Lead Operational Excellence Manager - Stratford Regional Centre - Westfield Avenue
2 days ago
Stratford
Lead Operational Excellence Manager - Stratford Regional Centre - Westfield Avenue About the job \n Job summary \n \nDiscover 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.\n \nVisit our YouTube channel to watch the full series and come and discover your potential.\n \nThis is an exciting opportunity to join Tax Benefits and Enterprise Operations (TB&EOps), a vital part of HMRC responsible for delivering essential tax and benefits services. Our work supports individuals, families and businesses, helping to ensure customers receive the right support while maintaining confidence in the UK‘s tax and benefits systems.\n \nAs part of TB&EOps, you will contribute to the delivery of operational services that have a direct impact on customers and the wider economy. Working in a dynamic environment, you will help address complex challenges, improve performance and support HMRC‘s commitment to delivering trusted, efficient and customer-focused services.\n \nYou will work with a wide range of colleagues and stakeholders across HMRC and government, building strong relationships to achieve shared objectives. The role offers opportunities to support change, drive improvements and contribute to solutions that enhance service delivery and the customer experience.\n \nWe are looking for individuals who are motivated by public service and committed to delivering high-quality outcomes. You will will lead our governance and compliance activities, providing oversight of governance frameworks, assurance, audit readiness, compliance obligations, risk management, portfolio assurance, and reporting.\n \nIn return, you‘ll join an inclusive and supportive organisation that values learning, development and continuous improvement. You‘ll have the opportunity to broaden your experience, develop new skills and build a rewarding career within one of the UK‘s largest government departments.\n \nIf you are looking for a role where you can make a meaningful contribution, embrace new challenges and help deliver services that matter to customers across the UK, we‘d love to hear from you. Join Tax Benefits and Enterprise Operations and be part of a team delivering with purpose, professionalism and pride.\n Job description \n \nThe Tax, Benefits & Enterprise Operations (TB&EOps) Lead Operational Excellence Manager is accountable for establishing and embedding a culture of operational excellence across HMRC‘s critical tax and enterprise platforms, including ETMP, Unity and EOPS services.\n \nThe role will lead the governance, assurance, service optimisation, resilience, continuous improvement and operational readiness agenda for some of HMRC‘s most business-critical services. The postholder will ensure that operational practices are scalable, measurable, efficient and aligned to Platform as a Product principle whilst supporting major transformation programmes, including SAP S/4HANA migration, Sovereign Cloud adoption and wider digital modernisation.\n \nThe role acts as the senior authority for operational excellence, driving improvements across service management, supplier performance, operational controls, risk reduction, automation, resilience, cost efficiency and customer outcomes.\n Person specification \n Operational Excellence Leadership \n \n\n • Define and implement the TB&EOps Operational Excellence strategy.\n, • Establish consistent operational standards, KPIs and best practices across all TB&EOps capabilities.\n, • Create a culture of continuous improvement and data-driven decision-making.\n, • Develop operational maturity assessments and improvement roadmaps.\n, • Benchmark operational performance against industry and Government standards.\n\n Service Governance & Assurance \n \n\n • Lead governance and assurance across platform deliveries and critical live services.\n, • Ensure compliance with operational, security, resilience and audit requirements.\n, • Provide independent challenge and assurance for major operational decisions.\n, • Oversee service reviews, operational health assessments and improvement plans.\n, • Drive audits across suppliers and delivery teams.\n\n Continuous Improvement & Automation \n \n\n • Identify and eliminate operational inefficiencies, recurring incidents and service bottlenecks.\n, • Lead continuous improvement initiatives using Lean, Six Sigma and Service Management practices.\n, • Promote automation, observability and self-healing capabilities.\n, • Drive reduction of operational toil and manual intervention.\n, • Establish measurable benefits realisation from improvement activities.\n\n Reliability, Resilience & Service Stability \n \n\n • Lead operational readiness and resilience reviews for critical services.\n, • Ensure robust disaster recovery, business continuity and service continuity arrangements.\n, • Oversee capacity, availability and performance management practices.\n, • Drive improvements in service reliability and platform resilience.\n, • Provide leadership during major incidents and operational crises.\n\n Supplier & Partner Performance Management \n \n\n • Lead operational performance governance with strategic suppliers.\n, • Establish and monitor operational SLAs, OLAs and contractual obligations.\n, • Ensure suppliers deliver continuous service improvements and value for money.\n, • Challenge supplier performance and drive corrective action where required.\n, • Support commercial and contract management activities.\n\n Operational Transformation \n \n\n • Ensure operational considerations are embedded throughout programme and project lifecycles.\n, • Lead service transition and operational acceptance activities.\n, • Support large-scale transformation initiatives, including SAP S/4HANA migration and platform modernisation.\n, • Ensure new services are supportable, secure, resilient and operationally ready.\n\n Data, Reporting & Insights \n \n\n • Establish operational dashboards and performance reporting.\n, • Drive the use of service data and analytics to inform decisions.\n, • Deliver executive-level reporting on operational performance, risks and improvement outcomes.\n, • Develop operational scorecards aligned to business and platform objectives.\n\n Leadership & People Development \n \n\n • Lead, coach and develop a multidisciplinary operational excellence team.\n, • Build capability across TB&EOps in service management, operational engineering and continuous improvement.