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.

About our Team 

Making Tax Digital (MTD) is a key part of the government’s ambition for HMRC to become one of the most digitally sophisticated tax authorities in the world.  

Helping businesses to get their tax right, saving time which allows us to be committed to improving business opportunities, and helping to develop good financial planning.  

MTD requires businesses to use digital record-keeping tools and submit tax return data directly from those records using MTD-compatible software. Aspiring to ensure that our tax system continues to meet the needs of the increasingly digitally engaged population, and we want to build on its resilience and efficiency.  

An exciting new opportunity is available for a Senior Service Designer in Making Tax Digital. We're looking for a motivated, hardworking and self-starting individual to join an established and knowledgeable programme operating in a fast-paced environment.  

About You 

• Are you a proactive person in your approach to work? Having balanced judgement, as well as a strong ability to communicate and prioritise.  
• Do you want to create encouraging environments and spaces to achieve phenomenal service outcomes, develop skills and personal efficiency whilst gaining insights into high-profile programmes?  
• Are you focused on joining up the end-to-end journey of the different services and products for users? 
• Are you a real visible influencer? Supporting others within the profession to take on designing our biggest services. 
• Do you collaborate with other service managers and programme directors to develop digital design concepts? 
• Do you help your teams to implement the best methodology whilst making important decisions based on research understanding how this research influences others? 
• Are you experienced in working in complex programmes to embed user centred design in multidisciplinary teams? 

Then this might be your Service Designer career choice! 

Job description

About the Role 

Embedding yourself across multidisciplinary teams driving the user centred design across a range of digital products.    

Partnering with colleagues to drive the full end-to-end process, joining it up and improving our capability of colleagues  embedded within multidisciplinary teams.  

You will work with digital service managers, business analysts and product owners to develop design concepts, collaborate with product and business analysis leads, help set direction and embed good practice within teams and make important decisions based on research and understand how this research impacts others. 
 
The Digital, Data and Technology (DDaT) Capability Framework provides more details about the role of the Senior Service Designer which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/service-designer#senior-service-designer 

You will support  a small team of service designers who work across wider teams within Making Tax Digital 

(You don't need previous people management experience but it's desirable) 

The Digital, Data and Technology (DDaT) Capability Framework provides more details about the role of the Senior Service Designer which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/service-designer#senior-service-designer  

Person specification

Our Senior Service Designer will, should show recent experience of being a: - 

Leader - Work with varying team partners to design concepts on fast paced projects, supporting other service designers, leading and mentoring them.  

Co-creator - A direction setter and who knows good practice within teams where everyone involved in the service is represented and supplies to the bigger picture.  

Facilitator - Developing a unified approach to our already ambitious policy. Facilitating if problems occur, promoting choices on policy options enabling design-led decision making. 

Storyteller - Easily articulating goals for services, communicating high-reaching information while influencing via sharing the journeys using artefacts like service blueprints, roadmaps, vision and mission statements that you and your service designers create. 

Evidence-driven - A context-based designer, you can visualise, promote and tackle issues around concepts, making principled decisions driven by your available information/research evidence.  

Holistic Analyst- Analysing failures within existing services and/or identifying potential unintended consequences of policy options and creating recommendations to address these. Whilst understanding existing support system for a service - both digital and process based - and designing targeted improvements to existing services or to accommodate new services.  

Essential Criteria  

We need to see experience in the following for this opportunity: - 

• Designing journeys and systems for use across services using several prototyping methods, identifying the simplest of approaches. 
• Experience in leading the design and implementation of strategy, directing evaluations of strategies and policies to ensure business requirements are being met 
• Experience in bringing people together to form a motivated team and help create the right environment for a positive team outcome 
• Meeting users’ needs while achieving policy intent across a variety of channels, bringing insight and expertise in how user needs have changed over time to ensure they’re met by the business. 
• Designing within constraints and to delivery timescales, including identifying, communicating and working within constraints, and pushing back to ensure constraints are valid. 
• Working with consequential or complex risks, building consensus between services or independent team members, developing and using key shared artefacts such as service blueprints. 
• Strong partner communication, including interpreting needs of technical and business customers, while managing their expectations. Supporting to hold daring conversations within the team or with diverse senior partners. 

• Working in and across Agile teams – including helping teams to deal with and visualise outcomes, prioritise work and adhere to agreed minimum viable product (MVP), priorities and scope. 

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £54,439, HM Revenue and Customs contributes £14,698 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

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.
• A 750-word personal statement.

Your CV should  provide your most recent and relevant experience matching the Person Specification part of the advert. Please remove all personal details that could identify you from you application form. This will be scored.

Your Personal Statement should be in no more than 750 words written against how you meet the Essential Criteria of the advert, focusing on examples and impact of your work. You could use the STAR method here if you wish.

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

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

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.

Sift

At full sift your CV and your Personal Statement will be assessed, with the successful candidates being invited to interview. Both will be scored separately with suitable candidates being invited to interview.

Interview

During the panel interview, your experience will be assessed. You will also be asked to create and deliver a short presentation - approximately 10 minutes. Further information will be supplied to applicants who reach this stage of the recruitment process.

Interviews will take place via video link.

Sift and interview dates to be confirmed.

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.

After interview, a single merit list will be created, and appointments will be made in strict merit order until the set demand is filled in each location. If successful, you will be informed which locations are available when we reach your position on the merit list.

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.

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 and want everyone to feel valued and supported to achieve their potential.

Click here for more information on how we make this happen

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. 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.