About the job

Job summary

HMRC is the UK’s tax, payments and customs authority and we have a vital purpose: we collect the money that pays for the UK’s public services and help families and individuals with targeted financial support.

Covert Operations, Digital Exploitation (CODE) sits within HMRC’s wider Fraud Investigation Service (FIS) responsible for the department’s civil and criminal investigation work. FIS ensures that HMRC has an effective approach to taking on the most serious tax evasion and fraud.

Working across Law Enforcement and government, CODE provides investigative tools and covert techniques to front-line investigations and works with key partners to develop and provide access to new technology and systems to enable investigators to respond to serious and complex tax evasion and crime.

The team are responsible for delivering and maintaining a specialist sensitive bespoke IT infrastructure and national network of services to HMRC investigators with a footprint in 24 geographical sites, providing the secure use of data to enable HMRC to deliver world class investigation services.

It is responsible for delivering a broad portfolio of change initiatives, both to sustain and transform FIS’s legacy sensitive technologies and to deliver innovative new solutions, designed around our customers’ needs. CODE works in a holistic way to combine digital and technology change, project deliver, business process, product management and cultural change to maximise impact and ensure sustainability.

See what it’s like to work at HMRC: find out more about us or ask our colleagues a question. Questions relating to an individual application must be emailed as detailed later in this advert.

Job description

We are looking for an enthusiastic, resilient individual who can deliver in a meaningful, changing, and fast paced environment with shifting priorities.  

You will already have an Infrastructure background with technical understanding of infrastructure (i.e., virtual machines, datacentres and environments).

You will be working in a team of infrastructure specialists and engineers, responsible for building, administering, supporting and maintaining solutions as directed and according to departmental policy.

In this role, you will:

• Oversee the preparations, integration delivery and support of IT operations solutions and services - physical or virtual - according to industry and organisational best practices, and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) throughout the product life cycle.  
• Assist in the provision of outstanding services and consistent levels of capability, as the need arises by the organisation.  
• Work with technical architects and engineers to translate architectural designs into operations.  
• Work with and support third parties in providing infrastructure services.
• Provide input into overall management - workforce, budget, technology roadmaps, projects and tasks.
• Lead and direct infrastructure specialist teams in building, managing, supporting and maintaining solutions.
• Provide direct support in the active management of strategic capacity planning.
• Provide specialist technical support and assistance to projects, ensuring delivery of non-functional requirements and continual service improvement. 
• Responding to incidents and problems within agreed SLA’s.
• Mentor less experienced team members and sharing technical knowledge and best practice as well as line managing a small team.
• Be thoroughly familiar with the installed hardware and software and the procedures in use in the IT Infrastructure area.
• Additional responsibilities may include conducting technical workshops to assess business requirements to support possible upgrades or changes to existing services and provide management with a recommendations and options on how to proceed.
• You will be required to work out of hours on an on-call rota, weekdays and weekends.
• Regular travel within the UK for meetings and infrastructure work will be required.

Person specification

Essential Criteria

• Strong background in Service Management and Operations (particularly Request Fulfilment, Incident/Problem/Change Management) with experience of Service Transition.
• Experience of implementing, managing and supporting services that are aligned to the business strategy and operational requirements and successfully presenting the service portfolio/catalogue to non-technical audiences.
• Proven record of identifying and exploring opportunities for service and business improvement. Producing analysis and identifying, prioritising and implementing improvements and efficiencies. 
• Experience of taking full accountability of problems, and proactively resolving technical issues to meet business requirements.
• Experience of LAN infrastructure, mobile and VOIP telephony, WAN infrastructure, core operating systems, concepts of Government and commercial grade cryptography.
• Experience of ITIL based IT support and technical project delivery.
• Experience in commercial and Government grade Cryptography devices. 
• Experience of Current technologies including, but not limited to, Catalyst Switches, ASA Firewall installation upkeep & maintenance.
• A good understanding of the Government Security Classification system. 
• Experience of line management and coaching junior colleagues.
• All applicants must hold SC security clearance as a minimum and be willing to undergo and achieve Developed Vetting clearance. Offer would be conditional and may be withdrawn should you fail to achieve the required vetting levels.

