Head of Accessibility

Job summary

Discover a career in your hands at HMRC. Whether you're seeking purpose, growth, or a workplace that gives you a true sense of belonging, hear from some of our employees as they share their story about what it’s really like to work at HMRC.

Visit our YouTube channel to watch the full series and come and discover your potential.

At HMRC, we are committed to creating a great place to work for all our colleagues; an inclusive and respectful environment that reflects the diversity of the society we serve. We want to maximise the potential of everyone who works for us, and we offer a range of flexible working patterns and support to make an exciting career at HMRC accessible to you.

Diverse perspectives and experiences are critical to our success, and we encourage applications from all people from all backgrounds with the experience and skills needed to perform this role.

Job description

You will be a leader in your field, an experienced practitioner and a skilled team leader, confident in explaining user needs to senior civil servants and delivery teams alike. Acting as a subject matter expert on all matters to do with accessibility, assisted digital and the Service Standard making strategic recommendations to the organisation and managing the delivery of solutions. You will be comfortable working with a range of stakeholders, and be able to quickly build credibility, influence and the ability to deliver through others.

Person specification

You will need to be able to:

• Define and establish best practice based on WCAG standards that make our services and internal systems usable by all, by default.
• Contribute and co-lead the assisted digital strategy across HMRC by embedding best practice at the organisational level, ensuring digital services preserve and enable access for digitally excluded user groups.
• Define and implement the assurance approach to support the Service Standard with regard to accessibility and digital inclusion.
• Develop and implement a strategy in partnership with commercial teams – to support the procurement of compliant off the shelf software, accessible and inclusive digital services, including electronic, physical and process elements.
• Lead strategic discussions about the inclusive design and build of services and internal systems, recommending and explaining approaches to senior leaders across the department.
• Support delivery teams, programmes and portfolios to create multi-channel inclusive services with effective assisted digital support models as appropriate.
• Build and maintain relationships with senior stakeholders, leaders of teams and staff groups concerned with diversity, inclusion and access for digital services.
• Promote the Service Standard across HMRC and collaborate with GDS and other government departments to further develop and iterate it.
• Be a thought leader in cross-government communities and beyond, by blogging, presenting at conferences, sharing approaches and ideas around Assisted Digital, Digital Accessibility and the Service Standard.
• Manage a team of civil servants and consultants; allocate them to work across multiple projects as required. Identify and upskill new talent to grow capacity.

Essential Criteria

You’ll have a demonstrable passion for user-centred design, with extensive experience of:

• Disability law, including the Disability Discrimination Act 1995, the Equality Act 2010, The Public Sector Bodies Accessibility Regulations 2018.
• Knowledge of best practice approaches to designing Assisted Digital services which are accessible and inclusive.
• Leading and managing teams, coaching, growing skills and directing the work of others.
• Creating a collaborative, inclusive environment.
• Setting direction - making decisions, evaluating impact and contributing to strategic discussions at a senior level.
• Being pragmatic and confident when dealing with a range of audiences and senior stakeholders.
• Understanding and explaining the ways people who are digitally excluded or have access requirements, need to use services - things that help/hinder them.
• Applying a thorough knowledge of assistive hardware/software and activities related to accessibility testing.
• Establishing, promoting and applying the Accessibility Guidelines, Service Standard and other good practice guidance for inclusive digital services.
• Helping digital teams to build services that meet the needs of users who are digitally excluded or have access needs.
• Building and leading a team of specialists and ensuring team output is of a consistently high quality.

You will also need:

• A degree in psychology, cognitive science, human factors, computer science, product/interaction design, human computer interaction or related disciplines.
• Excellent communication, presentation and interpersonal skills; the ability to communicate complex concepts clearly and persuasively across different audiences and varying levels of the organisation.
• Strong qualitative and analytical skills, excellent attention to detail and good business judgement.
• Enthusiasm for coaching and mentoring of team members.
• Understanding of the Service Standard and GOV.UK Service Manual.
• The flexibility to work in a fast-changing environment and ambiguous situations.
• Experience guiding and mentoring junior team members.
• Knowledge or experience of working in an agile delivery environment.

Further Location Information

Please ensure that you only apply for a location that you are willing and able to work from, as we will only make one offer of employment. Any additional notes included in a ‘Further Location Preferences (optional)’ field within the application form, will not be considered. Please be aware that you cannot change your location preference after submitting your application.

Office Closures

If your location preference is for the following site, it’s important to note that this is not long-term site for HMRC and we will require you to move to a new building in the future, subject to our location strategy and the applicable employee policies at that time.

For more information on where you might be working, review this information on our locations (opens in a new window)

This site is:

• Telford Plaza, Telford - moving to Parkside Court, Telford

You will be given more information about what this means at the job offer stage.

Leeds Location

Moves Adjustment Payment will be available for this role, provided the successful applicant is a current HMRC colleague in Bradford and meets the eligibility requirements outlined in the HMRC’s Moves Adjustment Payment guidance.

Technical skills

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

• Good understanding of WCAG2.2
• Good understanding of Government Service Standard - https://ddat-capability-framework.service.gov.uk/role/accessibility-spe…

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £71,725, HM Revenue and Customs contributes £20,778 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pensio