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Job descriptionThe SO Associate Product Manager for Robotics will provide effective leadership, management and delivery controls to ensure delivery against project milestones, live service targets and release schedules in line with priorities as agreed with the project managers, business and stakeholders.
Championing continuous professional development for individuals within Robotics in a technical capacity and building individual capabilities through coaching, mentoring and giving opportunities for staff to develop.
Identify and monitor team risks and issues, developing mitigating actions and escalation as appropriate. Identify and work with related projects/teams to manage interdependencies.
The role is a key enabler for successful delivery of automation solutions requiring excellent leadership, problem solving, communication, collaborating and partnering skills. The role requires strong negotiation skills to work with suppliers and product owners to ensure the right solutions are identified, developed and deployed.
The HMRC Customer Services Group (CSG) was established in October 2016 and brings together all operational Directorates in a single customer facing organisation. We employ around 30,000 people and are one of the largest customer services organisations in the UK. We have a clear ambition to be the best.
Operational Excellence (OE) was formed in April 2018 and recently migrated to CDIO CSG in March 2020 and is an integral part of HMRC's Customer Services Group, bringing together both the teams that help to drive change and improvements within Customer Services, and the teams which provide support to our operational areas to ensure their smooth running.
Our key purpose is to bring about excellence in Customer Services Group (CSG). We will lead strategic change within CSG, and develop our relationship with the rest of HMRC. We make a measurable difference to the experience of our customers and our colleagues, and our work helps to reduce the cost to serve and drive up the value of all we do.
We work closely with colleagues across HMRC to help administer the operational processes that allow our customers to pay the right amount of tax at the right time, to receive the right amount of benefits, and to manage and protect the UK borders.
Person specificationKey Responsibilities:
- Enable developers to advance the robotics backlog through design, develop, test and deliver automation solutions using the appropriate agile project management methodology/tools; learning and iterating frequently and capturing sprint metrics.
- Remove impediments/blockers to the development team for continuous smooth development/delivery of our product.
- Stakeholder engagement and management: Engage with stakeholders to understand their goals for the service, obtain buy-in from stakeholders for the vision and roadmap for product increments, and maintain good working relationships with stakeholders.
- Work with other product manager(s) to define the roadmap for your service and work with the development team and other areas of the business to translate this into actionable user stories and sprint-by-sprint plans.
- Facilitate the collaborative, dynamic planning process for each sprint, helping development team members to prioritise and self-organise around the work that needs to be completed against their capabilities and capacities.
- Facilitate the regular team agile meetings such as Sprint Planning, Checkpoint calls, Show & Tells and Sprint/Project retrospectives. Mentoring and coaching project members to ensure all are focused on a common goal and working with an Agile mind-set. Will also feedback all levels of communications via appropriate methods and styles.
- Champion continuous improvement by creating a safe and professional environment for staff to feel safe to provide honest feedback during sprint retrospectives that generates increased capability, productivity and quality of our automations and staff.
- Managing and building strong working relationships with Senior Stakeholders within CDIO, CSG, suppliers and other third parties .
- Work in partnership with the Live Services Team to resource and operate a Live Service Support Model that will effectively maintain the CDIO CSG suite of live solutions to agreed quality, gain user insights and robust service level agreements. Furthermore, strive to optimise live solutions to increase on benefits and efficiencies.
- Work in partnership with the Project Teams to ensure end to end delivery lands in the smoothest possible way, and as many blockers are removed in preparation for all team activities to reduce downtime from a technical perspective. This includes ensuring a well validated forward view of the range of technical issues that could affect Robotics Development.
- Safeguard agile ways of working, ensuring that test driven development is at the heart of the teams operating model.
- Liaise with customers, stakeholders and project managers to ensure task progress updates are communicated on a regular basis. The role requires key negotiation skills and a positive persuasive manner as all projects have dependencies on other areas out with the teams' own sphere of influence.
- Act as a visible leader across CDIO CSG working together to build a strong community across all teams.
- Build a strong team ethos to create the right environment to motivate and enable the team to successfully deliver user stories and discovery documents.
- Be a member of wider SLT and ELT role modelling engagement and behaviours, displaying energy and enthusiasm.
- Respect and reward the contribution and achievements of individuals and team.
- Participate in and contribute to the Product Management community of practice: take part in the community of practice through participation in community meetings, and volunteering for community activities and initiatives.
Essential Criteria - A proven track record in successfully managing teams proficient in agile delivery using NICE software and Microsoft Office Products.
- Experience of understanding problems within a service, product or process, and finding a positive solution to resolve the issue.
- Experience working with multidisciplinary teams.
- A demonstrable understanding of delivering automation change across multi-delivery teams.
- A demonstrable understanding of developing Robotics and Automation technologies.
- Demonstrably able to visualise, articulate, solve complex problems and concepts and make informed decisions using analytics / data.
- Experience of driving automated continuous improvement processes and outcomes based on user feedback.
- Demonstration of being able to prioritise between multiple requests, based on what is most valuable to do first, and recommend the course of action to take the work forward.
Desirable Criteria- Professional certifications in product management, agile methodologies or ITIL can be advantageous or ambition to work towards.
Further Location InformationPlease 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 closuresFor more information on where you might be working, review this information on our locations.
If your location preference is for the following site, it's important to note that this is not a 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.
The site is:
- Benton Park View, Newcastle - moving to Pilgrims Quarter, Newcastle
You will be given more information about what this means at the job offer stage.
Leeds Locations 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.
BehavioursWe'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
- Managing a Quality Service
- Delivering at Pace
- Communicating and Influencing
We only ask for evidence of these behaviours on your application form:
- Managing a Quality Service
BenefitsAlongside your salary of £45,544, HM Revenue and Customs contributes £13,194 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).
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 . click apply for full job details
