About the job

Job summary

Customer Compliance Group (CCG) ensures that HMRC successfully collects the full and correct amount of money due from UK taxpayers, investigates offences against the tax system and takes action to identify and mitigate potential threats. This is a broad and high-profile role at the heart of the largest line of business in HMRC.  

This is a key Finance and leadership role in HMRC, and you will act as a key link with Customer Compliance Group (CCG) Directorates and HMRC Corporate Finance. The role sits within our Finance & Planning Directorate. Customer Compliance Finance & Planning (CCFP) is committed to being a corporate centre of excellence. With our partners, we will be at the heart of decision making, setting the strategic direction, and enabling CCG’s people to deliver effectively and securely.  

Deputy Director Planning, Finance & Benefits  is a critical role which puts finance at the heart of Business decision making. It ensures that Customer Compliance Group is provided with the right information and analysis to inform strategic and operational resource choices and wider decision making.

Job description

This is a high-profile role at the centre of Customer Compliance Group, a large and complex part of HMRC. You will bring together strategic financial insight to inform and deliver essential decisions within the Business Group that underpin the delivery of c.£30bn of Compliance Yield annually.

The post holder will have outstanding leadership skills and build relationships with the key stakeholders, primarily internal and external senior decision makers. 

Internally this includes CCG’s Senior Leadership Team, along with HMRC’s Executive Committee, HMRC’s Board, the Chief Finance Officer, HMRC’s Director of Finance, Strategy and Performance and the Finance Leaders Group. Externally you will need to build and maintain good relationships with HM Treasury.

This role is an integral part of the corporate centre of Customer Compliance Group, providing knowledge and insight on the in year financial management of the group and using data and insight to inform the future of how we will deliver our strategic compliance intent.

As well as delivering inspirational leadership across the organisation the role will play a pivotal across Whitehall as part of the Government Finance Function and Profession

The ideal candidate will be someone with outstanding financial skills and leadership skills. They will have a strong track record of managing in year finances and business planning in a complex organisation. They will have experience of a senior finance role and will be a leader who is able to motivate teams and produce results at pace. They will be comfortable working within changing and ambiguous circumstances and will be able to help their teams operate in this environment.

Person specification

To succeed in this role, you'll be a strong leader who thrives in complex environments and motivates diverse teams across locations. You'll make strategic decisions with a keen eye for the bigger picture and possess excellent communication skills to build strong relationships with all levels of stakeholders. You'll also be comfortable challenging the status quo and fostering a team that adapts to change while prioritizing well-being.

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

Essential Criteria:

• Excellent leadership - Experience of building capability within their team, and modelling and promoting a positive and engaged working culture. You will be able to lead and support change, acting as the champion for change to continually improve to ensure an excellent service is delivered.
• A strong track record in leading finance teams on a range of activities including financial forecasting, financial planning, budgetary and financial control. Experience of managing and delivering sustainable results under pressure, in a fast paced, highly complex, and often ambiguous, business focused environment.
• Outstanding relationship management and interpersonal skills with ability to work in partnership with other senior stakeholders building effective relationships. You will have strong negotiating/influencing skills and personal credibility combined with a strong customer service ethos.
• Excellent oral, written and numeric skills with the ability to translate complex financial data and summarise into meaningful information. You will be able to demonstrate that experience of ensuring financial insight is provided and taken into consideration during the development of strategic plans.
• Experience of working closely within a business to understand underlying drivers of performance and cost; and providing strategic insight to improve value for money and the ability to get senior leadership focused on critical issues.

Qualifications:

• CCAB (or CIMA) qualified or part qualified, or willing to study to obtain the qualification within a reasonable time frame.

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

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.

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 27th August 2024 and a shortlist decision is expected to be made by 9th September 2024. All candidates will be notified of the outcome shortly afterwards.

All shortlisted candidates can request to have an informal conversation with the vacancy holder, Francesca Roberts. 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.

 

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.