Deputy Director Workplace Operations - Belfast

Deputy Director Workplace Operations - Belfast

About the job

Job summary

You will be accountable for maintaining oversight of daytoday operations, ensuring our services deliver great places to work across the portfolio through people and property. You will ensure our estate is safe, secure and available, whilst driving continuous improvement, working closely with several stakeholders and supplier partners. Embracing the civil service behaviours, you will also lead a large, diverse team of workplace experts to maximise the benefits of ongoing transformation and drive enterprise connection.

Job description

Given the evolving expectations of the workplace, you will ensure the provision of a safe, resilient and secure working environment while enabling and promoting new ways of working.

Key responsibilities:

• Accountable as a leader of a large operational Estates team, for providing legally compliant building services and facilities management, with accountability for health and safety of all building users. Day to day oversight and service assurance of our partners delivery of Hard (maintenance) and Soft (cleaning, catering, reception, post, etc) facilities management services.
• Accountable for Estates operational delivery to a diverse group of customers (in HMRC and across central Government) whilst providing innovation and added value to enhance the customer journey. This includes providing day today assurance and checks on services, liaison with stakeholders and collaborating across Estates teams to ensure we deliver a best-in-class service.
• Responsible for a delegated budget covering people costs and site-specific small works, to provide effective estate operation and positive customer experience, meeting lease and contractual commitments,
• Responsible for ensuring Government Soft landings (GSL) protocols are followed when driving change across the estate
• Assure building services are mobilised and implemented in line with Practical Completion/Ready for Service and support sign off for Safe to Occupy
• Responsible for identifying and delivering sustainable efficiencies.
• Responsible for the compliant running of the estate and safe building occupancy in line with H&S law and guidelines.
• Responsible for engagement with building users the regarding workplace
• Responsible for delivering the annual Business Continuity Bronze Exercise Programme, testing and assuring Estates incident management effectiveness.
• Incident management and operational response for the Directorate providing senior out of hours cover on rotation for escalations
• Member of the HMRC department BCP response as deputy Sliver Command and Severe Events Group
• Act as an enabler of key place-based activities to support wider reform and government missions
• Collaborates cross PPG, HMRC and Government as an SCS enterprise leader
• Strategic planning and delivery of estates and PPG wide transformation
• Contribution to and support for wider directorate strategic delivery
• Champion new ways of working to leverage the benefits from our estates
• Sets the culture and tone as a senior HMRC official, leading by example

Management of People:

• Direct management of 5 no. G6 Regional Managers, and 1 no. G7 Head of Government Soft Landings and Gateway. (Overall team of c.145 people. )

Person specification

This is a leadership role, leading strategically and setting the tone for our culture, working through experts but also needing a command of the broad subject matter and able to provide input and direction for the team.

Essential Criteria:

• Commercially astute, inclusive leader with strong leadership experience.
• Demonstrable experience in leading a large estates operational team with the ability to preserve both personal and team resilience.
• Experience managing delivery of a national portfolio in a complex multi stakeholder environment.
• Experience managing complex change and legislation including integration into operations.
• Demonstrable experience of large multi million-pound budget management
• Experience managing risk and assurance with particular emphasis on facilities services and Health and Safety.
• Sound understanding of commercial contract management at a strategic level with excellent stakeholder management and communication skills
• Must hold at least level 6 property qualification recognised by government property profession, in this instance CIWFM or similar

Desirable Criteria:

• H&S, Engineering, Contract Management or wider property qualifications would be advantageous

Qualifications

Must hold at least level 6 property qualification recognised by government property profession, in this instance CIWFM or similar.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of 81,000, HM Revenue and Customs contributes 23,465 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Pension

Your Civil Service pension is a valuable part of your total reward and is one of your biggest benefits.

When you join the Civil Service, you get access to the alpha pension with a generous employer contribution of 28.97% and some of the lowest member contributions in the public sector.

Please visit Civil Service Pension Scheme for more information.

Annual Leave and Bank Holiday Allowance

25 days annual leave, increasing to 30 days after 5 years' service (allowance pro-rata for part-time colleagues).

This is complemented by one days paid privilege leave to mark the King's Birthday and is in addition to your public holidays.

Equality, Diversity & Inclusion

The Civil Service values and supports all its employees. At HMRC we want to create great places to work that are welcoming to all - where there is a strong sense of belonging and community.

We embed inclusion in everything we do. Senior Civil Servants play a crucial role in promoting and maintaining inclusive behaviours, addressing disparities and reporting progress.

Our HMRC equality objectives 2024-2028 describe how we are working to become a more inclusive and representative organisation reflective of our values.

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

Application

This campaign is being managed by HMRC's Executive Resourcing team. All applications should be submitted via Civil Service Jobs no later than 23:55 on Monday 8th June 2026 and must include:

• A CV detailing your career history, key responsibilities and achievements accounting for any employment gaps within the last two years.
• A Statement of Suitability (no longer than 2 pages) demonstrating how your experience meets the essential criteria.

Your CV and suitability statement will be assessed against the criteria set out in the person specification. Please include your full name on both documents.

Shortlist

The panel will assess the evidence provided in your CV and statement. Candidates whose applications best meet the essential criteria will be selected for interview.

Interview

You will attend a panel interview for a more in-depth discussion of your previous experience and professional competence. This will include a 5-minute verbal presentation (further information will be issued in advance).

Interviews are expected to take place virtually via Microsoft Teams.

All Criminal Record Checks applications are considered fairly in accordance with the DBS Code of Practice and the Recruitment of ex-offenders Policy.

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 criminal record check.

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security 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 European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

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).

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run 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.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).