Fraud Investigation Services Operational Leader

Job summary

Discover what it’s like to work in a compliance role that makes an impact. Could you help us shape a stronger, fairer future? Your next career move starts here.

HMRC’s Fraud Investigation Service (FIS) investigates the most serious cases of tax fraud, evasion, and bespoke avoidance.

FIS is home to a diverse, wide-ranging, group of people with extensive skills and professional backgrounds.

They include, tax specialists, criminal investigators, accountants, specialists in cybercrime, and investigation support teams.

FIS is therefore able to deploy a full range of powers and responses to protect funding for UK public services, including criminal prosecution of the most harmful tax cheats. We maintain that nobody is beyond our reach.

Job description

Reporting to the Assistant Director for the London Region, you will become a senior member of the Regional Management Team, taking shared responsibility for leading and delivering the Region’s strategic aims and results.

You will work alongside other Operational Leaders and Senior Case Consultants, both regionally and nationally, to ensure that a decisive and operationally consistent approach is taken to tackling tax fraud and avoidance.

The successful candidate will be an effective and inclusive leader, capable of inspiring and developing high-performing teams in a demanding operational environment. As a G6 Operational Leader, they will provide strategic leadership and oversight to a team of investigators conducting complex tax investigations (G7s, Senior Officers and TSP Trainees) ensuring the delivery of high-quality outcomes and operational excellence.

In this role, you will:

• Act as a role model demonstrating HMRC leadership values and fostering engagement, building capability, working collaboratively and ensuring delivery of outcomes for customers and for HMRC.
• Undertake quality case reviews and agree tax technical submissions ensuring cases are progressed in accordance with Compliance Professional Standards and legal guidelines.
• Regularly reviewing the team’s capability, identifying learning needs and arranging upskilling where appropriate.
• Carry out HR and management responsibilities for staff, for example Performance Development conversations (PDCs), overseeing annual leave, sick absence management etc.
• Be responsible for the strategy, direction and tax professional standards across the team’s casework and be accountable to the Assistant Director for the quality, progression and governance of work carried out by the team.

Person specification

• You will be accountable for key tactical and operational decisions in investigations covering a wide range of FIS work, principally focused on project development, leading to investigations conducted under the full range of intervention practices, including Codes of Practice 8 and 9 and criminal referral.
• Experience of working investigations under Codes of Practice 8 and 9.
• Your work will often come under the scrutiny of formal litigation and legal challenge.
• You will need to use your extensive experience of working at a high level in compliance to lead your team.
• You will be expected to develop new and innovative approaches to tackling new and emerging risks, exploring and implementing new ways of working, and intelligently deploying your team’s precious resources to best effect.
• You will work in a Region which has both civil and criminal case teams, and you will be expected to develop constructive working relationships with your criminally trained colleagues to ensure the Region’s work is underpinned by the most effective response available.
• You will build capability by coaching and mentoring your team members, to enable them to deliver the objective of tackling serious fraud and complex avoidance. Supporting team members with operational delivery providing case direction where appropriate.
• Align significant delivery of strategic and operational outcomes with accurate forecasts.
• Using a project based approach to risk and progress casework.
• Promote and assure quality, pace, governance, and best practice in work carried out on your team and across the Region.
• Collaborating and partnering with other teams across the Region, FIS, Customer Compliance Group and beyond, promoting FIS and informing strategic case and project development, as well as identifying and prioritising cases for investigation.
• Building on the FIS reputation for investigative excellence, with both internal and external stakeholders.
• Act as a role model, exemplifying HMRC values for conduct and behaviour.
• Building strong teams by investing in the capabilities of your people, fostering an environment where everyone can feel empowered, trusted and respected.
• Excellent communication skills – acting as a good listener who is empathetic, supportive and aware of the impact you have on others.
• Possess strong technical knowledge of Income Tax and Corporation Tax, alongside a sound understanding of other key tax regimes relevant to the I&B customer base, including VAT, PAYE and Capital Gains Tax.
• Maintaining progress in investigations across the team, often in the face of little to no co-operation, by timely and proportionate use of formal HMRC powers.
• Understanding and apply relevant legislation and technical guidance, ensuring investigations within your team are conducted in line with HMRC’s Compliance Professional Standards and governance protocols.

Essential Criteria

• Experience of successfully undertaking large and complex investigations, through to settlement and payment.
• Substantial and demonstrable knowledge of Tax compliance principles and regulations.
• Recent demonstrable compliance experience working on the most complex Tax issues.
• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to identify and address complex Tax issues.
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to effectively convey technical information to diverse audiences.
• Proven ability to work collaboratively in a team environment and build positive working relationships.

Qualifications are mandatory for this role. Please see below for information, you must note in your CV under qualifications which of these you have.

Desirable Criteria

• Leadership experience in a demanding compliance environment.

Additional Security Information

SC Clearance is a requirement and if not already held, attaining it is a condition of appointment to this role.

Qualifications

One of the following qualifications:

Chartered Tax Adviser (CIOT).
Advanced Diploma in International Taxation (COIT).
AIIT (including Paper 4*).

A Consultative Committee of Accountancy Bodies (CCAB) membership qualification including:

Institute of Chartered Accountants of England & Wales (ICAEW).
Institute of Chartered Accountants in Scotland (ICAS).
Institute of Chartered Accountants Ireland (ICAI).
Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) .
Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA).
Post Graduate full legal qualification - in taxation matters.

For previous or existing HMRC employees TSP or predecessor qualification (TPDP, IDP, ITS2, CPT FT2) - (note - existing HMRC employees would only be eligible if they have completed the appropriate course to get them to G7 level (or above) as a tax professional).

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Leadership
• Communicating and Influencing

Technical skills

We'll assess you against