Technical Surveillance Support Officer

Discover what it’s like to work in a compliance role that makes an impact. Could you help us shape a stronger, fairer future? Your next career move starts here.

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.

HMRC’s Fraud Investigation Service (FIS) is responsible for the department’s civil and criminal investigations.

FIS provides HMRC with an effective investigation arm to enforce the Department’s compliance policies. This enables the Department to deliver against the strategic responsibilities across all the taxes and duties it administers. This includes complex offshore evasion, international smuggling of illicit excise goods, exports of controlled weapons and technology, labour market abuses, VAT and Self-Assessment repayment frauds and a host of other fraud attacks targeted at the tax system.

FIS is home to a wide range of people with a variety of skills and professional backgrounds – including accountants, cybercrime specialists, criminal justice professionals, tax professionals and operational delivery support teams to name but a few. We use a range of powers and approaches to protect funding for UK public services, investigating the most harmful tax cheats and ensuring nobody is beyond our reach.

Covert Operations, Digital Exploitation (CODE) sits within FIS. 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., This is a unique opportunity to join a highly proactive team that provides a service to wider Investigation and Intelligence directorates within HMRC, finding solutions for when collecting evidence and intelligence becomes challenging using normal conventional methods.

This role has lots of variety and you will regularly visit operational teams across the UK to support, assure and maintain a variety of technical equipment and systems they use for their work. On occasions, you will be expected to spend time away from home in order to fulfil your duties where you will travel the country and interact with operational teams and represent the team and your directorate.

You will be expected to maintain a robust, auditable system for the accounting, configuration, maintenance and repair of various technical devices and systems under your control. You will receive full training on the equipment and auditing. You will mainly support the team's Operational Technical surveillance officers on the team by taking responsibility for various non-operational technical tasks., * Provide operational support to a nationwide team of operational HMRC surveillance officers. You will be a key member of the team who provides customer-facing technical support to intelligence and investigation teams.

• Delivering first line support and configuration of equipment to your team and to operational teams across the UK. You will administer and maintain equipment, repairs, spares and associated consumables.
• Administering routine HMRC Health & Safety at Work (HSAW) policy with regards to COSHH and other hazardous items such as lithium batteries. Full training will be given.
• Administering various IT systems including the creation, deletion and other management of user accounts.
• Being the responsible person for assuring and accounting for surveillance equipment assets.
• Administering a pool of operational vehicles at two sites in the UK. You will monitor mileage and support the wider HMRC Fleet Management team with servicing schedules and other administration.
• Carry out reasonable management requests., This post attracts Flexibility Payments at Level 1a combined with Level 1b, which are paid monthly with salary.

Level 1a allows HMRC flexibility to change your work pattern, at short notice, to meet business needs, Additionally, you will be expected to work longer hours from time to time, at weekends and outside your normal working hours/days (including bank holidays).

Level 1b requires you to undertake periods of On Call. You will be expected to work on call 1 week in 4.

In applying for a position and accepting the FP you agree that you can and will meet those attendance requirements.

Note: Payment of FP is dependent on successful completion of role specific training and you will move to Level 1a+1b FP eligibility in stages (see the attached document for details).

FP levels are reviewed annually – on a business need and personal basis – and may be subject to change.

Details of the Flexibility Payment can be found in the attached document., If you have an HMRC online account already, sign straight in using your ID and password. If not, you can prove your identity by answering some questions or providing your photo ID.

You’ll then be able to access the app quickly and easily by signing in using a 6-digit PIN, your fingerprint, or facial recognition.

You can find guidance for technical issues on GOV.UK: Technical support with HMRC online services.

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, a single merit list will be created, and you will only be considered for posts in locations you have expressed a preference for. Appointments will be made in strict merit order in line with the set number of roles in each location.

Criminal Record Check

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.

