About the job

Summary

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

We want to maximise the potential of everyone who chooses to work for us and we offer a range of flexible working patterns and support to make an exciting career at HMRC accessible to you.

Diverse perspectives and experiences are essential to our success, and we encourage applications from people from all backgrounds with the experience and skills needed to perform this role.

We are already one of the most digital organisations in the UK and have one of the largest data sources.

With 50 million customers to serve, over 60 thousand colleagues to support, and £600 billion to collect to fund UK Plc, our IT operation is huge. Operating on a stage this big would faze many, and it is not for everyone. But, for those who are up to the challenge, we offer unique and unparalleled opportunities to work with some of the newest technologies and make a real, lasting difference.

We are creating a world-class IT function and want you to be part of it.

The Team

Here in HMRC’s Chief Digital & Information Group (CDIO) we’re increasingly delivering in-house through our growing network of digital delivery centres – hi-tech, innovative facilities across the UK.

We are a small, agile team within our Chief Technology and Design Office that focus on Technical Innovation. Our objective isn’t necessarily what we can change tomorrow, but the longer-term improvement of the UK tax system. We work to understand and solve problems, proposing innovative solutions through continuous exploration. Tracking emerging technology and market changes, Innovation maintains a future technology focus, with an enviable remit to proactively demonstrate the art of the possible, seeking to tackle challenges at source by ‘designing out problems’ with new technology, improved processes, user-centred design and innovative solutions.

Job description

As key member of our multidisciplinary Innovation Team, you’ll work alongside User Researchers, Analysts, Designers, Product Managers, policy, innovation and technology specialists. As a team, you’ll develop innovative approaches for digital products that are part of end-to-end services across HMRC and government.

This is an exciting opportunity to make real changes for HMRC and our customers through innovation and to join our Architecture community supporting a large-scale dynamic transformation that has profound impact both on customers and our staff.

Proactive and reactive to changing opportunities, you’ll have the skill to interpret and react to small, medium and large-scale challenges, and the vision to identify potential and future opportunities. By using emerging technology, data, and considering user needs, you’ll develop innovative concepts and solutions, supporting Innovation colleagues with technical and architecture expertise. You’ll test the art of the possible by designing proof of concepts to test solutions for future services, working with internal groups, third parties, external suppliers and academia to develop concepts and MVPs. You’ll run proof of value exercises to support concepts by demonstrating customer and HMRC impact. You’ll contribute to business cases and make compelling recommendations for future direction, delivering these to senior partners to influence policy and strategy.

The ideal candidate

You will be an expert Technical Architect, able to design and develop solutions to technology challenges in a fast-paced, collaborative, multidisciplinary Innovation Team. You’ll rapidly develop an understanding of technologies in use and the overall architecture strategy. You will work closely with Innovation scrum teams, business partners and IT colleagues to design innovative but appropriate solutions that demonstrate that new technology and approaches can deliver improvements, ensuring operational delivery and that they fit with strategic end-to-end functional design. You will be flexible and self-motivated, have a keen eye for detail and a solid focus on quality. You will have a good track record in delivering customer-focused technology change and be able to articulate technical detail to non-technical people, so it is understood. You will be credible, influential and a team-player. A confident communicator with good interpersonal skills.

You should be comfortable working creatively in a “fail fast” manner on inception and discovery projects, where scope and concept are not clearly defined or understood and without relying on defined process or established requirements.

Responsibilities

Your role will include:

• Providing technical expertise and direction, supporting collaborative Innovation teams, working with colleagues to understand requirements and help design innovative solutions that work

• Playing a leading role in tracking, understanding and testing new and emerging technologies, their implications and opportunities for HMRC and our customers

• Understanding HMRC systems, technologies and strategies that will enable these solutions

• Developing an understanding of user needs, to design user-centred technical service propositions

• Identifying business problems and recommending technical solutions and designs

• Undertaking structural analysis of technical issues, translating this analysis into technical designs that describe a solution

• Building collaborative relationships with partners across teams and services

• Articulating technical requirements and implications compellingly to technical and non-technical colleagues, senior leaders, business partners and customers

• Working with innovators to design aspirational concepts for future services and processes

Essential technical skills and expertise for this role

You will already have experience and understanding of:

• Governing high and low-level designs with full lifecycle management, from requirements management to supporting the operations teams with service introduction

• Effective communication with colleagues, business partners, customers and senior leaders

• Bridging the gap between the technical and non-technical with the ability to translate technical concepts, so they are understood by all

• Technical governance and delivering the assurance of a service

• Making and guiding effective decisions, explaining clearly how the decision has been reached

• Applying strategy for technology that meets business and customer needs with the ability to create, refine and challenge standards, policies, roadmaps and vision statements

• Working with business and technology partners to translate business problems into technical designs

• Understanding trends and practices outside your team and organisation, their potential impact and how they can fit into broader strategy

• Looking beyond the immediate technical problem and identifying wider implications, understanding the broad context

These areas of experience are desirable

• Software development and architecture

• Knowledge of Distributed Ledger Technology, Cryptocurrencies and Open Banking

• Cloud (AWS/Azure/Google or Hybrid) based architecture designs and implementation

• Agile methodologies and principles