About the job

Job summary

Discover a career in your hands at HMRC. Whether you're seeking purpose, growth, or a workplace that gives you a true sense of belonging, hear from some of our employees as they share their story about what it’s really like to work at HMRC.

   

Visit our YouTube channel to watch the full series and come and discover your potential.

We are looking for technical leaders who can engage colleagues at all levels to influence better business outcomes, who have the right skills, behaviours and mindset. 

You will: 

Have a fascination in how tech is evolving and can use that to solve real world problems.  

Influence our most senior stakeholders across HMRC to deliver transformational change, through creating IT solution architecture, articulating those designs to the business, and driving delivery with our teams. 

Enjoy being a part of building out technology projects that deliver results, recognising technology supports the necessary business and culture change. 

Support and influence transformational change through designing and delivering solutions. 

Be able to work collaboratively as part of a larger team to drive change across the organisation. 

Be Innovative – creating options and demonstrating how technology could lead to better business outcomes. 

Ownership of a technology or business domain; understanding and presenting the design of the domain and articulating the changes and impact on the domain and the wider business. 

If you can see yourself within this job description these roles may be just what you are looking for. 

Job description

Lead Solution Architects in HMRC 

We are looking for someone who can show that they can grow into: 

Understanding business strategies and operations and have a track record of developing close trusted relationships based on your delivery record. 

Design CRM solutions that put user experience at their core - whether internal colleagues or external customers and that are also secure and scalable.  

Collaboratively solve business problems – working with colleagues to identify root causes and create pragmatic IT solutions.  

Pick up new technologies quickly - you’re able to understand their strengths and weaknesses, where necessary testing their potential to solve the problem in hand.  

Use your domain knowledge to accelerate delivery and ensure best practice. 

Drive change at pace because it is important to you, but you also excel in recognising and managing risks.  

Take an agile approach to solving problems from problem-shaping through design to delivery, creating Proof of Concepts, prototypes and technical or functional spikes to bring ideas to life, and de-risk delivery. 

Person specification

Your responsibilities in this role will include.  

Leading a team of architects and setting direction for the team. 

Part of the Solution, Design and Architecture Senior Leadership team. 

Challenging the status quo, and delivering value through improved, coherent architecture. 

Accountable for working with Enterprise Architecture and colleagues and creating solutions that align to HMRCs’ IT Strategy and deliver business outcomes. 

Work with Delivery Teams and partners to ensure the Solution Design is delivered and implemented. 

Managing major programme Architecture in terms of both size and complexity, keeping programmes aligned with the business and technical strategies. 

This role will require travel and overnight stays.

Essential Criteria:

You are a confident technology leader, with expertise in designing and delivering CRM solutions with a Top Magic Quadrant vendor. 

You can bridge the gap to business strategy for non-technical senior stakeholders, handling diverse stakeholders across all levels within the organisation. 

Strong inter-personal skills with an ability to translate between business and technology. 

You are a collaborative problem solver – working with colleagues to identify root causes allowing you to create and deliver pragmatic IT solutions. 

You have designed customer facing and/or internal IT solution designs that link to and deliver tangible benefits. 

Desirable Criteria:

Facilitating the relationships with indirect stakeholders. 

You have experience of CRM transformations. 

Possess or working toward TOGAF, BCS or CITP qualifications. 

You can pick up new technologies and architecture concepts and styles quickly, understand their strengths and weaknesses and apply that learning. 

Commercial acumen, particularly estimating cost drivers to support commercial activity 

You can work at pace, but you also excel in managing architectural risk. 

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £66,957, HM Revenue and Customs contributes £18,078 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

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Experience and Technical skills.

How to Apply

As part of the application process, you will be asked to provide the following:

• A CV including your job history and previous experiences. Your CV will be scored.
• A 750-word personal statement.

The personal statement should demonstrate the essential criteria and highlight your experience design and delivering CRM capabilities.

We would like to hear why you'd be keen to join HMRC and why you think this role will suit you.