Desirable Criteria

• Full UK Driving licence.
• ITIL 3 or V4 foundation.
• CompTIA Security+.
• Experience of working towards cyber security standards.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £42,618, HM Revenue and Customs contributes £11,507 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 Behaviours, Experience and Technical skills.

How To Apply

As part of the application process, you will be asked to complete a CV and 750-word personal statement. Further details around what this will entail are listed on the application form.

For your CV, please complete the qualifications section (max 250-words) and career history section (max 500 words).

Your Personal Statement should be used to describe how your skills and experience meet the essential criteria and job description mentioned. Your evidence needs to be specific, provide the impact you made, results achieved, and show us you have the experience, approach, and skills we’re looking for.

Please fully utilise the 750 word count when completing your personal statement.

The CV and Personal Statement will be scored at sift to identify your level of technical experience.

Your behaviour examples should be based on your experience and skills and aligned to the behaviour requirements as outlined in the Success Profiles guidance.

Your technical skills will also be assessed at interview by way of three technical questions against the listed technical skills.

Desirable criteria will only be used in the event of a tie break between candidate scores.

Interviews will be held either by video or face-to-face. Details will be confirmed in the interview invite. 

We reserve the right to raise the score required at any stage of the process in order to manage numbers.

Interviews will take place within 5 weeks of the advert closing date.

A reserve list may be held for a period of 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.

Eligibility

To check that you are eligible to apply, review this eligibility information

Important information for existing HMRC contractual homeworkers:

Please note that this role is unsuitable for contractual homeworkers due to the nature and/or requirements of the role.

Reasonable Adjustments 

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

If you need a reasonable adjustment or a change to be made so that you can make your application, review this information on reasonable adjustments, and contact hmrcrecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible.

Diversity and Inclusion

At HMRC we are committed to creating a great place to work for all our colleagues and creating an inclusive and respectful environment that reflects the diversity of the society we serve.

Diverse perspectives and experiences are critical to our success and we welcome applications from all people from all backgrounds with the experience and skills needed to perform this role. We’re committed to creating a great place to work for all our colleagues here at HMRC. We want everyone to feel valued and supported to achieve their potential at HMRC.

For more information on how we make this happen, review this information on our culture and values

Applications received from candidates with a criminal record are considered fairly in accordance with the DBS Code of Practice and the Recruitment of ex-offenders Policy.

We welcome applications from those who need to work a more flexible arrangement and will agree to requests where possible after considering operational and customer service needs. We can’t guarantee that we can meet all requests to work flexibly, as agreement will be subject to business ability to accommodate, and any request to work a more flexible arrangement should be made prior to your acceptance of the provisional offer.

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. 

The Civil Service runs 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. 

Locations 

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.

Security Update

For more information on the level of security checks we will carry out, review this information on security checks 

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 Developed Vetting (DV) 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 DV is 10 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.

For further information on National Security Vetting please visit the following page https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/demystifying-vetting

Further Information

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. 

Duplicate applications for the same vacancy will also be withdrawn.

Transferring into HMRC from Civil Service If you are currently working for an ‘Other Government Department’ (OGD) and would like to consider the impact on your pay when joining HMRC, please see the attached document "Combined T&C and OGD Pay English”, found at the bottom of this advert. Further information on staff transfers can be found on gov.uk

Problems during the application process 

If you experience accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the 'Contact point for applicants' section. 

If you think you’ve made a mistake on a short application form (e.g. you’ve ticked the incorrect eligibility box), please contact hmrcrecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk at least two working days before the vacancy closes. After this, we won’t be able to reopen your application.   

Please use the subject line to insert appropriate wording e.g. Please re-open my application - 339131 & vacancy closing date 20/02/2024. Please note that we cannot amend or re-open your application if you have submitted your full application in the interests of fair and open recruitment.

For reasonable adjustments queries or requests, please see details within reasonable adjustments section above.

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 developed vetting (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

Open to UK nationals only.

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.