\n, • Foster a culture of accountability, learning and innovation.\n, • Act as a role model for operational leadership across the organisation.\n\n Key Accountabilities \n \nThe postholder will be accountable for:\n \n\n • Operational performance across TB&EOps services.\n, • Continuous improvement portfolio and benefits delivery.\n, • Operational readiness of major platform changes.\n, • Service resilience and recoverability.\n, • Governance and assurance effectiveness.\n, • Supplier operational performance.\n, • Risk reduction and control effectiveness.\n, • Operational cost optimisation.\n, • Service management maturity improvements.\n\n Essential Criteria: \n \n\n • Proven leadership in large-scale operational, governance, service management or live service environments.\n, • Experience managing mission-critical platforms within highly regulated environments.\n, • Strong background in IT Service Management (ITIL) and operational governance.\n, • Experience driving operational excellence, continuous improvement and automation initiatives.\n, • Experience managing suppliers and outsourced service providers.\n, • Demonstrable track record of improving service performance and operational outcomes.\n, • Experience leading through complex organisational or technology transformation.\n, • Strong stakeholder management skills with senior business and technology leaders.\n\n Desirable Criteria: \n \n\n • SAP ECC, SAP S/4HANA or Enterprise Platform experience.\n, • Experience within Government or Critical National Infrastructure environments.\n, • Lean, Six Sigma or Operational Excellence certification.\n, • Platform Governance and modern operations practices.\n, • Experience implementing Platform as a Product operating models.\n, • Experience with cloud migration and transformation programmes.\n\n Full time only \n \nDue to operational needs, these posts are full-time; however, applicants who need to work a more flexible arrangement are welcome to apply. We can‘t guarantee that we can meet all requests to work flexibly as any agreement will be subject to business ability to accommodate. Any request to work a more flexible arrangement should be made prior to your acceptance of the provisional offer.\n Further Location Information \n \nPlease 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.\n Benefits \n \nAlongside 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 Pension provides (opens in a new window).\n \nHMRC operates both Flexible and Hybrid Working policies, allowing you to balance your work and personal commitments. We welcome applications from those who need to work a more flexible arrangement and will agree to requests where possible, considering our operational and customer service needs.\n \nWe offer a generous leave allowance, starting at 25 days and increasing by a day for every year of qualifying service up to a maximum of 30 days.\n \n\n • Pension - We make contributions to our colleagues‘ Alpha pension equal to at least 28.97% of their salary.\n, • Family friendly policies.\n, • Personal support.\n, • Coaching and development.\n\n \nTo find out more about HMRC benefits and find out what it‘s really like to work for HMRC hear from our insiders or visit Thinking of joining the Civil Service\n Things you need to know \n Artificial intelligence \n \nArtificial 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.\n Selection process details \n How to Apply \n \nAs part of the application process, you will be asked to provide the following:\n \n\n • A name-blind CV including your job history and previous skills and experiences.\n, • A 750-word Personal Statement. Your Personal Statement should be used to describe how your skills and experience would be suitable for the advertised role, making reference to the essential criteria and person specification outlined in the advert.\n\n \nPlease complete a separate statement (Max 250 words) for the Desirable Criteria where applicable. This is not essential for the role but may be considered by the vacancy-holder where candidates have the same scores at interview.\n \nFurther details around what this will entail are listed on the application form.\n Sift \n \nIn the event of a large number of applications being received, an initial sift may be held on your.CV.\n \nAt full sift your CV, and your Personal Statement, will be assessed, with the successful candidates being invited to interview.\n \nWe may also raise the score required at any stage of the process if we receive a high number of applications.\n Interview \n \nDuring the panel interview, your experience will be assessed.\n \nInterviews will take place via video link. Sift and interview dates to be confirmed. Please note that circumstances may arise that require the planned interview format to change. We will endeavour to provide you with as much notice of any change as possible.\n Eligibility \n \nPlease take extra care to tick the correct boxes in the eligibility sections of your application form. Mistakes sometimes happen but if you contact us later than two working days (Monday-Friday) before the vacancy closes, we may not be able to reopen your application for you. If you do make a mistake with your eligibility form, or have withdrawn yourself in error and need your application reinstated whilst the campaign is still live, please contact us via: - Use the subject line to insert appropriate wording for example - ‘Please re-open my application - (insert vacancy ref) & vacancy closing date (insert date)‘. \n \nTo check that you are eligible to apply for this role, please review the eligibility information before submitting your application.\n \nExceptionally, candidates who are not successful at this grade may be considered for appointment to similar roles at a lower grade where the eligibility criteria are met. If this applies, we will contact you directly.\n Sponsorship \n \nWe have assessed this role against both Home Office and HMRC criteria and we are unable to offer sponsorship for a Skilled Worker Visa. This means the vacancy is not open to applicants who require visa sponsorship.\n The HMRC app can help you with your application \n \nThe HMRC app can provide you with your past 5 years‘ employment history, making the process of filling in your application quicker and easier.\n \nIf successful in your application, you will need your National Insurance number for the onboarding process.\n \nDownloa