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Salary
Civil Service Pension with an average employer contribution of 27%
Job grade
Contract type
Business area
Type of role
Digital
Information Technology
Knowledge and Information Management
Legal Services
Library
Operational Delivery
Tax Profession
Working pattern
Number of jobs available
Contents
Location
About the job
Job summary
About SOLS:
Across Solicitor’s Office and Legal Services (SOLS) we provide legal services to the whole of HMRC. This includes:
- The conduct of independent reviews of decisions made by HMRC which are requested by customers under the legislative provisions.
- The conduct of tribunal and civil litigation on a full range of services.
- Work on new legislation.
- Drafting of statutory instruments and other legal documents.
- Legal advice to ExCom and staff.
We also provide technical accountancy and forensic services to HMRC, are head of the Compliance Accountants and Insolvency Professions as well as handling Ministerial Correspondence and Freedom of Information requests for HMRC.
This Team Specifically deals with–
This role is part of the Knowledge Management (KM) team within the People & Professionalism directorate reporting to the Director of Legal Operations and Business Transformation.
The KM Team, headed by the G6 Knowledge Lead, is a small team of 7 responsible for the delivery of KM across SOLS. KM is part of the SOLS Transformation agenda and is a priority project reporting directly into the Director General and his senior leadership team.
This new role is integral to delivering the SOLS KM Strategy.
Are you able to bridge the gap between law and technology? Can you design digital solutions to support KM in legal services? Can you build good relationships and knowledge networks with wide ranging stakeholders? If so, then you could be just the person we would love to join our team.
Please note this isnt a gateway role into the wider Government Legal Profession.
See what its 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.
Job description
Summary of Role
Do you have a broad range of skills and experience combining a deep knowledge of law, knowledge management and legal tech? Can you work collaboratively across knowledge management and legal service functions of an organisation?
This is a new and exciting hybrid role between a lawyer and a technologist based in our Knowledge Management Team. This role requires you to understand and develop optimal business solutions for knowledge management. You will use a combination of fields including law, technology, design and process with an emphasis on SharePoint, Microsoft products and the growing importance of large language models and generative AI.
Job Description
- Develop and deliver solution options and recommendations on the technical, architectural and governance design of our Knowledge Management systems (currently SharePoint), taking account of KIM standards, user/business requirements and the need to interact/integrate with other SharePoints and systems.
- Lead on assessing future and evergreen technologies and the role of AI in KM including:
- maximising existing SharePoint/other Microsoft applications
- lead on proof of concepts/pilots e.g., SharePoint Syntex, Microsoft Topics
- developing use of Large Language Models and generative AI in KM and related activities
- understand and analyse legal/business processes and use information to critically assess options and articulate and present the range of possible options.
- Gather and assess information from a range of sources to identify needs, options and recommendations, sharing and presenting findings concisely in digestible formats.
- Advising on best approach to take to manage content and maximise efficiencies where related content is held on different SharePoints or systems such as (Case Management System or legacy systems) or where the same or similar content needs to be made available to different audiences (e.g., SOLS, HMRC colleagues).
- Support and develop others including:
- The Knowledge Content and Systems Manager on the approach to managing content, taxonomy and metadata
- Other colleagues in the KM Team and the wider business on configuring, implementing, testing and documenting processes and solutions
- Supporting head of KM Team in delivering the KM/SOLS Strategies
- Build or contribute to technical roadmaps and plans, looking ahead for future opportunities or issues and ensuring decisions align with SOLS strategies
- Support SOLS transformation into becoming a more agile organisation by helping embed modern development practices in Knowledge Management including reuse of common components in building scalable solutions
- Able to determine where gaps exist in current system architecture, roles and processes, proactively bridging those gaps
There may be involvement with data extraction and report building.
Potential line manager responsibilities.
About you
The ideal candidate will demonstrate evidence of the following:
- Be an inclusive team player who works collaboratively and constructively across SOLS, HMRC, cross-government and with external providers as necessary in reaching solutions, removing blockers and progressing projects.
- Critical thinking/analytical and logic skills.
- Excellent people, stakeholder management and communication skills including:
- listening skills,
- persuasive,
- ability to be concise and convey concepts simply and visually to technical and non-technical people using suitable media.