Hybrid working at HMRC

HMRC is an office-based organisation, and colleagues are expected to spend 60% of their working time in the office. Our offices provide opportunity for interaction, collaboration which aids learning and development and a sense of community. Where the role allows it, and where the home environment is suitable, colleagues can work from home for up to 2 days a week, averaged over a calendar month (or a proportionate amount of time for colleagues who work less than full time).

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., 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.

Please note that, if you are applying for roles on a part-time basis, the salary agreed will be pro-rata, reflective of the working hours agreed within your contract.

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

For more Information for people applying for, or thinking of applying for, roles at HM Revenue and Customs, please see link: Working for HMRC: information for applicants - GOV.UK. 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 .

See our vetting charter . People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks., Appointment to the Civil Service is governed by the Civil Service Commission’s Recruitment Principles. You have the right to complain if you feel there has been a breach of the Recruitment Principles. In the first instance, you should raise the matter directly via ubsrecruitmentcomplaints@hmrc.gov.uk . Please note that we do not accept complaints or appeals regarding scoring of outcomes of campaigns unless candidates can provide clear evidence that the campaign did not follow the Recruitment Principles. If you are not satisfied with the response, you may bring your complaint to the Commission. For further information on bringing a complaint to the Civil Service Commission please visit their website.

Do you have a valid Driving License license?, Do you have experience in Presentation skills?, You will need to be a disciplined, self-motivated and an organised person with an interest in technology or engineering who must have the confidence to deliver both an online and face-to-face professional technical support service to a variety of operational personnel, across the whole of the UK, where building relations with operational officers will be important.

You will have a demonstrable interest in Information technology and audio/video equipment and have a fundamental ability to learn how to operate and fault-find complex technical equipment.

You will have to take responsibility for your support tasks and have proven experience of working within a team and working to tight deadlines in a dynamic environment.

You must have the willingness to visit and work in different parts of the UK and work independently maintaining, fixing and servicing equipment, providing a high quality service to customers.

There is a very important emphasis on the flexibility of the candidate to travel potentially weekly to fortnightly to different locations at shorter term notice, with potential for overnight stays in certain circumstances., * Have educational or work experience in practical fields such as engineering, mechanics, electrical or electronics.

• Have a demonstrable experience and examples of fault finding and problem solving with technology.
• Have a demonstrable experience and examples of dealing with customers as the service provider.
• Able to efficiently and effectively use Microsoft Office tools on administrative tasks, plus generally being sufficient using a wide range of software products.

Desirable Criteria:

Either hold or are in the process of obtaining a current electronics or other engineering qualification such as City & Guilds, BTEC or equivalent at Level 3 or higher.

Full UK Driving Licence

Hold a full valid UK driving licence at the time of application and be willing to drive official vehicles. Please see the ‘Licences’ section below for further information., 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.

Pulled from the full job description

• Company pension
• Work from home, Alongside your salary of £31,096, HM Revenue and Customs contributes £9,008 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

HMRC operates both Flexible and Hybrid Working policies, allowing you to balance your work and personal commitments. We welcome applications from those who need to work a more flexible arrangement and will agree to requests where possible, considering our operational and customer service needs.

We offer a generous leave allowance, starting at 25 days and increasing by a day for every year of qualifying service up to a maximum of 30 days.

• Pension - We make contributions to our colleagues’ Alpha pension equal to at least 28.97% of their salary.
• Family friendly policies.
• Personal support.
• Coaching and development., At the end of the application you will answer a yes/no question. If you meet any of these criteria, answer 'Yes' in the box (but do not tell us which one):
• I hold a full current UK driving licence and I am prepared to drive as part of this role, or
• I hold a full current UK driving licence but I have grounds to request this requirement is removed as a reasonable adjustment (due to a disability or underlying health condition as covered by the Equality Act), or
• I have grounds to request this requirement is removed as a reasonable adjustment (due to a disability or underlying health condition as covered by the Equality Act) and I do not hold a full current UK driving licence.