Head of Apprenticeship Procurement

About The Job 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. The Central Apprenticeship Service (CAS), part of HMRC's Resourcing, Capability and Workforce Delivery Directorate, plays a critical role in delivering high-quality, strategically aligned apprenticeship programmes across the organisation. HMRC is entering a critical phase in the evolution of its apprenticeship offer, underpinned by a c.£23m annual Apprenticeship Levy investment and a programme of significant scale and complexity. HMRC currently supports over 1,000 apprentices across 42 standards, delivered through a diverse national market of third-party providers. These programmes span Levels 3-6 and support capability building across multiple professions and business areas, from frontline operations to specialist digital, commercial, data and security roles. We are seeking an experienced and strategic leader to join CAS as Head of Apprenticeship Procurement. This is a pivotal role at a time of transformation, responsible for shaping and delivering a modern, outcome-focused commercial approach to apprenticeship commissioning. The role will lead the design and implementation of a bespoke procurement framework, strengthening commercial governance and driving improved supplier performance across a complex provider landscape. You will be accountable for ensuring all procurement activity is aligned to HMRC's long-term workforce and capability priorities, supporting the development of critical talent pipelines while delivering value for money and high-quality provision. Working closely with HR, Commercial, Finance and business areas, you will translate workforce demand and skills insights into effective commissioning decisions that balance immediate operational need with long-term strategic outcomes.

Job Description As Head of Apprenticeship Procurement, you will play a pivotal senior leadership role in transforming how this substantial public investment is commissioned, contracted and governed across HMRC. The role is central to ensuring that apprenticeship provision directly supports HMRC's strategic priorities, including workforce transformation, critical capability building, digital modernisation and robust security and data assurance, while delivering strong commercial outcomes and demonstrable value for money. You will lead the implementation of a new, bespoke apprenticeship procurement framework for HMRC, shifting procurement activity from transactional delivery to a strategic, outcome focused commercial model. This will provide coherent oversight of a complex provider landscape, strengthen performance management and assurance, and ensure that apprenticeship contracts are tightly aligned to workforce planning, regulatory requirements and long term organisational need, while maximising use of the Apprenticeship Levy. Operating at senior level, you will act as HMRC's subject matter expert for apprenticeship procurement, providing strategic leadership for all related commercial activity. You will work in close partnership across HR, Commercial, Digital, Security, Finance, Professions and business areas, influencing at scale to ensure that apprenticeship commissioning supports both immediate operational priorities and HMRC's future capability requirements. This is a high impact role with genuine autonomy and accountability, offering a senior commercial professional the opportunity to lead a nationally significant programme, manage complex supplier relationships at scale, and make a significant impact at a critical point of organisational and workforce change.

Person specification Key Responsibilities Lead the redesign and implementation of a new bespoke apprenticeship procurement framework for HMRC utilising the different commercial routes to market. Provide strategic oversight of all apprenticeship procurement activities across HMRC, ensuring coherence, consistency and alignment with workforce and capability priorities. Act as the single point of accountability for apprenticeship procurement across HMRC. Develop and own robust commercial specifications, KPIs and SLAs, using data and insight to improve provider performance and assure outcomes. Resolve complex commercial issues and escalations, exercising sound judgement in high risk and high profile scenarios. Ensure robust commercial governance, due diligence and assurance across all apprenticeship contracts. Ownership and strategic oversight of Data Protection Impact Assessments (DPIAs) and Business Impact Assessment (BIA) for all apprenticeship procurement activity. Lead strategic IT assurance responsibility for apprenticeship providers, including data security, system access and alignment with HMRC Chief Digital Information Office (CDIO) standards. Partner with HMRC Professions, workforce planners and business areas to translate capability needs into effective apprenticeship commissioning and future forecasting. Build strong relationships with senior stakeholders across HMRC, Commercial and central Cabinet Office functions. Represent HMRC at cross government forums and with external providers and stakeholders. Lead and develop a high performing, multi disciplinary team, setting clear priorities, building capability and fostering a culture of accountability, professionalism and continuous improvement. Maintain delivery at pace in a complex, evolving and highly regulated environment.

