Head of Operations and Live Services (Tax, Benefits & Enterprise Operations) - HMRC - SCS1

Location

London (Stratford), Belfast, Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Portsmouth, Telford, Nottingham and Newcastle.
Nottingham and Newcastle are available only for HMRC colleagues currently based there.

About the job

Job summary

This is a critical SCS1 executive leadership role within HMRC’s Chief Digital and Information Officer (CDIO) group, positioned in the Tax, Benefits and Enterprise Operations (TB&EOps) practice. The role provides the strategic vision and technical authority required to evolve HMRC’s most vital platforms, including the Enterprise Tax Management Platform (ETMP).

The post‑holder will balance the demands of high‑stakes Live Service operations with the ambition of large‑scale digital transformation, leading major initiatives such as the migration to SAP S4/HANA and Sovereign Cloud.

You will lead a multidisciplinary team and act as the bridge between complex engineering and change delivery, ensuring HMRC’s services remain secure, reliable, innovative and resilient in a rapidly evolving technological landscape.

Job description

Strategic Leadership & Vision

• Define and execute the multi‑year strategy for the Tax and Benefits Platform, aligning it with HMRC’s operational and policy goals.
• Drive innovation and “Big Thinking” across SAP Technology, Sovereign Cloud, and SAP S4/HANA migration and alignment.
• Unify platform services across Cloud and Integration landscapes to increase speed‑to‑market while maintaining security and reliability.

Technical Oversight & Delivery

• Act as the accountable owner for the Enterprise Tax Management Platform (ETMP), ensuring technical services meet organisational and user needs.
• Oversee platform performance, lifecycle management, patching strategies, and the security of BAU services.
• Lead complex migrations and technical service designs, bridging the gap between legacy systems and modern cloud architectures.

Operational Excellence & Live Services

• Provide expert leadership of Live Services, ensuring high availability and robust performance for HMRC’s Critical National Infrastructure, including ETMP.
• Own and mature the Service Management strategy, including Service Transition and Live Operations processes.
• Enforce operational governance by managing SLAs/OLAs, leading high‑impact incident and problem management.

Stakeholder & Supplier Management

• Influence at Executive Committee (ExCom), Director and Senior Leadership Team levels on complex technical issues and platform strategies.
• Oversee third‑party “Run” suppliers, ensuring contractual compliance, security audits, patching standards and business continuity exercises.
• Collaborate with cross‑government IT leaders to shape shared standards and strategic approaches.

People & Practice Leadership

• Lead and develop diverse teams of service managers, platform engineers and operational specialists, fostering high performance and technical excellence.
• Drive alignment between Change Delivery, Techno‑Functional teams, Live Services and wider CDIO stakeholders to ensure seamless end‑to‑end service experiences.

Person specification

Essential Criteria:

• Expertise in Live Services & Operations: A proven track record of managing complex, large-scale IT operations and live services, with experience of serving a massive customer base with a focus on reliability and security.
• Strategic SAP & Platform Leadership: Extensive experience driving technology roadmaps and innovation to meet evolving business needs.
• Commercial & Supplier Management: Substantial experience in operational contract management, ensuring third-party "Run" suppliers deliver against SLAs, OLAs, and rigorous security/audit frameworks and building partner relationships to encourage transparency and closer ways of working
• Senior Stakeholder Influence: The ability to provide clear, expert advice on complex technical issues to both technical and non-technical audiences, including Executive Committees (ExCom) and cross-government IT leaders.
• Technical Governance & Risk: Strong grip on IT service management principles, including Incident and problem management, Continuous improvement, Release planning, patching strategies, Key Business Events, Business Continuity Planning (BCP), and Disaster Recovery (DR).
• Collaborative People Leadership: A seasoned leader capable of managing and developing diverse, high-performing teams (direct and indirect) while fostering a culture of knowledge sharing and professional growth.

Desirable Criteria:

• Government Context: Experience navigating the specific governance, financial principles (cross-charging), and policy strategies inherent to a large government department or the wider Public Sector.
• Transformation Delivery: Previous experience supporting the transition of SAP services to modernS4/HANA and Sovereign Cloud (SovCloud) environments.