About the job

Job summary

The Chief Platform Owner (CPO) will be critical in partnering with the business to meet HMRC's dynamic policy needs. The CPO will build platform management capabilities to enable fast response times and scalability, as our technology footprint increases. 

The CPO will own the strategy and direction for all technology platforms. This is a key leadership role as we position HMRC as a trusted and modern tax authority, with world-class customer experiences. 

Job description

To deliver this important agenda, the CPO will:

• Develop long-term strategies and objectives for all platforms, aligned with CDIO and HMRC's vision, directing their usage, and sponsoring all CPO practices.
• Oversee the performance of platforms, ensuring quality and efficiency of delivery. Managing the guardrails and governance surrounding the use of platforms for teams, suppliers, product teams, and citizen developers.
• Lead continuous service improvement, to ensure platforms continue to meet business requirements. The CPO will encourage continuous innovation, and agile ways of working, to fail fast and deliver quickly .
• Coordinate and manage relationships with platform suppliers and manage the engagement strategy. They will utilise performing reporting to ensure suppliers align with strategic vision.
• Lead the delivery of change across all platform services, developing, agreeing and implementing a platforms roadmap, and prioritising demands from several platform owners whilst ensuring teams are adhering to relevant metrics. 
• Represent platforms and service management & integration at a senior level, acting as an escalation point for platforms, services, and supplier related issues. 
• Set the overarching strategy for platform quality and safety standards (including digital certificates and software licenses) and ensure platform owners are meeting and exceeding standards.
• Ensure operations have high levels of integrity, and pose minimal risk to the organisation, across platforms and services. 
• Own the test strategy, approach, standards, and methods that will be used by the product and platform delivery teams. 
• Provide insight as a recognised platform expert at SLT level, keeping abreast of industry best practice, and championing Agile and Lean ways of working.
• Identify underlying technology requirements to support platform capability and lead a team of specialists in the creation of services.
• Provide excellent leadership to a team of c200. Coach and develop platform management and service management & integration teams, to support excellent delivery. 

Key Interactions

The role is responsible for platforms that drive products and services across all HMRC, so interactions will be far-reaching and at the most senior levels. The CPO will be expected to:

• Influence prioritisation across platforms and suppliers, including new business demand, continuous improvement and exception activity.
• Have overall accountability for managing relationships with all platform owners, as the SLT sponsor for all CPO practices. 
• Be a member of the CDIO SLT, ensuring platform and service management & integration strategies are aligned to wider strategy. 
• Resolve escalations and seek to continuously improve platform strategies and CPO practice dimensions. 
• Work closely with the Chief Product Owner to ensure the correct products are being built on the correct platforms, and with the Chief Technology & Design Office to develop the overarching platform strategy. 
• Work closely with the wider business to provide expertise on how specific platform technologies should be used. 
• Work closely with the Service Management Integration Director to collaborate and align on key activities. 

Key Performance Indicators

• Achievement of target state maturity and capabilities ( by 2025)
• Achieve outcomes in line with SLA, budget and quality standards
• Further develop efficiency of release processes 
• Reduce/Lower technical debt 
• Minimise the number of Incidents 
• Ensure swift Incident resolution 
• Maximisation of Platform Availability and Uptime

Person specification

Essential Criteria:

• Significant experience of providing strategic leadership at scale, with a proven ability to innovate and make best use of tools and resources to drive outcomes that support cost effective delivery of platforms and service management 
• A confident and credible senior leader, with previous experience of platform ownership and service management, able to apply an agile mindset to all aspects of your work and demonstrate the capability to operate and deliver at scale in a large, complex technology organisation
• Strong stakeholder and collaborative engagement skills, able to influence at all levels internally ensuring cross-cutting alignment across the CDIO function and wider organisation, and externally with key commercial partners
• Proven track record of providing inspirational leadership to large, geographically dispersed technical teams, including leading change and building a collaborative and inclusive culture that supports high performance
• Commercially astute, able to manage large budgets, with tangible evidence of supplier management and procurement experience
• Technical proficiency – across architecture, data, and security, and technical knowledge of the platforms they oversee (including PaaS, IaaS, SaaS)

Desirable Qualifications:

• Cloud Engineering principles, for one of the major public cloud providers, e.g. AWS/Azure or other
• Togaf (preferred), Practitioners of Agile delivery methods e.g., Scrum/Kanban
• Practiced at DevSecFin Ops

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £95,000, HM Revenue and Customs contributes £25,650 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Things you need to know

Selection process details

Global Resourcing are managing this competition on behalf of HMRC. For further details and for a copy of the Candidate Information Pack, please contact HMRC-CPO@global-resourcing.com.

To apply for this post, please submit the following to HMRC-CPO@global-resourcing.com no later than 23:55 on 29/01/2024.  

• A CV setting out your career history, with key responsibilities and achievements. Please ensure you have provided reasons for any gaps within the last two years.
• A Statement of Suitability (1200 words maximum) that provides evidence of how your skills and experience meet the criteria in the person specification. For applicants unfamiliar with a suitability statement please contact HMRC-CPO@global-resourcing.com
• A completed Diversity monitoring form. All information is anonymous and is not used as part of your application.
• A full CV and Statement of Suitability will allow us to assess your application against the person specification. Please ensure both documents contain your full name. 

Longlist / Shortlist

• An application pre-sift will be conducted by Global Resourcing, followed by an in-depth review by the Selection Panel.
• The panel will assess all applicants against the criteria set out in the Person Specification and will select a longlist of candidates for a preliminary interview with Global Resourcing.
• Following the completion of all the preliminary interviews, the panel will further assess candidates using the insight provided by Global Resourcing and will agree a shortlist for final interview.
• Shortlisted candidates will also have the opportunity of an informal conversation with Daljit Rehal. This isn’t a formal part of the process but an opportunity to gain greater insight into the role. This is optional, but highly recommended.
• All candidates shortlisted for final interview will be asked to undertake a Financial Probity check.

Selection Panel:

This is a Civil Service Commission led appointment and the review and shortlist will be chaired by Liz Walmsley, Commissioner. 

Full panel members will be confirmed prior to interview but will include Daljit Rehal, Director General, CDIO & Vacancy Holder & Breda O’Connor, HR Director, CDIO & CPO .

Disability Confidence Scheme (DCS)

Candidates applying under the Disability Confidence Scheme are guaranteed an interview if they meet the minimum criteria outlined in the person specification.

This scheme works in conjunction with the Great Place to Work for Veterans, for former members of the armed services, and the Redeployment Interview Scheme for existing Civil Servants at risk of redundancy. Each scheme works in the same way.

Use of Data

As part of the recruitment process, your data and assessment results may be shared with HMRC's SCS Talent team. 

This will provide insight into how to support your development and wider talent management, should you be successful in your application. 

If you do not want your data to be shared, please email HMRC-CPO@global-resourcing.com 

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

Open to UK nationals only.

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.