Summary

If you’re interested in making a difference to people’s lives across the country, the Treasury is the department for you! We sit at the centre of everything that the Government does and have provided advice on economic policy and decisions that affect the public finances throughout the country’s history. A Treasury career continues to offer an exciting opportunity to be part of the decision making that affects the whole of the UK.

Working at the heart of government, we collaborate with other departments to ensure public money is spent well and to drive strong and sustainable economic growth. Our work ranges from protecting customers through to the regulation of the financial sector, helping to reduce carbon emissions and creating a greener economy, supporting people across the country through the COVID 19 furlough scheme and Plan for Jobs as well as helping first time buyers buy their first home.

HM Treasury is proud of a diverse and inclusive work environment, committed to fairness and the promotion of equality of opportunity for all. We know that having a range of experiences, ways of working and thinking makes us a stronger organisation, better at developing policy that is reflective of the communities we serve. We embrace different views and experiences and value the fresh perspective that people from a variety of circumstances bring to the work we do. We welcome applications from candidates who have not previously worked for the Civil Service, mid- and late-career changers with transferrable skills, people from all backgrounds and circumstances regardless of disability, gender, age ethnicity, LGBT+ identity and socio-economic status.

The Darlington Economic Campus is a pioneering new cross-government hub which will bring people together across departments and public organisations to play an active role in the most important issues of the day.

HM Treasury in Darlington will be joined by the Department for International Trade, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, the Office for National Statistics, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, Department for Education, Department for Digital, Culture Media and Sport and the Competition and Markets Authority

Job description

Fiscal Group

Fiscal Group works on a wide-ranging and exciting set of issues which are at the heart of the Treasury’s objectives. We are responsible for ensuring the sustainability of the government’s finances - over both the medium and long term - to support economic stability and growth. This means making sure that the government has enough revenue to meet its spending commitments. Work in this area includes advising the Chancellor on the appropriate levels of borrowing and debt, overseeing financing raised for the government by the Debt Management Office and National Savings & Investments, and managing the daily flow of cash across the public sector

Within the Fiscal Group, the Debt & Reserves Management (DRM) team manages key financial assets and liabilities on the public sector balance sheet using analysis, oversight and through links to our main partners: the Bank of England (the Bank), the Debt Management Office, National Savings & Investments and the Royal Mint.

Within DRM, the Assets, Interventions & Markets (AIM) branch works closely with the Bank on financial market policy tools with fiscal impacts.

The Assets sub-branch oversees the UK’s Official Reserves of foreign currency and gold holdings ($200 billion), managed by the Bank as our agent. The reserves act as insurance against unexpected shocks and can be used to provide payment services for government departments as well as to meet the UK’s requirements as a member of the IMF.

The Interventions sub-branch monitors and advises on Bank of England interventions that affect the public sector balance sheet for monetary policy and financial stability reasons.

The Markets sub-branch acts a hub for monitoring financial markets developments and interactions with Treasury policy. The branch produces daily updates, weekly commentary, monthly State of the Economy presentations, and regular training seminars to build expertise.

This is a stretching opportunity for a high-performing candidate at Range E (Grade 7) job. The role spans all three pillars of the Assets, Interventions and Markets branch. The postholder will be responsible for leading a broad workload on financial market policy matters, balancing a fixed work programme with emerging priorities. The postholder will also play a key role in developing the Treasury’s working level relationships with Bank of England, notably the Markets & Banking directorates.

The role would suit an experienced economist with a focus on macroeconomics or financial markets, or someone who can demonstrate an ability to quickly get to grips with a technical policy area and establish credibility with key partners. A background in either economics or financial markets, or a strong willingness to learn, would be desirable.

Key accountabilities include:

1. Advise the Chancellor and Accounting Officer on the public sector balance sheet implications of Bank of England operations in financial markets, and on any related policy, governance and operational decisions.

2. Support ongoing policy development as part of a joint work programme with the Bank of England in various areas relating to financial markets. Recent topics include a review of the investment strategy for the official reserves and assessing the implications for the public sector balance sheet of Central Bank Digital Currencies.

3. Support the Interventions sub-branch to monitor the fiscal impacts of Bank of England policy tools and work closely with the Bank of England’s Sterling Markets Division (SMD).

4. Support the Markets sub-branch’s role as a hub of financial market expertise within the Treasury. Synthesise market implications of macro and political developments and apply expertise to support the work of other HMT groups in the delivery of their objectives.

5. Build and maintain strong working-level relationships with partner teams across HM Treasury and the Bank of England.

6. Manage 1 Range D (HEO/SEO), plus additional matrix resource depending on live priorities.

The successful candidate will need to be able to demonstrate a strong grasp of the fundamentals of macroeconomics and financial markets; how you think through problems and your understanding of financial markets analysis and policy areas. The interview will assess these points through a presentation that that will be set prior to the interview. Economics or finance qualification remain desirable but not essential.

We are holding 2 drop-in sessions for interested candidates to learn more about the role.

