. An assignment duration is the period of time a Senior Civil Servant is expected to remain in the same post to enable them to deliver on the agreed key business outcomes. The assignment duration also supports your career through building your depth of expertise.

As part of accepting this role you will be agreeing to the expected assignment duration set out above. This will not result in a contractual change to your terms and conditions. Please note this is an expectation only, it is not something which is written into your terms and conditions or indeed which the employing organisation or you are bound by. It will depend on your personal circumstances at a particular time and business needs, for example, would not preclude any absence like family friendly leave. It is nonetheless an important expectation, which is why we ask you to confirm you agree to the assignment duration set out above.

Security
Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window) .

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window) .

People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service
The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window) .

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.

Diversity and Inclusion
The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window) .

Apply and further information

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.

Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job contact :

• Name : Dale Robinson
• Email : scs.resourcing@hmrc.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : scs.resourcing@hmrc.gov.uk

Further information
Appointment to the Civil Service is governed by the Civil Service Commission's Recruitment Principles. You have the right to complain if you feel a department has breached the requirement of the Recruitment Principles. In the first instance, you should raise the matter directly with the department concerned. If you are not satisfied with the response, you may bring your complaint to the Commission. For further information on bringing a complaint to the Civil Service Commission please visit their web pages: http://civilservicecommission.independent.gov.uk/civil-service-recruitment/complaints/

Attachments
408082 Candidate Pack - DD Policy Co-ordination Capability and Governance Opens in new window (pdf, 801kB) Data Privacy Notice HMRC Executive Recruitment Opens in new window (pdf, 194kB)