Deputy Director, Head of AI Assurance

Job summary

The Deputy Director, Head of AI Assurance will lead HMRC’s approach to assuring the responsible, safe and effective deployment
of AI across the organisation.

The role will provide strategic leadership for the AI assurance function within the Chief AI Office (CAIO), ensuring that AI activity across HMRC is aligned to organisational priorities, meets clear governance and assurance expectations, and can progress at pace within appropriate guardrails.

The post holder will not replace existing specialist functions such as data protection, cyber security, legal, commercial, architecture, risk or ethics. Instead, they will act as the senior alignment point for AI assurance, bringing together the right expertise at the right point in the lifecycle and ensuring that teams receive clear, proportionate and practical assurance advice.

Job description

• Lead the development and operation of HMRC’s AI assurance approach, ensuring that central, local and federated AI activity meets a consistent assurance bar.
• Establish clear assurance routes for AI use cases, from early idea through experimentation, deployment, scaling and live service.
• Provide senior oversight of AI assurance decisions, ensuring that risks, mitigations, dependencies and decisions are recorded, evidenced and traceable.
• Contribute to development of AI Agents to support delivery of effective assurance across the enterprise.
• Work with senior colleagues across HMRC to embed proportionate assurance into existing governance, delivery, security, data, commercial and change processes.
• Lead the AI assurance team, setting priorities, allocating work and ensuring a coherent service to delivery teams and business areas.
• Ensure assurance activity supports responsible acceleration rather than unnecessary delay, helping teams understand what is required to progress safely.
• Maintain a single view of material AI assurance issues, risks, themes and decisions, escalating where appropriate to the Chief AI Officer and relevant governance forums.
• Oversee the development of reusable assurance products, including checklists, evidence packs, decision templates, guidance and playbooks.
• Build strong working relationships with existing HMRC specialists in security, data protection, data governance, legal, ethics, commercial, architecture, risk and internal audit.
• Support external confidence in HMRC’s use of AI by ensuring transparency, audit readiness and clear evidence of responsible redeployment.
• Represent HMRC in cross-government AI assurance, governance and professional communities, helping shape emerging standards, frameworks and best practice for responsible AI adoption.

Person specification

• Experience of leading governance, assurance, risk, compliance or delivery functions in a complex organisation, with accountability for delivering effective outcomes in high-profile or sensitive environments.
• Experience of AI, data science, digital transformation, automation or emerging technology governance, including applying proportionate assurance approaches to innovative and fast-moving technology delivery.
• Strong ability to interpret complex policy, technical, ethical and risk issues, and translate them into clear, practical guidance that supports safe and effective delivery.
• Demonstrable ability to build effective relationships across organisational boundaries, influence senior stakeholders, and align diverse interests to achieve pragmatic decisions and outcomes.
• Excellent judgement and decision-making skills, including the ability to balance pace, innovation, risk, proportionality, regulatory requirements and public trust.
• Proven leadership and communication skills, including the ability to build and lead high-performing expert teams and to communicate complex issues clearly and succinctly to senior leaders and non-technical audiences.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £86,000, HM Revenue and Customs contributes £24,914 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).

• 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 employer contribution of 28.97%

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

For full selection process details please see attached Candidate Pack

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.This role has a minimum assignment duration of 3 years. An assignment duration is the period of time a Senior Civil Servant is expected to remain in the same post to enable them to deliver on the agreed key business outcomes. The assignment duration also supports your career through building your depth of expertise.

As part of accepting this role you will be agreeing to the expected assignment duration set out above. This will not result in a contractual change to your terms and conditions. Please note this is an expectation only, it is not something which is written into your terms and conditions or indeed which the employing organisation or you are bound by. It will depend on your personal circumstances at a particular time and business needs, for example, would not preclude any absence like family friendly leave. It is nonetheless an important expectation, which is why we ask you to confirm you agree to the assignment duration set out above.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a standard (or equivalent) criminal record check.Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is counter-terrorist check (opens in a new window).

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window).People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the