About the job

Job summary

This role co-leads the Corporation Tax Advisory team. The team provide advice and legal support to HMRC policy and operational  clients, as well as indirectly supporting HM Treasury colleagues and Ministers across some of HMRC’s most high-profile work areas including:

• Corporation Tax Structure (including the special regime for oil and gas)
• Financial Products and Financial Services (including the unallowable purpose regime for loan relationships)
• International tax (including sovereign immunity, OECD reforms and transfer pricing)
• Incentives and Reliefs (including R&D and creative reliefs).

Each of the above four areas is led by a senior lawyer manager, who manages a mix of specialist lawyers and senior lawyers.  The team are based in Croydon, Stratford (London), Manchester, Bristol and Leeds and work well across locations using HMRC technology.

The work is fascinating and as well as black-letter law, requires engagement with policy and political considerations.   You will have the opportunity to be involved in some of the most important work in Government, with impacts to the Exchequer of billions of pounds and covering key aspects of the UK economy.

You will be working in a job-share alongside the incumbent, who is an experienced Senior Civil Servant and Government lawyer and will be able to provide support as you familiarise yourself with the role.

Job description

Key Responsibilities 

• To lead the provision of timely, high quality, risk-based legal advice and legislative work to key stakeholders in Large Business, Customer Strategy & Tax Design and wider HMRC, facilitating creative and practical solutions that meet client priorities.
• To form and manage highly effective working relationships with key stakeholders in HMRC and externally (including HM Treasury and Office of the Parliamentary Counsel)
• To oversee the allocation of work and resources to ensure effective delivery within available funding, meeting changing needs through accurate management and reporting.
• To provide inspiring, confident, and empowering leadership that is inclusive, supporting staff to improve their skills and performance, and offering support to career development.
• To contribute proactively to developing and sharing legal knowledge and capability and best practice across the team, SOLS, HMRC and wider government stakeholders.
• To contribute to the effective management and development of the SOLS Business Tax & International Directorate and the wider corporate leadership of SOLS.

Key Interactions

• The post-holder will co-lead a team of 18 lawyers and one trainee based across 5 sites
• Other SOLS colleagues, including litigation and advisory
• Clients / colleagues in wider HMRC
• Government Legal Department
• Other Government Departments.

Person specification

We are seeking an experienced legal professional and leader. We want to hear from candidates with a real passion for public law and the key role that this plays within a large, complex and high-profile national body. 

The successful applicant will need to demonstrate relevant experience and effective delivery of the following essential criteria.

Essential Criteria:

• Must be qualified as a Solicitor or Barrister and be able to practise in England and Wales
• Excellent legal professional skills including either relevant tax experience and skills, or excellent public law knowledge and skills (candidates who can demonstrate both will score more highly)
• The ability to think creatively and give authoritative risk-based legal direction that facilitates practical solutions
• Strong leadership skills with experience of creating and leading diverse and inclusive teams and an ability to motivate, inspire and guide others
• The ability to work collaboratively to understand diverse customer needs in order to deliver high quality and efficient legal services
• Demonstrable ability to work collaboratively with other senior leaders (across SOLS, HMRC, GLD and external stakeholders)

Desirable criteria:

• Experience in delivering legal services within a government or wider public sector context

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £75,000, HM Revenue and Customs contributes £12,150 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

Application:

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.

If you encounter any issues with your application or don’t receive an acknowledgement within 48 hours, please contact the Executive Resourcing Team at  scs.resourcing@hmrc.gov.uk 

Shortlist

An application pre-sift will be conducted by the SCS Recruitment Team followed by an in-depth review by the Vacancy Holder and Panel.

The panel will assess and select applicants who demonstrate the best fit with the role by considering the evidence provided against the criteria set out in the Person Specification. Failure to address any or all of these may affect your application. The closing date for applications is 24th June 2024 and a shortlist decision is expected to be made by week commencing 1st July. All candidates will be notified of the outcome shortly afterwards.

All shortlisted candidates will be offered an opportunity to have an informal conversation with the current post holder. This is not an assessment phase but is an opportunity for each candidate to gain greater insight into the context of the role. This is optional, but highly recommended.

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, we may share your data and assessment results internally with our 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 scs.resourcing@hmrc.gov.uk 

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.