Head of Strategy & Policy

Job summary

We’re responsible for Land Transaction Tax and Landfill Disposals Tax. Our work raises revenue to support public services, like the NHS and schools, in communities across Wales. But that’s not all, we're also involved with and support future tax design for Wales.

Join a place with purpose
You’ll join a team of 100+ talented people from across 14 different professions. Our culture is best described as innovative, collaborative and kind. By working together, we’ll deliver a fair tax system for Wales.

Our people
You’ll be working with people from a wide range of backgrounds and experience. From Operations, Policy, Digital and Data, HR, Communications to Finance – there’s a place for you in our friendly team.

You’ll be our greatest asset

You’ll be joining an inclusive organisation and be part of a team where you can thrive, be rewarded and heard.

We’re recognised as one of the top organisations for people engagement in the Civil Service People Survey. Inclusion and fairness are one of our strongest areas, as well as pay and benefits – our People Survey results say it all!

We’re also recognised for being innovative and a digital, ‘cloud-based’ organisation that supports hybrid and flexible working enabling a great work-life balance.

More about working for us, our roles and our Corporate Plan 2025 - 2028 .

Job description

Reporting directly to our Strategy & Capability Director, as Head of Strategy & Policy you’ll create an environment for nurturing new ideas and taking them forward, at an exciting time for the WRA as it moves from its start-up years to becoming a more mature organisation, growing and taking on new areas of work.

The WRA Strategy & Policy team leads development of our corporate strategy and the future-focused work of our organisation (the 100+ day agenda). You will lead WRA support to Welsh Government priorities, including the design of potential new taxes or changes to existing tax legislation. You will develop the WRA’s approach to navigate strategic opportunities in our wider context as Welsh Government’s first non-ministerial department.

You will provide the overall lead on WRA policy development, working with multidisciplinary teams to develop and implement policy smoothly into operations, while also developing policy partnerships and working with stakeholders on future developments across Welsh taxes.

You’ll bring experience of strategy and policy development and working in a political environment. You’ll need to think strategically and creatively across the WRA and external organisation’s priorities, interests, risks and opportunities to ensure as far as possible that the WRA is best sharing its expertise to influence future developments, and that political and strategic goals are informed by the knowledge of their likely impacts when implemented. To prepare the WRA for these changes, this will involve considering the legal, policy, operations, organisational development and engagement impacts on the organisation.

You’ll be a corporate leader in a small, ambitious organisation, leading in a way which is visible, inclusive and inspires the Strategy & Policy team.

The role will also require the post holder to quickly create good relationships with a number of senior stakeholders in Welsh Government, the Welsh tax environment, and across UK government in order to promote, secure support and provide reassurance for our way of doing tax.

“This is an exciting time for the development of the WRA and this new role plays a crucial part in shaping the future of our organisation. We’re looking for someone to take our development of corporate strategy, policy and legislation to the next level as we look ahead to the addition of new services and beyond.”

Dave Matthews, Strategy & Capability Director

Person specification

Corporate Leadership

• Be an inspirational and development-focused leader to the Strategy & Policy team (c.8 FTE), in a hybrid working environment, attracting and retaining diverse talent and supporting our high engagement, high performance environment.
• Be a great teammate to WRA colleagues as an active part of our senior leadership team, contributing to the overall management of the organisation and leading on cross-cutting priority issues.

Strategy Development and Business Planning

• Develop, review and refresh the WRA’s strategy and approach, including any requirements to revise the 2025 to 2028 Corporate Plan, to ensure that they align with and support the delivery of new risks, opportunities, and the progress of Welsh Government priorities.
• Lead preparations for and development of our next corporate plan in 2028.
• Lead the WRA’s approach to business planning, ensuring the work we undertake aligns with delivery of our corporate plan objectives and our vision for service delivery
• Lead our approach to regulatory compliance with duties such as the Wellbeing of Future Generations Act, collaborating with colleagues and external stakeholders to develop and embed ambitious goals.
• Shape and influence the WRA’s future governance arrangements with Welsh Government and our key delivery partners.
• Develop our strategic insight function, identifying trends, risks and emerging opportunities for the WRA’s future.
• Think strategically, and encourage others to do so, across priorities and workstreams to navigate differing internal and external interests and pressures into practical deliverables and being creative to influence and innovate change.
• Lead continuous development of a Welsh way of delivering taxes, exploring opportunities to support both national and local taxes in Wales.
• Collaborate with colleagues and teams on the creation of future plans to build the capability needed to deliver on our ambition.

Policy development

• Lead the WRA policy team’s work on the design and development of primary and secondary legislation, working in close partnership with Welsh Treasury and wider Welsh Government teams. This will focus initially on the development of a potential tax maintenance bill for the next Senedd term.
• Lead the WRA’s involvement in the development of future taxes and significant changes to WRA-collected taxes (LDT and LTT and visitor levy) and new functions (national registration of visitor accommodation).
• Lead development of the legislative framework in which the WRA operates to keep pace with and facilitate our longer term aims, and partner Welsh Treasury in the policy design of the system of devolved taxes in Wales.
• Co-ordinate and harness your own, your teams’ and the wider organisation’s collective expertise to influence the design and delivery of Welsh taxes, enhancing the wider capability of Government in Wales at all levels to optimise how the tax system works in practice.
• Coordinate WRA corporate policy development, ensuring alignment and coherence.
• Lead development of policy which supports the efficient, fair and effective delivery of our services for taxpayers and their agents.
• Lead development of lawful and proportionate compliance, litigation and enforcement strategies based on WRA’s civil and criminal enforcement powers.

