About the job

Job summary

HM Land Registry (HMLR) have an exciting opportunity to join our leadership team as our new Director of Data and Register Integrity.

For 160 years HMLR has been a critical part of the UK's national infrastructure. We protect the right to land and property in England and Wales and allow it to be bought and sold securely. The market is huge, about 8 trillion pounds worth of assets overall, with over 260 billion pounds worth transacted every year. We're at a pivotal moment in our history as we work towards meeting the ambitions we set out in our Strategy and Business Plan. 

The Director of Data and Register Integrity acts as General Counsel for HM Land Registry, and the Senior Information Owner for HMLR with the main asset being our registers.

Job description

The Director of Data and Register Integrity will have four or five direct reports and a wider team of around 450.

As General Counsel the post holder is responsible for proactively advising the Chief Executive and Directors on complex legal matters, and acting as the most senior referral and escalation point in the organisation for highly complex legal queries and decisions. The post holder provides the Chief Executive/Chief Land Registrar with assurance that land registration decisions are being made, and that the registers are being managed in accordance with HMLR’s statutory functions.

In addition, the post holder will provide strong leadership and direction to a group of highly specialised teams, whose overarching role is to build and maintain registers fit for a digital property market and data-driven economy. They will ensure that the teams work together and across the organisation effectively, enabling transformation of our registers in ways that preserve integrity and quality whilst also balancing customer service and innovation. The post holder is the corporate owner for HMLR’s legal, counter fraud, risk and assurance, security, data governance and data quality functions and processes. They will set the tone, champion and drive a culture of every individual understanding and owning the responsibility to balance risk appetite with innovation in everything that we do.

Person specification

We are looking for an outstanding individual who is a qualified barrister, solicitor or Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives with significant, relevant post-qualification experience.

The postholder will bring substantial, demonstrable experience of leading across multi-disciplinary teams in a complex operating environment, and will have experience of maintaining positive relationships and successfully influencing and advising senior stakeholders

You will be a board-level operator with an outstanding track record of strategic thinking, and have experience of working in an organisation undergoing digital transformation. You will possess a willingness to develop sufficient knowledge around data governance, data science and the use of data in the property market and wider economy.

For full details, please see the attached Candidate Pack.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £120,000, HM Land Registry contributes £32,400 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

We highly value diversity in all its forms and welcome applications from all sections of society.

HM Land Registry has appointed executive search specialists Veredus to support us with this appointment.  For further information about the role and to apply, please visit: www.veredus.co.uk quoting reference 15180.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. 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.