Strategic Leadership:

• Set the strategic direction for the customs regime, shaping its overarching vision and regulatory landscape in line with regime objectives and Government priorities.
• Oversee the development and implementation of all aspects of the customs regime, including policy, legislation, operational requirements, and technology.
• Drive the improvement and reform of customs for traders and HMG, in line with Ministerial ambitions and HMRC strategy.

Policy Development & Delivery:

• Lead the development and delivery of key customs policies, including those related to data sharing, compliance, and emerging technologies (e.g., AI).
• Develop and maintain the Customs Compliance Strategy and Compliance Yield Targets in partnership with stakeholders.
• Support the development of cross-cutting HMRC strategies, including those related to Technology, Intermediaries, Channel strategy and building Trust.

Operational Excellence:

• Oversee HMRC's specialist technical teams responsible for translating policy into operational system requirements for core customs IT platforms, including the Customs Declaration Service (CDS).

Stakeholder Management:

• Build and maintain strong relationships with key stakeholders, including government departments, international partners (EU and WCO), the border industry, and trade associations.

Leadership & People Management:

• Lead, develop, and motivate a high-performing team of around 500 people, including 11 Deputy Directors, through a period of change and uncertainty, fostering a positive and collaborative working culture, embodying HMRC's Values.
• Embed B&T's recent organisational design and continue to improve the model as required.

Person specification

• Ability to role model and lead with professionalism, integrity, honesty and respect
• An experienced and credible senior policy leader, comfortable operating in high profile, political and uncertain environments
• The proven ability to understand a wide range of complex strategic, policy, legislative, operational and technological inputs and translate these into effective plans and outcomes
• A knowledge of Customs policy development, delivery, processes and their impact on customers
• A strong track record of leading teams to deliver tangible outcomes and services for end users
• Excellent communication and influencing skills with outstanding stakeholder management skills, including at ministerial level or equivalent
• Evidence of excellent people leadership, with a proven ability to lead and develop high performing and engaged teams, notably through periods of significant change and uncertainty. This includes a commitment to the technical and leadership development of self and team

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £98,000, HM Revenue and Customs contributes £28,390 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Whatever your role, we take your career and development seriously, and want to enable you to build a successful career with the department and wider Civil Service.

It is crucial that our employees have the right skills to develop their careers and meet the challenges ahead, and you'll benefit from regular performance and development reviews to ensure this development is ongoing.

As a Civil Service employee, you'll be entitled to a large range of benefits.

This includes:

• 25 days annual leave on entry, increasing on a sliding scale to 30 days after 5 years' service. This is in addition to your public holidays.
• This will be complemented by one further day paid privilege entitlement to mark the King's Birthday.
• Interest-free loans allowing you to spread the cost of an annual travel season ticket or a new bicycle.
• Flexible working patterns and access to Flexible Working Schemes allowing you to vary your working day as long as you work your total hours.
• A competitive contributory pension scheme that you can enter as soon as you join and where we will make a significant contribution to the cost of your pension. Your contribution comes out of your salary before any tax is taken and will continue to provide valuable benefits for you and your family if you are too ill to continue to work or die before you retire.
• Generous paid maternity and paternity leave which is notably more than the statutory minimum offered by many other employers.
• Use of onsite facilities (where applicable).
• Occupational sick pay.

Things you need to know

Selection process details

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

For full selection process details please see the attached Candidate Pack below

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 : Robert Gavin
• Email : scs.resourcing@hmrc.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : ubsrecruitmentexcellence@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
SCS2_Candidate Pack - Director Customs Policy Strategy FINAL Opens in new window (pdf, 1263kB)