Relationship building

Forge strategic partnerships, as well as explore and influence new partnership working models with organisations such as Welsh Treasury, Local Authorities, HMRC, Natural Resources Wales, VOA, HM Land Registry, Revenue Scotland and others.

Candidate Information Sessions

If this seems like a role you’d be interested in, join us for our virtual Candidate Information Sessions. You’ll meet the Line Manager, get an overview of the role as well a feeling for what it’s like to work at the WRA. We’ll also talk through our benefits and provide helpful tips for your application with us. Please register for one of the sessions below:

28th January at 12.30pm - Register here: Business Wales Events Finder - Candidate Information Session - Head of Strategy & Policy

28th January at 4.00pm - Register here: Business Wales Events Finder - Candidate Information Session - Head of Strategy & Policy

Languages

We’ve undertaken an objective assessment of the Welsh language skills needed to undertake the duties of this role. For this role:

Welsh language skills
Welsh skills are not essential. This means that you do not need Welsh language skills to undertake this role and these skills won’t be assessed during the recruitment process. However, we actively encourage all staff to learn or improve their Welsh language skills and offer a range of opportunities to suit everyone.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £76,715, Welsh Revenue Authority contributes £22,224 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

• 31 days annual leave + Bank holidays, and 2 Privilege days
• Flexible and hybrid working
• Generous employer pension schemes with a contribution of upto 28.97%
• Tusker car scheme
• Vivup Cycle2Work and advances of salary for season Travel Tickets
• Lifestyle Benefits offering discounts on shopping, restaurants and entertainment
• Wellbeing hour each week
• Access to subsidised sports groups
• Generous family-friendly leave policies
• Free Welsh language courses and time off to learn
• Access to a range of staff diversity networks
• Free counselling and support service via our Vivup Employee Assistance Programme and Your Care Health platform
• A thriving culture that’s described as innovative, collaborative and kind.

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

We’ll always be clear about how we assess your application, at each stage of the process. This will usually include:

• Assessment of your Application Form and CV against the relevant Success Criteria
• A panel interview (if you’re successful at the initial sift stage)
• If any additional assessments are needed for this role, such as a test or presentation at interview, we’ll let you know in advance.
• Should a large number of applications be received, an initial sift will be conducted using the lead criteria - Experience of policy and strategy development

We’re proud to be a Disability Confident Leader so we’ll ask you if you need any adjustments at each stage of the recruitment process. So that we can support you in a way that works for you, we’ll offer a pre-interview accessibility chat to anyone that declares a disability or needs any adjustments. This will take place with someone who is independent of the recruitment process and you won’t be placed at any disadvantage as a result of needing adjustments.

A reserve list may be held for this role for applicants that have scored above the appointable threshold at interview. This means that if a similar vacancy becomes available in the next 12 months we may contact you to offer you the role.

Success criteria

Behaviours

Criteria

Assessed in personal statement and CV

Assessed during interview or assessment

Leadership

Seek out shared interests beyond own area of responsibility, understanding the extent of the impact actions have on the organisation. Inspire and motivate teams to be fully engaged in their work and dedicated to their role.

No

Yes

Seeing the Big Picture

Ensure plans and activities in your area of work reflect wider strategic priorities and communicate effectively with senior leaders to influence future strategies. Adopt a government wide perspective to ensure alignment of activity and policy.

Yes

Yes

Communicating and Influencing

Communicate with others in a clear, honest and enthusiastic way in order to build trust. Remain open-minded and impartial in discussions, whilst respecting the diverse interests and opinions of others.

Yes

Yes

Strengths

Criteria

Assessed in personal statement and CV

Assessed during interview or assessment

Analytical

You seek and analyse information to inform decisions based on best available evidence.

No

Yes

Challenger

You can bring a fresh perspective whatever the situation or context. You see other people’s views and can appreciate there are many different angles to consider.

No

Yes

Inclusive

You recognise everyone as an individual, accepting people for who they are and treating everyone fairly. You actively encourage and provide opportunities for others to share ideas and contributions.

No

Yes

Experience

Criteria

Assessed in personal statement and CV

Assessed during interview or assessment

Experience of policy and strategy development

Yes

Yes

Experience of developing or working with tax legislation

Yes

No

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 (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 theCivil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

Apply and further information

The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. Read more about prison leaver recruitment (opens in new window).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 : WRA Recruitment Team
• Email : Recruitment@wra.gov.wales
• Telephone : 03000254000

Recruitment team

• Email : Recruitment@wra.gov.wales

Further information

The law requires that selection for appointment to the Civil Service is on merit on the basis of fair and open competition. See the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles where this is set out.
If you feel your application has not been treated in line with the recruitment principles, and you wish to complain, you should contact the Head of HR.
Email: hr@wra.gov.wales
If you’re not satisfied with our response, you can contact the Civil Service Commission.

Attachments

Job Description - Head of Strategy Policy - (FINAL) Opens in new window (pdf, 320kB)Disgrifiad swydd - Pennaeth Strategaeth a Pholisi cy_gb -(FINAL) Opens in new window (pdf, 316kB)