Brand Lead - Belfast Regional Centre - Erskine House

About the job

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HMRC Communications delivers professional, high-impact communications across the organisation and forms part of the Government Communication Service (GCS). Brand and Creative sits within HMRC Communications and plays a critical role in protecting, enabling and evolving HMRC's brand so it builds trust, supports transformation and helps people feel confident dealing with us. The Brand Lead plays a critical role in safeguarding the brand while enabling colleagues to use it confidently and consistently. The Brand Lead is the organisation's senior brand guardian and champion, responsible for protecting, strengthening and evolving HMRC's brand across all touchpoints.

Job description

The role leads a small specialist brand team and works in close partnership with creative colleagues to ensure brand strategy and creative delivery operate as one. It balances firm brand protection with proactive enablement - embedding brand understanding, confidence and shared ownership across HMRC. The role is insight-led, people-focused and highly collaborative, supporting HMRC through a period of significant transformation with the ultimate aim of building trust in the HMRC brand and how we operate. The role combines hands-on creative involvement with strategic oversight, people leadership and responsibility for managing creative resources, budgets and external suppliers.

Person specification

• Brand protection and guardianship: Lead the day-to-day protection of HMRC's brand, including identifying, assessing and responding to brand misuse, impersonation and fraudulent activity that risks customer trust. Ensure clear systems, processes and escalation routes are in place to manage unauthorised use of HMRC's name, logo and brand assets. Own brand permissions and takedown activity, working in partnership with legal, security and brand defence teams. Maintain oversight of trademark registration, governance and correct usage of brand assets.
• Brand strategy and evolution: Steward and evolve the HMRC brand strategy and value proposition, ensuring it remains relevant to organisational priorities, customer expectations and transformation. Ensure the brand reflects HMRC's values of Innovation, Integrity, Respect and Professionalism, and our promise of being here to support. Translate brand strategy into practical, usable guidance that works across channels, formats and audience needs.
• Enablement, education and culture: Lead a programme of brand education, engagement and communications that makes the brand front-of-mind across HMRC. Shift the brand function from reactive query handling to proactive enablement through guidance, tools, training and self-service support. Build strong, trusted relationships with internal and external channel owners to embed brand standards while recognising delivery realities. Champion the principle that everyone across HMRC plays a role in building and protecting the brand.
• Insight, evaluation and impact: Introduce and embed an insight and evaluation-led approach to brand management. Lead brand health, trust and perception research, using insight to inform decisions and continuous improvement. Build clear frameworks for measuring and demonstrating brand impact, keeping senior leaders informed and engaged.
• Tools, systems and innovation: Lead development of practical tools that make brand guidance easy to understand and apply at scale. Explore and enable the responsible use of AI to support brand consistency, compliance and self-service (e.g. internal agents, prompt guidance, automated checks). Reduce duplication, friction and repeat demand by improving systems and ways of working.
• Team leadership and external relationships: Provide line management and leadership to the Brand team, building capability, confidence and clarity of role. Set clear priorities, support professional development and create a collaborative, inclusive team culture. Act as a brand guardian with external agencies and partners, balancing encouragement with appropriate challenge. Confidently navigate complexity and differing professional views across a large, matrixed organisation.

Essential Criteria:

• Proven senior brand leadership and stewardship expertise, including strategy, governance and operational brand management, with experience translating brand intent into practical systems, guidance and decisions in complex and highly-scrutinised organisations.
• Proven experience protecting brand integrity, including dealing with misuse, impersonation, reputational risk or similar challenges.
• Proven ability to use insight, research and evaluation to inform brand decisions and strategy, measure impact and drive continuous improvement, with strong understanding of customer experience, recognising how brand is shaped through behaviour, service delivery and touchpoints as much as communications.
• Excellent stakeholder management and influencing skills, including advising senior leaders and navigating conflicting professional views with confidence and credibility, building trust and credibility without formal authority.
• Strong people leadership and coaching capability with experience leading and developing small specialist teams.
• Strong understanding of customer experience and how brand is shaped through behaviour, service delivery and communications.
• Ability to translate strategy into clear, usable guidance, tools and processes that work at scale and enable others to deliver consistently.

Additional Information - 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 include: 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.

Behaviours We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process: Seeing the Big Picture.

Technical skills We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process: Presentation.

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. 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.