Essential Criteria Significant experience operating and delivering results in complex commercial or procurement environments, ideally within the public sector. Proven experience of leading and delivering complex commercial or procurement transformation, with clear evidence of improved outcomes and value. Strong understanding of commissioning skills, learning or development provision, including translating workforce need into effective commercial solutions. Excellent stakeholder management and influencing skills, with the ability to operate credibly at senior and executive level. Proven ability to lead high performing teams in complex, high pressure environments, driving pace, maintaining high standards and embedding a culture of accountability and continuous improvement. Strong analytical, problem solving and decision making capability, with the confidence to manage risk and ambiguity.

Desirable Criteria Knowledge of the Apprenticeship Levy and ESFA funding rules and regulations. Experience of working across cross government or large, complex organisations. Familiarity with digital, data security or assurance frameworks in a regulated environment.

Transitional Sites For more information on where you might be working, review this information on our locations . If your location preference is for one of the following sites, it's important to note that these are not long-term sites 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. These Sites Are Benton Park View, Newcastle - moving to Pilgrims Quarter, Newcastle Trinity Bridge House, Manchester - moving to an alternative office in Manchester/ Salford You will be given more information about what this means at the job offer stage Behaviours We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process: Leadership Changing and Improving Benefits Alongside your salary of £58,541, HM Revenue and Customs contributes £16,959 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides. HMRC 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. We 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. Pension - We make contributions to our colleagues' Alpha pension equal to at least 28.97% of their salary. Family friendly policies. Personal support. Coaching and development. To 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 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 for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use. Selection process details This vacancy is using Success Profiles , and will assess your Behaviours and Experience. How To Apply As part of the application process, you will be asked to provide the following: A name-blind CV including your job history and previous experiences. Your CV should be 250-words long, drawing on the Responsibilities listed above and detailing your previous 3 roles. 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. Please 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. Further details around what this will entail are listed on the application form. Sift In the event of a large number of applications being received, an initial sift may be held on your CV. At full sift your CV, and your Personal Statement will be assessed, with the successful candidates being invited to interview. We may also raise the score required at any stage of the process if we receive a high number of applications. Interview During the panel interview, your experience will be assessed, and you will be asked behaviour-based questions on Leadership and Changing and Improving to explore in detail what you are capable of. Interviews will take place via video link. Sift and interview dates to be confirmed. Eligibility Please 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: unitybusinessservicesrecruitmentresults@hmrc.gov.uk - Use the subject line to insert appropriate wording for example - 'Please re-open my application - [insert vacancy ref] & vacancy closing date [insert date]'. To check that you are eligible to apply for this role, please review the eligibility information before submitting your application . Exceptionally, 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. Sponsorship We 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. The HMRC app can help you with your application The HMRC app can provide you with your past 5 years' employment history, making the process of filling in your application quicker and easier. If successful in your application, you will need your National Insurance number for the onboarding process. Download the HMRC app now and save your National Insurance number to your digital phone wallet. How to download the HMRC app and sign up for an account Download the free HMRC app from the App Store or Google Play store. If you have an HMRC online account already, sign straight in using your ID and password. If not, you can prove your identity by answering some questions or providing your photo ID. You'll then be able to access the app quickly and easily by signing in using a 6-digit PIN, your fingerprint, or facial recognition. You can find guidance for technical issues on GOV.UK: Technical support with HMRC online services . Reserve List A reserve list may be held for up to 12 months from which further appointments may be made for the same or similar roles - if this applies to you, we'll let you know via your Civil Service Jobs account. Merit List After interview, a single merit list will be created, and you will only be considered for posts in locations you have expressed a preference for. Appointments will be made in strict merit order in line with the set number of roles in each location. Criminal Record Check Applications received from