HMRC advertises for four new technology leaders 'to transform IT and digital services'

HM Revenue and Customs is offering an annual salary of £115,000 apiece for four new technology leaders to support “bold plans to transform our IT and digital services”, the department said.

The four roles on offer are: head of mobility and workplace; head of networks; head of service management and operations management; and head of Crown Hosting – enterprise cloud services. They will join HMRC’s chief digital and information office, led by CDIO Jacky Wright.

A major part of the remit the new mobility chief will be to implement strategy and direct investment in support of the goal of moving the department to “an evergreen-based environment”.

The concept of evergreen IT first emerged about 10 years ago. The idea is to, effectively, permanently eliminate legacy technology through continuous incremental investments and iterative deployment of up-to-date programs. Shifting from manual to automated processes is another cornerstone of evergreen IT.

The head of networks will also support the move towards evergreen IT, as well as assuming overall responsibility “for the design, architecture and overall performance” of LAN and wireless network infrastructure.

The Crown Hosting head will be expected to “lead the cultural change to introduce new ways of working”, as well as driving adoption of Crown Hosting services and expansion of existing deployments across HMRC.

Established in 2015 as a joint venture between the government and hosting firm Ark Data Centres, Crown Hosting offers public sector customers datacentre space on hosting contracts of up to seven years in length. Its aim is to help organisations move away from legacy systems and “pivot” towards a cloud environment.

The head of service management post comes with a responsibility to oversee the running of a round-the-clock operations centre “monitoring all CDIO services including services provided by third parties”.

The roles could be based at one or more of five HMRC locations around the UK: Newcastle upon Tyne; Telford; Edinburgh; Leeds and Liverpool. Applications for all of them are open until 21 April, with interviews due to take place during the week commencing 6 May. Each comes with an estimated salary of up to £115,000 per annum.

In an introduction to the candidate information packs, CDIO Wright said: “HMRC is becoming one of the most digital organisations in the UK and the plan is to be much bolder: by 2020 we will be one of the most digitally-advanced tax authorities in the world. We’re creating a dynamic, agile technology organisation that works on two levels: we want the most amazing experience for customers and citizens, both internal and external; and we are building careers that are rewarding and enjoyable for all of us. We will invest a lot of effort in your learning, development and career path.”

She added: “We have a massive challenge: we need to bring in more tax, reduce costs and improve the experience for customers. To do this, we’re using smart data analysis and innovative IT systems to ensure that customers get their tax affairs right from the outset - and we’re radically improving the technology we use to do our work.”