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GOV.UKSenior Service Designer
HM Revenue and Customs
Apply before 11:55 pm on Monday 30th January 2023
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Information Technology
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About the job
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 a fulfilling career at HMRC accessible to you.
Diverse perspectives and experiences are critical to our success and we welcome applications from all people from all backgrounds with the experience and skills needed to perform this role.
See what it’s like to work at HMRC: find out more about us or ask our colleagues a question. Questions relating to an individual application must be emailed as detailed later in this advert.
HMRC is building a modern, digital tax administration and runs the biggest digital operation in Government, providing digital services for 45 million individuals and 4.9 million business customers. Our digital programme is multi-award winning and the envy of other government organisations.
Our role sits within HMRC’s Chief Digital & Information Group (CDIO) we’re increasingly delivering in-house through our growing network of digital delivery centres – hi-tech, state-of-the-art facilities across the UK.
Valuation Office Agency Customer Group (VOA CG) provides digital services and IT support to the Valuation Office Agency (VOA): drawing on HMRC’s digital expertise to ensure our customer (the VOA) gets the right level of service as well as building and supporting specialist, unique services.
There are some important attributes that we are looking for in anyone who joins VOA CG. You must have a collaborative approach and a passion to communicate effectively. You will take accountability and ownership and can coach, mentor, reflect and to give and receive feedback. You will be flexible and adaptable, working with a sense of urgency and be passionate about having ‘The Customer’ at the heart of what you do.
Job description
This is a new role as the Senior Service Designer managing a team of design professionals and playing a key role in a high-profile business transformation programme supporting to reimagine itself as a digital, user focused organisation.
You’ll own the end-to-end service design of the product working in a multidisciplinary team, alongside policy experts, user researchers, designers, product managers and technology experts, to develop integrated user-centred public services. You’ll be part of our active and supportive design community in VOA, HMRC and across government.
Person specification
Responsibilities:
- Provide design leadership to support user-centred service approaches based on insight and evidence.
- Identifying future service opportunities and propositions that meet user needs and deliver on government intentions, and communicating the rationale and potential benefits of those propositions.
- Leading teams and customers to develop service propositions into designs, making good design decisions, including the identification of risks and mitigation.
- Developing policies and organisational intents as well as a clear understanding of user needs.
- Helping to plan user research and collaboratively analysing and synthesising the results of user research.
- Analysing failure within existing services, identifying root causes for that failure and creating recommendations to address that failure.
- Mapping current service journeys and creating blueprints for improved and/or new services.
- Understanding the existing support system for a service - both digital and process based - and designing targeted improvements to existing services or to accommodate new services.
- Leading collaborative relationships with customers across teams and service domains.
- Mentoring and coaching within the design community, line managing more junior designers.
Essential Criteria
- Significant experience designing services that are delivered through integrated digital and/or non-digital services.
- Experience using design in the development of strategy, including the evaluation of strategies and policies to ensure that business requirements are being met.
- Significant experience planning service design projects, including developing high-level project plans for design activity.
- Significant experience leading the analysis and synthesis of outputs from workshops and other research/design activity, for instance, user journeys and service flows.
- Significant experience preparing and communicating research, workshop and design outputs, for example: service maps/blueprints and design presentations.
- Experience in using metrics to define/refine services and the ability to work collaboratively to research findings.
- Significant experience using a variety of methods for prototyping and iterating products and/or services, including the end-to-end service context.
- Experience working collaboratively and effectively with multidisciplinary teams at pace.
Desirable skills/expertise
- Experience working in agile teams.
- Designing within a policy context.
Technical skills
We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:
- Strategic Thinking
- Evidence and context based design
- User Focus
- Prototyping - Service Blueprints
- Communicating between the technical and non technical
- Agile
Benefits
- Learning and development tailored to your role
- An environment with flexible working options
- A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
- A Civil Service pension with an average employer contribution of 27%
Team members that are moving offices as a result of the Locations Programme will be entitled to a Moves Adjustment Payment for three years where they incur additional costs. This is calculated based on the difference between the costs of travelling to and from the new and old office, over a weekly period. You will get more detail on this as part of targeted locations move communications.
Find more about HMRC benefits in 'Your little extras and big benefits handbook' for further information or visit Thinking of joining the Civil Service.
Things you need to know
Selection process details
As part of the application process you will be asked to complete CV an Personal Statement. Further details around what this will entail are listed on the application form.
Candidates will need to complete their career history and skills/experience, detailing your key responsibilities and achievements in each role. Please ensure you have provided reasons for any gaps within the last two years.
A 750 word Personal Statement is also required outlining how your Knowledge and Experience meet the ‘Role Responsibilities’ and ‘Essential Criteria’ in the Job Description.
Candidates will be sifted with a combined score against the Job Description based on their Knowledge & Experience from their CV and Personal Statement reflected in their application.
Sifting will take place once the advert has closed. Successful sift applicants will be invited to a video interview.
There will be a panel interview, where we will explore your experience and suitability, using technical and strengths-based questions. Strengths information can be accessed via a hyperlink marked ‘Success Profiles’.
