Platform Owner at HM Revenue and Customs in Bristol

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.

Shape the Future of HMRC’s Technology Platforms.

HMRC are committed to providing our people with an accommodating and accessible work environment which values diversity and inclusion in everything we do. We encourage our people to bring their whole selves to work, providing a culture that values different perspectives to help tackle complex problems, promote innovation, and deliver stronger decision making.

Candidates who wish to work an alternative working pattern are welcome to apply. The preferred working pattern may or may not be available and will be considered in line with business need. Any request for work an alternative working pattern should be discussed with the vacancy holder following the selection process.

HMRC runs one of the biggest digital operations in Government. our digital services are at the heart of the tax and benefits services for 45 million individuals and 5 million business customers.

This is an exciting time to join an organisation that probably doesn’t work how you’d imagine a government organisation would.

Job description

The Multi-channel Digital Tax Platform (MDTP) is an award-winning Platform as a Service (PaaS) which hosts many of HMRCs Digital Services.

The MDTP is made up of 9 functional teams and PlatformUI (User Interface) is made up of both a development team and the Platform test Leads. The development team enable tenant teams to build accessible services aligned to GDS and HMRC Design systems, to prototype and maintain and support frontend libraries, tooling and guidance. The Platform Test Leads provide guidance and consultation on strategies for testing services running on MDTP, maintain libraries and tooling that aim to lower the cost of testing on MDTP.

The Platform Owner is responsible for developing an ambitious vision for the team, championing the voices of users and considering the long term strategy of both the products of the team and the Platform. They will be expected to establish a sound understanding of the team’s digital estate, be driven by delivering a better experience for service users, and deliver a robust roadmap that aligns with user needs and the objectives of the organisation.

This is a leadership role with the expectation to work collaboratively with a hands-on approach with the team and contribute to the wider MDTP Product and cross-team space, championing best practices and fostering a culture of continuous improvement and success.

Person specification

Within the MDTP you will act as a key part of CDIO’s intelligent client function, ensuring that the Platform is secure and available at all times, advocating for and championing the MDTP as an opinionated platform. Ensuring that tenant service teams can deploy easily, efficiently and securely and fostering an innovative spirit on the Platform, where MDTP is at the forefront of the latest technology and standards.

As a Platform Owner:

• You will build and maintain the team vision, roadmap and backlogs, setting priorities whilst ensuring a focus on value and user needs and considering cross-platform objectives.
• You will build sufficient comprehension across the breadth of the team’s digital estate, with the ability to communicate the complexity to a variety of technical and non-technical audiences.
• You will work closely with Lead Platform Owner and other Platform Owners to deliver the strategic roadmap of the MDTP, establishing Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) that ensure the Platform as a whole remains secure, innovative and user-focused and meets CDIO strategic priorities.
• Within your team and across the platform community you champion product-focused and outcome based thinking, sharing best practices, tools and techniques and user-centred ways of working.
• You will be able to evaluate and clearly articulate the expected value, benefits, costs, risks and organisational impact of product initiatives, using evidence and data to support your decision making.
• You will identify and highlight dependencies, minimise blockers and support the integration of other platforms with the MDTP.
• You will manage the team’s products through multiple stages of the product life cycle; working with the Delivery Lead, Technical Lead and Development Team to determine the right approach and translating goals and user needs into user stories the team can deliver.
• With your hands-on and dynamic approach to working with the team, you will promote collective ownership of the team vision and how to achieve it, and foster a culture of transparency and openness.
• With your commercial and financial experience, you will confidently manage your team’s budget for delivery, tooling and infrastructure costs and relationships with supplier partners.
• With your strong communication skills you will confidently lead engagement with stakeholders, engage with wider CDIO teams and represent the interests of MDTP and HMRC on calls and during live incidents.
• You will regularly engage with teams to seek ways to improve the user experience, maintenance and delivery of high quality, cost-effective, added value service and functionality of the platform.
• You will demonstrate curiosity; seeking out knowledge and insight from wider government departments or across the industry, to pro-actively shape the team’s roadmap to meet user needs or highlight opportunities for innovation across the platform.
• You will work collaboratively with a wide range of internal and external stakeholders including complex supplier ecosystems to deliver end to end platform services, identifying and managing risks and escalating issues early.
• You will take an active role in making the MDTP a great place to work, embodying the civil service values and supporting the development of others through line management, mentoring or participating in cross-platform initiatives that promote a positive, collaborative environment.

Essential Criteria

• Significant experience as a Platform Owner with a proven track record of defining product strategy, prioritising roadmaps and backlogs and making decisions using evidence based trade-offs.
• Significant experience delivering user-centric outcomes within complex, digital environments, such as within Platform-as-a-Service offerings or Frontend service delivery.
• Ability to gather, evaluate and incorporate user insights to define and adapt product scopes.
• Demonstrated experience of leading teams, championing Agile ways of working, and promoting and sharing best practice from government or industry standards.
• Proven ability to understand technical concepts within complex environments and ability to communicate these to a mix of technical and non-technical audiences.
• Demonstrated experience of goal setting, capturing user needs/insights and distilling these into epics and user stories.
• Excellent communication and influencing skills, with the ability to build trust, manage senior stakeholder relationships and support effective decision-making.
• Experience of coaching, mentoring and line managing others across a digital team in product management roles or other GDaD roles.

Desirable Criteria

• Experience in the delivery of frontend services or Platform team, within a multidisciplinary digital service team.
• Familiarity with the design standards, awareness of WCAG standards.

Behaviours

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

• Leadership
• Communicating and Influencing

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £58,541, HM Revenue and Customs contributes

£16,959 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme.

Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).

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.

To find out more about HMRC benefits and find out what it’s really like to work for HMRC hear from our insiders or visit Thinking of joining the Civil Service .

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window) , and will assess your Behaviours, Strengths and Experience.

How to Apply

As part of the application process, you will be asked to provide the following:

• A name-blind CV including your Job History and previous Skills/Experiences.
• A 750-word Personal Statement, describing how your skills and experience would make you suitable for the role, and how you meet the Essential Criteria and Person Specification.

Please complete a separate statement (Max 250 words) for the Desirable Criteria where applicable. This is not essential for the role but may be considered by the vacancy-holder where candidates have the same scores at interview.

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

Sift

Prior to applications being sifted, candidates will be asked to complete an additional IKM assessment. Candidates will be sent details of the assessment once the advert has closed. This assessment is timed and is pass or fail; only those who pass will be considered at the sift stage. If you have any queries about the assessment, or require any reasonable adjustments, please contact talentacquisitionteam@hmrc.gov.uk

In the event of a large number of applications being received, an initial sift may be held on you CV.

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

We may also raise the score required at any stage of the process if we receive a high number of applications.

Interview

During the panel interview, you will be asked a Behaviour-based questions, and Strength-based questions to explore what you enjoy and your motivations relevant to the job role.

[ This is an example of a strengths-based question] :

“It is often said that the customer's needs should come first. To what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement?”

There is no expectation or requirement for you to prepare for the strengths-based questions in advance of the interview, though you may find it helpful to spend some time reflecting on what you enjoy doing and what you do well.

Interviews will take place via video link. Sift and interview dates to be confirmed. Please note that circumstances may arise that require the planned interview format to change. We will endeavour to provide you with as much notice of any change as possible.

Eligibility

Please take extra