- Willingness to be flexible and adaptable as business priorities and needs evolve whilst remaining responsible for and focussed on delivery.
- Able to extract, understand and articulate user/business needs, prioritising and sequencing activities appropriately.
- Ability to solve problems, devise and champion solutions and change.
- Willing to develop self and others, giving and receiving constructive feedback and peer reviews.
- Ability to multi-task, be proactive, curious and creative.
- Experience of working with Microsoft tools, especially SharePoint and Teams.
- Experience/understanding of other knowledge management systems would be helpful.
Person specification
Essential Criteria
You need to be qualified as a Solicitor or Barrister or Chartered Legal Executive.
Solicitors Barristers or Chartered Legal Executives must have completed a training contract/pupillage/qualifying employment or have been exempted from this by the Law Society, the Bar Council or CILEx. Chartered Legal Executives must have a Qualifying Law Degree or have completed the Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL)/CPE or have passed exams (i.e. a score of 50% or above achieved) at CILEx Level 6, in all the seven foundation subjects in law: contract law, criminal law, equity and trusts law, European Union Law, land law, public law and law of tort.
You need to have a minimum of a 2:1 degree in your first degree (in any subject). If you hold an overseas degree qualification this should be equivalent to a 2:1 degree.
If you have a lower degree classification, we may consider your application if you can provide satisfactory evidence of an equivalent high level academic and/or professional achievement.
For example, if you can tell us that you have:
- A commendation or distinction in the Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL)/CPE or the Legal Practice Course (LPC)
- An LLM or other postgraduate degree
- Very competent on the Bar Professional Training Course (BPTC) or
- An overall average score of 65% or above across exams passed in the seven foundation subjects in law (where studied at CILEx level 6): contract law, criminal law, equity and trusts law, European Union Law, land law, public law and law of tort
- Evidence of equivalent high level academic achievement
- Evidence of professional achievement.
Please note this isnt a gateway role into the wider Government Legal Profession.
SOLS operates a hybrid working practice whereby you will be expected to attend your designated office a minimum of 2-days per week.
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 cant 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.
There may be a need to travel across the UK with occasional overnight stays being required and there may be a need for occasional travel for business purposes.
Qualifications
Behaviours
We’ll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
Technical skills
We’ll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:
- Candidates invited to interview will be required to deliver a short presentation. Full details will be provided to those candidates when they are invited to interview.
Benefits
£14,698 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme.
Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.
- 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%
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
SOLS use the Success Profiles framework for its recruitment. Your application will be assessed against the Experience, Technical and Behaviour elements of the framework. These elements will also be tested at interview along with Strengths.
After submission of the first stage of your application you will be invited to complete a Civil Service Judgement Test. If you successfully pass the test, you will be invited to complete the final stage of the application.
Please complete the online tests as soon as possible (within 24-48 hours is recommended), the closing date for the tests is 02/11/2023 at 23:55. If you fail to complete the online test before the deadline your application will be withdrawn. Guidance for the test will be available when you are invited to take the test. The tests are administered online and accessed via the CS Jobs website.
If you achieve the required pass mark, you will then be invited to submit your full application as follows:
Your application will include:
- A CV, to include experience of your employment history of the last 5 years limited to 200-words per role. Please account for any gaps in your career history.
- A maximum 500-word Personal Statement to include what you can bring to the role including examples of your relevant experience tailored to the job description.
- A maximum 500-word statement on how you meet the Essential Criteria. You do not need to use the full wordcount as long as you ensure that you have demonstrated the essential criteria, e.g. evidence of qualifications.
Selection will be by sift and (if required) interview.
A preliminary sift on the qualifications will be conducted and only candidates meeting the criteria will progress.
The sift will assess the CV and Personal Statement. The CV and Personal Statement will be given a combined score.
Interviews will be held via TEAMS.
Candidates invited to interview will need to show evidence of their qualifications at that stage.
Candidates who are successful at the sift stage and progress to interview will be given further information about the interview at that time.
We reserve the right to raise the score required at any stage of the process in order to manage numbers.
Candidates invited to interview will be required to deliver a short presentation. Full details will be provided to those candidates when they are invited to interview.
