Deputy Director IT Release & Programme Delivery

HMRC is the UK's tax and customs department. We collect the money that pays for the UK's public services and give financial support to people. Our work is central to the business of government and we're proud of our track record. We're an historic and yet modern department, undergoing ambitious transformation which affects all our colleagues and customers.

As part of this we are focused on Making Tax Digital, transforming the experience for our customers. We want to make it easy for our customers to get their tax right, whilst enabling HMRC to fulfil its being trusted and valued ambitions. Making Tax Digital Programme (MTD) is delivering a fundamental change to tax to help digitalise UK business. MTD is part of the Government Major Projects Portfolio (GMPP), at the heart of HMRC’s Tax Administration Strategy and one of HMRC’s highest priorities. This cross-society transformation drives extensive interest across the political, business and tax spectrum.

We are leading the way in the delivery of modern services for customers which will change how millions of businesses and landlords interact with the tax system, replacing the annual tax return with digital record keeping and quarterly updates. MTD will make it easier for individuals and businesses to get their tax right and will help reduce the amount of tax lost to avoidable errors. This role is at the centre of everything that MTD does, leading the design and delivery of the services with which internal and external users

We need inspirational leaders to take people on this journey. You will be using your deep programme management expertise, visionary leadership and technology transformation capabilities to work in partnership with our business leaders, setting and delivering the technology transformation execution strategy to support critical activities for the country. You will be accountable for delivering the varied technology commitments and setting up appropriate live services for HMRC to run the processes seamlessly., Ensure live service stability and resilience to maintain public confidence in HMRC’s digital tax services and deliver GMPP commitments by providing strategic and technical leadership and oversight of the end-to-end customer delivery and live service resolution within the Making Tax Digital (MTD) programme. The role ensures that all hubs and processes operate seamlessly across design, delivery, and implementation, aligning with HMRC’s strategic objectives.

This includes:

• Defining our release plan - driving integration and consistency across programme components to deliver a coherent customer experience.
• Collaborating with senior stakeholders and other Deputy Directors to influence decisions, resolve escalations, and maintain alignment with policy and strategic goals.
• Championing continuous improvement and readiness for change, ensuring operational hubs are equipped to support programme milestones and benefits realisation.
• Accountable for the identification, prioritisation, and resolution of all live service incidents within the MTD programme, ensuring timely recovery and minimal customer impact.
• Own the end-to-end live service management process, including escalation handling, root cause analysis, and implementation of corrective actions.
• Responsible for coordinating across CDIO, operational hubs, and third-party suppliers to resolve incidents and maintain service continuity
• Lead governance for live service performance, reporting incident trends and resolution progress to the MTD Senior Leadership Team and SRO
• Build, maintain and lead strong delivery-focused multi-functional delivery teams, regularly assessing progress and value across the MFTs to identify efficiencies
• Responsible for the technical delivery of MTD
• Accountable for release planning and overall scope of the Income Tax Service
• Develop effective release and delivery plans, frameworks and strategies.
• Create a culture of continuous improvement of delivery processes and standards within the programme.
• Drive innovation and learn from experience. Identify interdependencies, common capabilities and opportunities across the programme.
• Provide visible and effective leadership to deliver outcomes.
• Create an empowered environment in which the team can succeed – working effectively together and managing dependencies.
• Work with stakeholders and delivery partners to deliver the programmes end to end test strategy.
• Being accountable for the design and delivery of roadmap Features and Epics and Live Service Incidents solutions to time, cost and quality outcomes as set out in the Roadmap and the latest approved Business Case for MTD involving stakeholders in a clear and transparent manner.
• Ensure the programme is delivered to budget by managing financial forecasts and spend against those forecasts., We embed inclusion in everything we do. Senior Civil Servants play a crucial role in promoting and maintaining inclusive behaviours, addressing disparities and reporting progress.

Our HMRC equality objectives 2024-2028 describe how we are working to become a more inclusive and representative organisation reflective of our values., Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment., * 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)
• 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

Do you have experience in Tax experience?, The successful applicant will need to demonstrate relevant experience and effective delivery of the following essential criteria:

• Significant experience of technical IT delivery including build, test, and release management in the context of a major transformation programme.
• Industry experience of leading Agile delivery and in using Agile tooling such as Jira.
• Inclusive leadership skills - able to demonstrate the capacity to lead in a large and complex operational environment with evidence of developing, nurturing, and motivating high performing, diverse and talented teams.
• Experience of influencing and leading senior level stakeholders, ideally at C-Suite level.
• Knowledge and understanding of Income Tax Self Assessment and the complex interconnectivity of IT systems, ideally within HMRC's IT architecture and also with third party software being developed for MTD., You will attend a panel interview for a more in-depth discussion of your previous experience and professional competence. This will include a 5-minute verbal presentation (further information will be issued in advance)., This role has a minimum assignment duration of 3 years. An assignment duration is the period of time a Senior Civil Servant is expected to remain in the same post to enable them to deliver on the agreed key business outcomes. The assignment duration also supports your career through building your depth of expertise.

As part of accepting this role you will be agreeing to the expected assignment duration set out above. This will not result in a contractual change to your terms and conditions. Please note this is an expectation only, it is not something which is written into your terms and conditions or indeed which the employing organisation or you are bound by. It will depend on your personal circumstances at a particular time and business needs, for example, would not preclude any absence like family friendly leave. It is nonetheless an important expectation, which is why we ask you to confirm you agree to the assignment duration set out above.

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.

Alongside your salary of £81,000, HM Revenue and Customs contributes £23,465 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Pension

Your Civil Service pension is a valuable part of your total reward and is one of your biggest benefits.

When you join the Civil Service, you get access to the alpha pension with a generous employer contribution of 28.97% and some of the lowest member contributions in the public sector.

Please visit Civil Service Pension Scheme for more information.

Annual Leave and Bank Holiday Allowance

25 days annual leave, increasing to 30 days after 5 years’ service (allowance pro-rata for part-time colleagues).

This is complemented by one days paid privilege leave to mark the King’s Birthday and is in addition to your public holidays.

Equality, Diversity & Inclusion

The Civil Service values and supports all its employees. At HMRC we want to create great places to work that are welcoming to all – where there is a strong sense of belonging and community.