Description
HM Revenue and Customer
Quality Assurance and Technical Management Lead
Reference number: 477166
Salary: £58,541 - £72,711
Contract type: Permanent
Working pattern: Flexible working, Full-time, Job share, Part-time
Location: Dover, Manchester, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Nottingham or Stratford
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The Cyber & Forensic Services (C&FS) team provides critical forensic support to HMRC investigations across Digital Forensics, Audio Visual (AV) Forensics, and Crime Scene Investigation (CSI). We are committed to delivering outstanding forensic services to our customers, maintaining the highest standards of quality, integrity, and professionalism, while striving to be a world-class forensic capability at the forefront of forensic best practice and innovation.
To support this ambition, we are seeking an experienced and motivated leader to join the C&FS Senior Leadership Team as the Quality Assurance & Technical Management Lead.
This pivotal role provides strategic and operational leadership for quality assurance, technical governance, accreditation, and compliance across HMRC forensic disciplines. Leading specialist teams, you will oversee the continual improvement of the forensic quality management system, ensuring compliance with the Forensic Science Regulator’s Codes of Practice and relevant ISO standards.
The successful candidate will lead teams responsible for maintaining the quality management system, practitioner competency, technical validation, and forensic standards, ensuring regulatory and accreditation requirements are met across forensic services.
The role provides leadership and oversight of complex quality and technical decisions, ensuring compliance requirements are proportionate, effective, and aligned with operational needs and forensic service delivery.
Working closely with senior stakeholders, regulatory bodies, and the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS), you will drive continuous improvement, manage organisational risk, and help shape the future direction of forensic quality and technical governance across C&FS and other areas undertaking forensic science activities.
Job description
Reporting to the Head of Forensics, you will act as HMRC’s operational lead for Quality Assurance and Technical Management within Cyber & Forensic Services (C&FS).
You will lead, inspire and develop the Quality Assurance & Technical Management teams, providing strategic direction and oversight across accreditation, compliance, technical management, and quality assurance activities.
Through your teams, you will ensure forensic services continue to meet the requirements of the Forensic Science Regulator’s Codes of Practice, relevant ISO standards, and wider regulatory obligations, whilst supporting effective operational delivery.
Working closely with operational leads, senior stakeholders, regulatory bodies, and external partners, you will provide leadership on quality-related risks, technical management, and accreditation matters, ensuring compliance requirements remain proportionate, practical, and aligned with business needs.
In addition, you will maintain awareness of developments in forensic science, accreditation, legislation, and regulatory requirements, ensuring HMRC remains well-positioned to respond to emerging challenges, changes in best practice, and future opportunities.
The role requires frequent travel to HMRC forensic locations, particularly Nottingham and Stratford, to provide visible leadership, support staff development, maintain effective relationships with operational teams, and oversee key quality assurance and technical management activities. Regular travel to other HMRC sites may also be required in line with business needs.
Person specification
In order to achieve this, duties will include, but are not limited to:
- Leading the Quality Assurance & Technical Management teams across multiple locations in London (Stratford), Nottingham, Dover and Belfast with frequent travel to other HMRC regional sites, ensuring forensic activities meet regulatory, accreditation, and business requirements.
- Setting the strategic direction for quality assurance and technical management, ensuring delivery of departmental objectives and regulatory requirements.
- Ensure the Quality Assurance & Technical Management teams are effectively led and managed, promoting a positive, inclusive culture that supports colleague wellbeing, professional development, talent management, and continuous improvement.
- Oversee the forensic quality management system, ensuring it remains effective, proportionate, compliant, and supportive of operational delivery.
- Will be the operational lead for quality assurance, accreditation, and compliance matters, ensuring HMRC meets its obligations under the Forensic Science Regulator’s Codes of Practice and relevant ISO standards, whilst maintaining effective relationships with the Forensic Science Regulator, UKAS, and other external stakeholders.
- Establishing and promoting key objectives for the function, empowering teams to deliver whilst maintaining appropriate oversight of risks, resources, and priorities.
- Providing leadership and oversight of complex quality and technical decisions, ensuring a consistent and proportionate approach across forensic disciplines.
- Ensuring quality assurance, accreditation, compliance, and technical management considerations are fully represented and considered during strategic decision-making across C&FS.
- Leading teams responsible for maintaining the quality management system, practitioner competency frameworks, technical validation activities, forensic standards, and quality assurance processes.
- Acting as the point of contact for the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) and overseeing the delivery of external assessments, audit activity, accreditation maintenance, and accreditation expansion.
- Providing oversight and direction in relation to internal and external audit findings, ensuring issues are appropriately addressed and opportunities for improvement are identified and delivered.
- Provide oversight of significant quality risks, non-conformities, and compliance issues, ensuring corrective actions are implemented and monitored to completion. Escalate high-risk matters to the Senior Accountable Individual (SAI) where required, providing assurance and recommendations to support informed decision-making.
- Leading on escalated quality-related risks and issues, taking appropriate action where required to safeguard accreditation, compliance, and HMRC’s reputation.
- Developing and maintaining effective relationships with the Forensic Science Regulator, UKAS, law enforcement partners, and the wider forensic community.
- Leading a team remotely over a national spread or demonstrable aptitude to do so.
- Acting as an ambassador for C&FS within the forensic quality and accreditation community, representing HMRC at national forums, working groups, and industry events where appropriate.
- Leading on adopting and exploiting new technologies, systems, and digital solutions to improve service delivery and efficiency.
- Developing succession plans to safeguard specialist knowledge and capability and supporting recruitment, talent development, and workforce planning activities where required.
- Contribute to the strategic leadership of Cyber & Forensic Services as a member of the Senior Leadership Team, helping shape the future direction of quality assurance, technical management, accreditation, and compliance activities.
- This role requires frequent travel to HMRC forensic locations, including Nottingham and Stratford, and this is an essential aspect of the role and will be required in order to fulfil the responsibilities of this role.
Essential Criteria
- Demonstrable experience of leading and developing teams, creating a positive and inclusive culture, and delivering against organisational objectives.
- Experience of working within a forensic environment operating under the Forensic Science Regulator’s Codes of Practice and relevant ISO standards.
- Experience of contributing to quality management systems, quality assurance activities, validation, competency frameworks, or compliance-related processes.
- Experience of leading complex technical or operational decisions, balancing regulatory requirements, operational delivery, and business needs.
- Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with experience of influencing, negotiating, and building effective relationships with internal and external stakeholders.
- Experience of managing risk, resolving complex issues, and providing clear recommendations to support decision-making in a regulated environment.
Desirable Criteria
Experience of working with law enforcement agencies, regulatory bodies, or other criminal justice partners.
Training Requirements:
Depending on existing experience, the successful candidate will be expected to undertake the following or equivalent training courses:
ISO/IEC 17025:2017 Awareness
ISO/IEC 17020:2012 Awareness
Internal Audit (ISO/IEC 17025:2017)
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
For 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.
Behaviours
We’ll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
Leadership
Managing a Quality Service
Working Together
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 (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, 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
Closing date: 3 September 2026.