• Friday 1st July 12pm – 1pm

• Friday 8th July 11am – 12pm

Responsibilities

Required Behaviours, Experience and Technical Skills:

1. Technical skill – a strong grasp of the fundamentals of macroeconomics and financial markets.

2. Making Effective Decisions – developing and applying economics and/or financial markets expertise to address wide ranging policy problems.

3. Communicating and Influencing – clearly presenting technical concepts succinctly to specialists and non-specialists.

4. Delivering at Pace – Ability to plan a project, manage a portfolio of ongoing projects with competing demands, whilst working with a small team and delivering high-quality work to Ministers.

The lead criteria is: Making Effective decisions. If we receive a large number of applications, applications will be assessed against this criterion alone first. They will then be assessed against the other criteria if they have met the minimum score on the lead criteria.

Candidate Guidance on Completing your Application Form

Where will we assess criteria across your application form

• Behaviours – these will be assessed individually with a 250-word statement per behaviour. The application form will indicate which behaviour is being assessed each time you provide a statement, and we are ideally looking for an example using the below STAR method to demonstrate this behaviour in line with the full criteria stated

• Technical Skills - this will be assessed individually with a 250-word statement per technical skill. You will give the answer in a separate technical skills section, and be given direct guidance on the technical skill we are looking for you to demonstrate

In your statements, it is best to focus on one example in each section to allow you to provide enough detail in your answer and use all the words you have been allocated. Examples from a range of roles across your application will demonstrate that you have the skills, experience and behaviours we are looking for. We would also advise you to use examples that best meet the criteria, even if it is a few years old

How to Structure your Answer

Please use the STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result) approach when writing your application answers.

• Situation – Describe the situation you found yourself in and what happened.

• Task – The Hiring Manager will want to understand what you tried to achieve from the situation that you found yourself in.

• Action – What actions did you take and how did you do it. Make sure to use “I”, not “we” to explain how your actions lead to a result.

• Result – Use facts and statistics to demonstrate the results that your actions produced. Explain whether it was a successful outcome, and if not, what you learned from the experience.

NOTES TO CANDIDATES

- Please refer to the candidate FAQ document which is a link on the job advert – this will provide you with guidance on completing the application form. Please contact hrrecruitment@hmtreasury.gov.uk if you have any issue accessing this document

- At HM Treasury, to maximise diversity and inclusion within our workforce, we operate a fair, open and anonymous recruitment process. This means that the sift panel will only be able to assess you on the written evidence supplied in your application answers. They will not have access to personal information.

- You will be asked to provide some CV details during your application; however these will NOT be assessed during the process, but will be used to support discussions at interview – please ensure you put all information you would like to be scored against in your behaviour, experience and technical skill statements

- You will be assessed on your skills, experience and behaviours through the online application form When completing your application form, please outline how you meet the requirements as detailed in the ‘candidate assessment of skills and experience ‘section of this job description. This will give you the best chance to provide the evidence that the panel wants to assess. More guidance can be found here – completing you application

- If we receive a large number of applications, applications will be assessed initially against the lead criterion alone. You will then be assessed against the other criteria if you have met the minimum score on the first criterion.

- Find out more about how the Civil Service assesses candidates and uses Success Profiles (opens in a new window) to test skills, experience and behaviours in applications and interviews.

- Applications are not reviewed until the closing date has passed. You will be notified of the outcome of your application as soon as the recruitment panel has reviewed all the applications.

Behaviours

We\'ll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Making Effective Decisions
• Communicating and Influencing
• Delivering at Pace
• Working Together

We only ask for evidence of these behaviours on your application form:

• Making Effective Decisions
• Communicating and Influencing
• Delivering at Pace

Technical skills

We\'ll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

• Developing and applying economics and/or financial markets expertise to solve policy problems.

Benefits

HM Treasury views flexible working as essential in enabling us to recruit and retain talented people, ensuring that they are able to enjoy a long-lasting career with us. All employees have the right to apply for flexible working and there are a range of options available including; working from home, compressed hours and job sharing. Additionally, we operate flexitime systems, allowing employees to take up to an additional 2 days off each month, providing you work enough hours to meet business need.

We also offer a generous maternity/ paternity and adoption leave package.

At HM Treasury we have an incredibly broad remit; our work touches every citizen of the country. So, it’s important our employees come from the widest possible range of backgrounds, bringing us the widest possible range of perspectives and ways of thinking. We are committed to ensuring that all staff are able to realise their potential and achieve a healthy work-life balance.

Benefits:

• 25 days’ annual leave (rising to 30 after 5 years), plus 8 public holidays and the Queen’s birthday (unless you have a legacy arrangement as an existing Civil Servant)

• Flexible working patterns (part-time, job-share, condensed hours)

• A Civil Service Pension which provides an attractive pension, benefits for dependants and average employer contributions of 27%

• Onsite restaurant and coffee bar. The London office also offers a gym, showers and prayer room

• Access to a cycle-to-work salary sacrifice scheme, season ticket advances and payroll giving

• Access to a retail discounts and cashback site

• A Rental Deposit Advance Scheme to help meet the total costs of deposits for privately rented homes

• A range of active staff networks, based around interests (e.g. analysts, music society, sports and social club) and diversity (e.g. women in the Treasury, ethnic minority network, LGBT* network, faith and belief network)