Further details around what this will entail are listed on the application form.

Sift

In the event of high number of applications, we'll sift firstly on CV - for actual delivery experience of CRM design and deployment. We'll then proceed to a full sift, where all elements of your application will be assessed.

Interview

During the panel interview, your experience will be assessed. You will also be asked to give a presentation. Details of the presentation will be circulated to successful candidates called to interview.

Interviews will take place via video link.

Sift and interview dates to be confirmed.

Eligibility 

Please take extra care to tick the correct boxes in the eligibility sections of your application form. We understand mistakes sometimes happen but if you contact us later than two working days (Monday-Friday) before the vacancy closes, we will not be able to reopen your application for you. If you do make a mistake, please contact us via: ubsrecruitmentexcellence@hmrc.gov.uk – Use the subject line to insert appropriate wording for example – ‘Please re-open my application – [insert vacancy ref] & vacancy closing date [insert date]’ To check that you are eligible to apply for this role, please review the eligibility information before submitting your application.

To check that you are eligible to apply for this role, please review the eligibility information before submitting your application. 

Reserve List

A reserve list may be held for up to 12 months from which further appointments may be made for the same or similar roles – if this applies to you, we’ll let you know via your Civil Service Jobs account.

Merit List

After interview, merit lists will be created for each location advertised within the vacancy. If you are successful at interview, you will be placed on the merit list for any locations you have expressed an interest for. Appointments from each merit list will be made in strict merit order.

Reasonable Adjustments

We want to make sure no one is put at a disadvantage during our recruitment process. To assist you with this, we will reduce or remove any barriers where possible and provide additional support where appropriate.

If you need a change to be made so that you can make your application, you should:

• Contact the UBS Recruitment Excellence Team via ubsrecruitmentexcellence@hmrc.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs.

Complete the “Assistance required” section in the “Additional requirements” page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need further on in the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at interview, or if you’re deaf, a Language Service Professional.

Additional Security Information

Please note: in addition to the standard pre-employment checks for appointment into the Civil Service, all candidates must also obtain National Security Vetting at Security Check (SC) clearance level for this vacancy. You will normally need to meet the minimum UK residency period as determined by the level of vetting being undertaken, which for SC is 5 years UK residency prior to your vetting application. If you have any questions about this residency requirement, please speak to the vacancy holder for this post.

Important information for existing HMRC contractual homeworkers:

This role may be suitable for existing HMRC employees who are contractual homeworkers. Occasional attendance to the office will be required where there is a business need. Please consider the advertised office locations for this role when applying and only select locations from the ‘location preferences’ section that you can travel to.

Terms and Conditions

Customer facing roles in HMRC require the ability to converse at ease with members of the public and provide advice in accurate spoken English and/or Welsh where required. Where this is an essential requirement, this will be tested as part of the selection process.

HMRC has a presence in every region of the UK. For more information on where you might be working, review this information on our locations.

The Civil Service values honesty and integrity and expects all candidates to abide by these principles. The evidence you provide in your application must relate to your own experiences.

Any instances of plagiarism or other forms of cheating will be investigated and, if proven, the relevant application(s) will be withdrawn from the process. Recording of interviews is prohibited unless explicit agreement is sought in line with the UK General Data Protection Regulations.

Questions relating to an individual application must be emailed as detailed later in this advert. Applicants who are successful at interview will be, as part of pre-employment screening, subject to a check on the Internal Fraud Database (IFD). This check will provide information about employees who have been dismissed for fraud or dishonesty offences. This check also applies to employees who resign or otherwise leave before being dismissed for fraud or dishonesty had their employment continued. Any applicant’s details held on the IFD will be refused employment.

A candidate is not eligible to apply for a role within the Civil Service if the application is made within a 5 year period following a dismissal for carrying out internal fraud against government. New entrants will join on the minimum of the pay band. If you experience accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the 'Contact point for applicants' section.

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.