Candidates who are invited to interview may be required to complete a short design-related exercise; further details of this will be included with the invitation to interview.
You will be able to you use examples from your design portfolio to support your answers.
Interview will be held via MS Teams
Sift and Interview dates to be confirmed.
Please take extra care to tick the correct boxes in the eligibility sections of your application form. We understand mistakes sometimes happen but if you contact us later than two working days (Monday-Friday) before the vacancy closes, we will not be able to reopen your application for you. The inbox to contact is: hmrcrecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk - Use subject line to insert appropriate wording e.g. Please re-open my application - 260372 & vacancy closing date 30/01/2023.
Security Update
If you are successful and transferring from another Government Department, we will carry out a check of your identity, nationality, and immigration status (including the right to work in the UK) and a criminal record check before confirming your appointment.
Successful candidates must pass a Disclosure and Barring Security Check/Disclosure Scotland. Please note that HMRC have an exemption under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974, which enables us to make enquiries about both unspent and spent convictions.
In order to process applications without delay, we will be sending a Criminal Record Check to Disclosure and Barring Service /Disclosure Scotland on your behalf. However, we recognise in exceptional circumstances some candidates will want to send their completed forms direct. If you will be doing this, please advise Government Recruitment Service of your intention by emailing Pre-EmploymentChecks.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk stating the job reference number in the subject heading.
For further information on the Disclosure Scotland confidential checking service telephone: the Disclosure Scotland Helpline on 0870 609 6006 and ask to speak to the operations manager in confidence, or email Info@disclosurescotland.co.uk
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.
HMRC transformation
HM Revenue and Customs is currently going through an exciting ten-year transformation programme to create a tax authority fit for the future. As part of this, we are committed to providing high-quality jobs and giving employees a great place to work, whichever location you work from.
HM Revenue and Customs has made significant progress with its plans to locate in 14 large, modern, flexible offices, equipped with high-speed digital infrastructure supporting improved customer service and compliance activity. These collaborative workspaces will enable smarter working and great training and development facilities, allowing for the sharing of expertise, local training, promotion, and provide great ongoing career development opportunities.
These offices will be located in central locations in the following towns and cities close to accessible transport links: Glasgow, Edinburgh, Belfast, Newcastle, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Nottingham, Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Croydon, Portsmouth and Stratford.
In addition, there will also be a small number of specialist sites where the work cannot be done anywhere else, in Gartcosh (near Glasgow), Telford, Ipswich, Worthing and Dover, as well as our headquarters in central London. What’s more, our Welsh language service has people located in Porthmadog, as well as Cardiff.
We are letting you know about our future plans because if you are recruited into an office that is not one of these locations, you will be expected, subject to HM Revenue and Customs applicable policies, to move to one of these locations in the future. In some cases, this will be via one of our nine transitional sites.
For more information please contact the vacancy holder.
Terms and Conditions
We really hope you decide to apply for this role. If you’re successful you need to know that in February 2021 members of recognised trade unions (ARC and PCS) voted to approve a pay and contract reform offer. This means that HMRC will adopt new terms and conditions for all colleagues as part of a multi-year pay deal and contract offer, the pay deal period is 01 June 2020 – 31st May 2023 and terms and conditions changes take place from the 01 June 2021 onwards. These terms will apply to colleagues who already work in HMRC and if you join us, it will apply to you too. We’ve put together a summary of the key changes that will be made and you can find this attached to the Job Advert.
Pay
If you are currently working for an OGD and would like to consider the impact on your pay when joining HMRC, please see the attached document "Pay on Transfer from OGD" for further information. (Please note the attached document could also be called “Combined T&C and OGD Pay English”)
New entrants are expected to join on the minimum of the pay band.
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.
A reserve list may be held for a period of 12 months from which further appointments can be made.
Any move to HMRC from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax Free Childcare. Determine your eligibility here.
HMRC welcomes applications from those who need to work a more flexible arrangement and will agree to requests where possible, taking into account our operational and customer service needs. We can’t guarantee that we can meet all requests to work flexibly, as agreement will be subject to business ability to accommodate, and any request to work a more flexible arrangement should be made prior to your acceptance of the provisional offer.
If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the 'Contact point for applicants' section.
Important information for existing HMRC contractual homeworkers:
Please note that this role is unsuitable for contractual homeworkers due to the nature and/or requirements of the role.
Reasonable adjustment
We want to make sure no one is put at a disadvantage during our recruitment process because of a disability, condition or impairment. To assist you with this, we will reduce or remove any barriers where possible and provide additional support where appropriate. Please see our Disability Matters: How we can support you during our selection process booklet for more details.
If you need a change to be made so that you can make your application, you should:
- Contact Government Recruitment Service via hmrcrecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs.
- Complete the “Assistance required” section in the “Additional requirements” page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need further on in the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at interview, or if you’re deaf, a Language Service Professional.
Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.
Security
Nationality requirements
Working for the Civil Service
We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles.
Apply and further information
Contact point for applicants
Job contact :
- Name : Tracy Dodds
- Email : tracy.dodds@hmrc.gov.uk
Recruitment team :
- Email : hmrcrecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk
Further information
