Qualified Tax Products Specialist

Overview

About Octopus

At Octopus we're transforming the industries we operate in and improving the lives of millions of people. We've built market-leading positions in a number of specialist sectors, including smaller company financing, renewable energy, healthcare and property finance. We employ over 600 people and manage more than £7.8 billion on behalf of more than 50,000 investors. Our products don't just help real people solve real life problems, they also make a positive impact on the world around us.

The Octopus Group incorporates Octopus Energy, Octopus Healthcare, Octopus Investments, Octopus Property, Octopus Ventures and Octopus Labs. Our aim is to have an impact in everything we do, and to make a vital contribution to the UK economy by helping people, companies and institutions generate wealth. And we're always on the look-out for smart, talented people who share our values.

About the role

Due to the nature of the role, strong candidates would need professional qualifications from ideally a tax background and be looking to focus on a more commercial role, either as their first move away from client advice or to build on existing in-house experience.

To be successful in the role a candidate should enjoy challenging the status quo, seeking to drive efficiencies or improvements, be prepared to influence internal and external stakeholders and have a thirst for knowledge. Managing these products requires us to think of our customers first and foremost, so an ability to demonstrate how challenges between business and customer have arisen and been dealt with will be useful.

The role requires you to be the internal and external champion for the products you manage, protecting our business and looking for opportunities to grow the market where appropriate. You will need to work closely with sales, marketing, compliance and investment teams in order to be successful. Ability to make the complex simple is key. An understanding of UK personal taxes will be very useful, desire to work within tax will be essential.

Responsibilities

Essential Job Functions

• Own each of the inheritance tax products from a client-facing perspective:
  • Ensure sales and client relations teams have a strong understanding, identify training needs and adapt to their working styles and needs
  • Assist with the development of marketing collateral and ensure live materials remain accurate, useful and compliant
  • Support business development activities in person, for example attending client meetings as product expert, answering in depth follow up questions and due diligence
  • Develop a strong understanding of all competitor products, keep internal teams up to date, benchmark our products and consider commercial opportunities or threats
• Take responsibility for the governance and compliance of each of the inheritance tax products:
  • Ensure product governance is complete and robust
  • Act as first and final approval for financial promotions in relation to the product
  • Consider wider group opportunities and threats
  • Monitor and ensure each product continues to meet its mandate
• Act as the client-facing technical expert across all tax efficient investments
  • Become the go to person for all sales team and client relations client scenario questions, providing helpful answers while managing risk
  • Understand and develop planning scenarios to assist with business development
  • Look for opportunities to expand our existing product range or to invest into new sectors

Qualifications

Job Specific Experience/Technical Skills/Abilities

• You will be an excellent communicator, able to understand complex product features and technical planning opportunities and to communicate these to a variety of audiences, including internal stakeholders, advisers and retail clients
• You will be self-motivated and interested in seeking out and overseeing improvements to our operations, communications and governance procedures
• You will be comfortable with working to tight deadlines and confident in taking a robust approach when representing the views of the business line throughout the organisation
• You will enjoy every day being different, and relish the challenge of dealing with ad hoc projects
• Professional technical qualifications are expected to be a useful foundation and enable candidates to demonstrate required skills
• The role presents the opportunity to undertake further training to become a technical expert to support both the sales and marketing teams, for example STEP
• Must be curious and seek to instil automated and digital solutions wherever appropriate
• Must be comfortable in using technology and leveraging digital applications and media platforms

Our Values

Be helpful

Random acts of kindness make the workplace a better place. So, go out of your way to be helpful, and give people reasons to smile.

Be straightforward
Life is complicated enough. Don't make it harder for yourself, or for others. Sometimes the simplest approach works wonders.

Be bold
Every great business started with a flash of inspiration. If you've got a great idea, don't keep it to yourself.

At Octopus, we recognise the importance of embracing diversity in order to create a high performance culture.