The interview process will assess the Changing and improving; Communicating and Influencing; and Seeing the Big Picture behaviours, and, in particular the following elements:-
Changing and Improving
- Make changes which add value and clearly articulate how changes will benefit the business.
- Understand and identify the role of technology in public service delivery and policy implementation.
- Consider the full impact of implementing changes on culture, structure, morale and the impacts on the diverse range of end users, including accessibility needs.
- Identify early signs that things are going wrong and respond promptly.
Communicating and Influencing
- Communicate with others in a clear, honest and enthusiastic way in order to build trust.
- Explain complex issues in a way that is easy to understand.
- Deliver difficult messages with clarity and sensitivity, being persuasive when required whilst respectful of interests and opinions of others.
- Introduce a varied range of communication methods, including the use of digital resources, whilst ensuring value for money.
- Monitor the effectiveness of own and team communications and take action improve where necessary.
- Ensure plans and activities in your area of work reflect wider strategic priorities and communicate effectively with senior leaders to influence future strategies.
- Adopt a government wide perspective to ensure alignment of activity.
- Bring together views, perspectives and diverse needs of stakeholders to gain a broader understanding of the issues surrounding policies and activities.
We will also assess your Strengths to understand what you do well and what motivates you.
Start dates may not be agreed straight away but this will be discussed further with successful candidates.
Interview dates to be confirmed.
A reserve list may be held for a period of up to 12 months from which further appointments may be made for the same or similar roles if this applies to you, well let you know via your Civil Service Jobs account.
Eligibility
To check that you are eligible to apply, review this eligibility information
Important information for existing HMRC contractual homeworkers:
This role may be suitable for existing HMRC employees who are contractual homeworkers. Occasional attendance to the office will be required where there is a business need, so please review the advertised office locations for this role when applying and only select locations from the location preferences section that you are able to travel to.
Reasonable Adjustments
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.
If you need a reasonable adjustment or a change to be made so that you can make your application, review this information on reasonable adjustments, and contact hmrcrecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible.
Diversity and Inclusion
At HMRC we are committed to creating a great place to work for all our colleagues and creating an inclusive and respectful environment that reflects the diversity of the society we serve.
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. Were committed to creating a great place to work for all our colleagues here at HMRC. We want everyone to feel valued and supported to achieve their potential at HMRC.
For more information on how we make this happen, review this information on our culture and values
Applications received from candidates with a criminal record are considered fairly in accordance with the DBS Code of Practice and the Recruitment of ex-offenders Policy.
We welcome applications from those who need to work a more flexible arrangement and will agree to requests where possible after considering operational and customer service needs. We cant 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.
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.
The Civil Service runs a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.
The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.
Locations
HMRC has a presence in every region of the UK. For more information on where you might be working, review this information on our locations.
Security Update
For more information on the level of security checks we will carry out, review this information on security checks
Further Information
The Civil Service values honesty and integrity and expects all candidates to abide by these principles. The evidence you provide in your application must relate to your own experiences.
Any instances of plagiarism or other forms of cheating will be investigated and, if proven, the relevant application/s will be withdrawn from the process.
Duplicate applications for the same vacancy will also be withdrawn.
Transferring into HMRC from Civil Service If you are currently working for an Other Government Department (OGD) and would like to consider the impact on your pay when joining HMRC, please see the attached document “Combined T&C and OGD Pay English, found at the bottom of this advert. Further information on staff transfers can be found on gov.uk
Problems during the application process
If you experience accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the ‘Contact point for applicants’ section.
If you think youve made a mistake on a short application form (e.g. youve ticked the incorrect eligibility box), please contact hmrcrecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk at least two working days before the vacancy closes. After this, we wont be able to reopen your application.
Please use the subject line to insert appropriate wording e.g. Please re-open my application – 313359 & vacancy closing date 02/11//2023. Please note that we cannot amend or re-open your application if you have submitted your full application in the interests of fair and open recruitment.
For reasonable adjustments queries or requests, please see details within reasonable adjustments section above.
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 (opens in a new window).
Apply and further information
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Contact point for applicants
Job contact :
- Name : Rachael Ahmed
- Email : rachael.ahmed@hmrc.gov.uk
Recruitment team
- Email : hmrcrecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk
Further information
