About the job

Job summary

The Commissioners’ Advisory Accountant (CAA) is a key leadership role in SOLS and HMRC with responsibility for ensuring that HMRC benefits from high quality, professional accountancy advice across the whole of its business. The CAA develops the strategy to shape the role of accountancy in HMRC, including working with other HMRC leaders to innovate, exploit and enhance the capabilities and professionalism of HMRC’s accountancy functions.

The CAA is the Head of Profession for Advisory and Forensic Accountants and is part of HMRC’s senior leadership community. The post-holder is the final word within the profession on technical accountancy matters, as well as having responsibility for the quality of accountancy advice across the profession, capability, strategy and relations with external accountancy bodies.

Job description

We are looking for an excellent accountancy professional and leader who will be the head of the accountancy profession for HMRC.

Key Responsibilities 

• Being Head of Profession for Advisory and Forensic Accountants in HMRC ensuring effective career paths; managing recruitment, training and work standards; ensuring enhanced professionalism.
• Assuring the quality of accountancy advice provided through accountants embedded in HMRC business areas
• Advising senior officials and ministers personally where necessary on the most complex and sensitive technical accountancy matters
• Ensuring that HMRC litigation cases have high quality accountancy support, including instructing and managing experts
• Ensuring that all tax legislation and guidance is developed in line with high quality accounting advice
• Working proactively with business leads to identify and manage accounting related risks and opportunities throughout HMRC
• Set clear priorities to help maximise effective and efficient deployment of accountancy resources
• Building and maintaining a wide range of external and internal relationships to influence changes to accounting standards, company law or tax law, including with HMRC’s Policy colleagues; HM Treasury and other Government Departments; The FRC and IASB; Professional accountancy firms; and relations with external accountancy bodies
• Leading a team of over 20 accountants within Solicitor’s Office and Legal Services (SOLS) and providing professional leadership to the 140 plus accountants operating across HMRC
• Being part of SOLS Senior Leadership Group contributing to the corporate and collective leadership of SOLS

Person specification

The successful candidate will be a strong accountant and accountancy leader.

In addition to holding a professional qualification in accountancy (see qualifications section below), you must be able to demonstrate your potential and capability in the following areas:

• An excellent leader and manager, with experience of building capability and driving continuous improvement;
• Excellent technical accounting ability to command the respect of all key stakeholders – standard setters, policy and tax specialists, taxpayers and Big 4, and other, accountancy firms;
• Strong interpersonal, negotiating and influencing skills, with the ability to build effective relationships and work in partnership with senior stakeholders, both internally and externally; and
• The ability to work flexibly and at pace, juggling competing and often short-term demands across a wide range of business priorities.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £75,000, HM Revenue and Customs contributes £20,250 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

To apply for this post, you will need to complete an online application by submitting the following:

• 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 explaining how you consider your personal skills, qualities and experience provide evidence of your suitability for the role, with reference to the criteria in the person specification.

Your CV and Statement of Suitability should reflect your most relevant and recent skills and experience in relation to the role. Therefore, we recommend that each document is no more than two A4 pages long.

By not submitting a CV and a Statement of Suitability will mean we only have limited information to assess your application against the person specification. Please ensure both documents contain your full name.

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.

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.