Distinguished Engineer / Head of Service Reliability Engineering
Likely
Sponsorship likelihood
This employer has issued visas recently
£46,100
Going rate
Skilled Worker going rate
This role likely qualifies for a Skilled Worker visa
SOC 2129 (80% match) is an eligible occupation, with a going rate of £46,100, and HM Revenue & Customs is a licensed sponsor. That is our reading of the rules. Whether they issue a Certificate of Sponsorship is still their call.
This could also be SOC 2127 (Engineering project managers and project engineers) or SOC 2123 (Electrical engineers). We read the code off the advert, so it is our best guess, not the employer's.
New graduate or PhD holder? Pick one of the lower rates.
What each route needs for this job
| Occupation code | New entrant 70% of going rate | STEM PhD 80% of going rate | Relevant PhD 90% of going rate | Standard rate 100% of going rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
2129 Engineering professionals not elsewhere classified Most likely code | £33,400 Clears | £36,900 Clears | £41,500 Clears | £46,100 Clears |
2127 Engineering project managers and project engineers Also possible | £36,300 Clears | £41,500 Clears | £46,700 Clears | £51,900 Clears |
2123 Electrical engineers Also possible | £41,100 Clears | £47,000 Clears | £52,900 Clears | £58,700 Clears |
We use the lowest threshold across the plausible codes. Likelihood is Possible at most when the pay clears only a lower rate, or only under a less likely code. A mark is for the top of the advertised pay. How the Home Office picks the code
About the role
Distinguished Engineer / Head of Service Reliability Engineering - SCS1
This role can be located in any of the following locations: London (Stratford), Leeds, Telford, Newcastle & Bristol.
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) is the UK’s tax and customs authority. We are one of the largest organisations in the country, with more than 70,000 employees, and we collected £938.8 billion in tax receipts in 2025-26.
Our work touches the lives of almost everyone in the country. The tax revenue we generate is spent by the government on the schools, NHS, police, and other essential services we all rely on.
Our vision is to be a trusted, modern, tax, and customs department – one that is here to support customers and works to close the tax gap. To achieve this, we are driving forward vital changes that will make us more efficient in serving our customers and managing their compliance.
We’re investing in our technology, our people and their skills to make it as easy as possible for customers to pay the right tax from the outset: expanding and improving our digital services, enhancing customer experiences and fixing problems at source, so we can focus our interventions where they make the biggest difference.
This is a rare opportunity to shape reliability engineering across one of the UK’s largest and most important digital estates.
Enterprise Live Services (ELS) at HMRC is evolving into a modern, engineering-led organisation - enabling HMRC to deliver change faster while strengthening reliability, resilience, and trust.
As Head of Service Reliability Engineering, you will lead a distinct, independent capability spanning services, products, and platforms. You will make reliability, operability, and observability integral to engineering from the outset.
With enterprise-wide reach and influence, you will set the direction for SRE, raise service maturity, and build a lasting capability that enables teams to innovate safely and operate with confidence.
This executive-level role has accountability for:
- Enterprise Reliability Strategy and Standards
- Service Maturity Model Ownership
- Observability and Evidence-Based Assurance
- Coaching, Enablement, and Capability Uplift
- Independent Insight and Challenge
- Cross Government and Industry Engagement
The following aspects of the role will be key to your success:
- Technical Leadership: Provides senior technical leadership in enterprise-scale Reliability Engineering, with the credibility to influence architecture, set standards, and deliver reliability outcomes in complex, regulated environments.
- Site Reliability Engineering (SRE): Leads the adoption of SRE practices, using SLOs, error budgets, and reliability metrics to drive measurable improvements in service performance and operational decision-making.
- Observability: Establishes and governs enterprise observability capabilities, using telemetry, dependency mapping, and modern monitoring platforms to improve operational insight and decision quality.
- Resilience and Recovery: Designs and embeds resilience practices that validate recovery capabilities, identify operational risks, and strengthen service continuity through testing and evidence-based improvements.
- Secure-by-Design Operations: Integrates security and reliability disciplines by using security intelligence, risk indicators, and close collaboration with cyber teams to enhance service operability and resilience.
- Cloud and Platform Engineering: Applies deep expertise in cloud-native and platform-based technologies to assess and mitigate reliability risks associated with architecture, platforms, and continuous delivery environments.
- Service Maturity and Assurance: Develops and applies service maturity frameworks that use evidence-based assessment to inform risk, investment, and operational decisions rather than relying on compliance measures.
This role is open to public sector and private sector candidates and would suit someone with experience of working within enterprise-scale organisations as an Engineering Leader.
For further information or to apply, email [email protected] or contact Lawrence Harris on 020 8253 1806 to arrange an informal conversation
This description is the source posting as it read when we added it. We are not affiliated with HM Revenue & Customs, so check their own site for the current details.
Where this offer sits in the market
Engineering professionals not elsewhere classified (SOC 2129) · UK · ONS ASHE 2025 · basic pay · ~167k in sample- Middle half £37,856–59,488
- Median £46,280
- Going rate £46,100
- Threshold £41,700
- New entrant £33,400–41,500
Similar sponsored roles
See all UK visa jobsNo close matches live right now.
Browse more sponsored jobs at HM Revenue & CustomsAbout sponsorship for this role
Does this job guarantee visa sponsorship?
Not necessarily. HM Revenue & Customs holds a sponsor licence, but sponsorship for a specific hire is always the employer's decision. Be upfront in your application that you'll require it.
What salary is needed for this role to be eligible?
The offer must clear both the general threshold and the SOC 2129 going rate of £46,100. New-entrant and shortage discounts can lower it.