candidates with a criminal record are considered fairly in accordance with the DBS Code of Practice and the Recruitment of ex-offenders Policy. Hybrid working at HMRC HMRC is an office-based organisation, and colleagues are expected to spend 60% of their working time in the office. Our offices provide opportunity for interaction, collaboration which aids learning and development and a sense of community. Where the role allows it, and where the home environment is suitable, colleagues can work from home for up to 2 days a week, averaged over a calendar month (or a proportionate amount of time for colleagues who work less than full time). Reasonable Adjustments We want to make sure no one is put at a disadvantage during our recruitment process. To assist you with this, we will reduce or remove any barriers where possible and provide additional support where appropriate. If you need a change to be made so that you can make your application, you should: Contact the UBS Recruitment team via unitybusinessservicesrecruitmentresults@hmrc.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs. Complete the "Assistance required" section in the "Additional requirements" page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need further on in the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at interview, or if you're deaf, a Language Service Professional. Technical Support If you are experiencing problems that cannot be resolved by our ' help ' section, then technical support is available. You will receive a reply in 2 working days. Important information for existing HMRC contractual homeworkers This role may be suitable for existing HMRC employees who are contractual homeworkers. Occasional attendance to the office will be required where there is a business need. Please consider the advertised office locations for this role when applying and only select locations from the 'location preferences' section that you can travel to. Terms and Conditions Customer facing roles in HMRC require the ability to converse at ease with members of the public and provide advice in accurate spoken English and/or Welsh where required. Where this is an essential requirement, this will be tested as part of the selection process. HMRC has a presence in every region of the UK. For more information on where you might be working, review this information on our locations . The Civil Service values honesty and integrity and expects all candidates to abide by these principles. The evidence you provide in your application must relate to your own experiences. Any instances of plagiarism or other forms of cheating will be investigated and, if proven, the relevant application(s) will be withdrawn from the process. Recording of interviews is prohibited unless explicit agreement is sought in line with the UK General Data Protection Regulations. Questions relating to an individual application must be emailed as detailed later in this advert. Applicants who are successful at interview will be, as part of pre-employment screening, subject to a check on the Internal Fraud Database (IFD). This check will provide information about employees who have been dismissed for fraud or dishonesty offences. This check also applies to employees who resign or otherwise leave before being dismissed for fraud or dishonesty had their employment continued. Any applicant's details held on the IFD will be refused employment. A candidate is not eligible to apply for a role within the Civil Service if the application is made within a 5 year period following a dismissal for carrying out internal fraud against government. New entrants will join on the minimum of the pay band. Please note that, if you are applying for roles on a part-time basis, the salary agreed will be pro-rata, reflective of the working hours agreed within your contract. If you experience accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the 'Contact point for applicants' section. For more Information for people applying for, or thinking of applying for, roles at HM Revenue and Customs, please see link: Working for HMRC: information for applicants . Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment. Security Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard 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) 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 Working for the Civil Service The Civil Service Code 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 . 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 and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy . Apply and further information This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans initiative. Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records. Contact point for applicants Job Contact Name : Paula Allertton Email : paula.allerton@hmrc.gov.uk Telephone : 03000 563311 Recruitment team Email : unitybusinessservicesrecruitmentresults@hmrc.gov.uk Further information Appointment to the Civil Service is governed by the Civil Service Commission's Recruitment Principles. You have the right to complain if you feel there has been a breach of the Recruitment Principles. In the first instance, you should raise the matter directly via ubsrecruitmentcomplaints@hmrc.gov.uk. Please note that we do not accept complaints or appeals regarding scoring of outcomes of campaigns, unless candidates can provide clear evidence that the campaign did not follow the Recruitment Principles. If you are not satisfied with the response, you may bring your complaint to the Commission. For further information on bringing a complaint to the Civil Service Commission please visit their website.