Lead Applied AI Engineer (i.AI) - CO - G6

Job summary

Government must seize the opportunity of AI to drive outcomes in the public interest. This is of critical importance now. Government needs innovation and must not sleep on the opportunity presented by AI to drive better services for taxpayers and citizens. 

In November 2023, the creation of the incubator for AI (i.AI) was announced, and following early successes, the team was expanded in March 2024.  Our mission is to harness the opportunity of AI to improve lives, drive growth, and deliver better public services. This is an AI product team that focuses on delivery of technical solutions to public service challenges, responding to ministerial steers about priorities and driving impact out into departments from the centre. 

i.AI delivers high impact products and is mission-led, delivering value and innovation within government. We are able to move fast and build things, and are set up specifically to pivot quickly towards priority use cases, and re-use technologies for future impact. 

You can see more about our work on ai.gov.uk  and on LinkedIn. We work in the open and our code can be found here: https://github.com/i-dot-ai 

The Incubator for Artificial Intelligence (i.AI) will be moving to the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) to form part of the new digital centre of government. If offered the position, you will be onboarded to, and initially employed by, the Cabinet Office, but will move with us to DSIT under the machinery of government  change. This is expected to happen in April 2025, but this date is subject to change. If shortlisted, the hiring panel will be happy to answer any questions you might have. You're also welcome to reach out to us at i-dot-ai-recruitment@cabinetoffice.gov.uk  

Our team is based across Bristol, Manchester and London, and we work in a hybrid manner as default. A minimum 60% of your working time should be spent at your principal workplace, although requirements to attend other locations for official business will also count towards this level of attendance. We will consider part-time and flexible working arrangements - we encourage you to discuss your needs with the hiring manager if you are offered the role.

Job description

We are looking for a talented, product-orientated engineer with proven delivery experience to join our team building the future of critical government AI-powered products. In this role you will work closely with researchers, engineers, designers and product leaders to build AI products that have an impact on real-world, citizen changing problems. You will be focussed on bringing together all of the technical elements needed to develop and deploy products, delivering against robust metrics that you help define.

Role Responsibilities

• The overall technical direction of one or more projects. These could be fully-fledged internal applications the incubator is building. Alternatively, they might be services we’re building in collaboration with other departments, where we work closely with technical counterparts. In practice, you are likely to be writing and reviewing code daily.
• Ensuring that the members of your technical team are delivering to the best of their ability at all times, ensuring continued investment in the project and in their own skills.
• Planning, sequencing and delivering technical work across the entire stack, from infrastructure (supported by the i.AI infrastructure team) to CI/CD pipelines, databases, backend frameworks, APIs and user interfaces, with appropriate levels of static analysis and automated testing to ensure quality and consistency.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams including researchers, product managers and senior stakeholders to quickly understand customer needs and translate them into pragmatic technical solutions leveraging AI.
• Lead the design and establishment of frameworks, tools and processes to responsibly develop, deploy and monitor AI products.
• Evangelise best practices in applied AI across government.

Information session

To give you an idea of working in i.AI and to answer any questions you might have, we encourage you to attend our information session on Tuesday 29thOctober at 15:00. Please email us at i-dot-ai-recruitment@cabinetoffice.gov.uk and we'll send you a link to join.

Person specification

Essential skills:

• Proficiency in Python.
• Strong software engineering skills with a focus on building robust, production-ready systems and understanding of deploying and monitoring such systems in a cloud environment.
• Experience designing software services with respect to infrastructure, considering dependencies like databases and message queues, cloud environments, and pre-existing services with which yours must collaborate. 
• Passion for building products that augment human capabilities and improves citizens’ lives.
• Proven ability to collaborate with “non-engineering” disciplines, such as design and user research, to plan and deliver work of provable value as part of a product team, including prioritising, breaking down and sequencing technical work to achieve the best possible outcomes.
• Experience delivering applications to production.
• Hands-on experience with containerisation technologies such as Docker.

Experience of any of the following would be beneficial, though all we require is an interest in developing these skills in post:

• Familiarity with tools for working with Large Language Models via API (e.g. OpenAI, LangChain, LlamaIndex), or in a local context (e.g. HuggingFace transformers).
• Experience with natural language processing, deep learning and generative AI including prompt engineering.
• Experience supporting and enabling technical teams via upskilling, mentoring and conflict resolution.
• Experience designing CI/CD processes to support rapid, stable and continuous delivery of working software to production, with particular respect to automated testing.

Strong candidates come from many different backgrounds, and we encourage a broad range of applications to ensure we have a well-balanced team. Studies show that talented people, especially those from groups underrepresented in their field, are more likely to doubt themselves and feel like an "imposter". Unique perspectives enrich teams, so we urge you to have confidence in your potential contributions. If aspects of this role resonate with you, please apply. We look forward to your application.

Additional information:

A minimum 60% of your working time should be spent at your principal workplace. Although requirements to attend other locations for official business will also count towards this level of attendance.

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Leadership
• Communicating and Influencing
• Delivering at Pace

Technical skills

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

• Technical assessment at interview 1

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £67,126, Cabinet Office contributes £19,446 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

• Learning and development tailored to your role.
• An environment with flexible working options.
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity.
• A Civil Service Pension which provides an attractive pension, benefits for dependants and employer contributions of 28.97%.
• A minimum of 25 days of paid annual leave, increasing by one day per year up to a maximum of 30.

Things you need to know

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Experience and Technical skills.

As part of the application process you will be asked to complete a CV and a 750 word personal statement. Please ensure that your personal statement includes how you meet the skills and experience listed in the “essential skills” section above. At this stage we will assess experience and essential skills.

Should a large number of applications be received, an initial sift may be conducted using the personal statement. Candidates who pass the initial sift will be invited to undertake a technical assessment.

For the technical assessment, you will be sent a codebase for a Python app to review and a task, and you will have an hour to prepare a presentation to answer some questions. At the end of the hour, you will have a 45 minute slot in which you can give your presentation, and answer some questions about it. We’ll assess you on your software, problem-solving and delivery skills.

If successful at technical assessment, you will be invited to attend a panel interview, during which you will be asked to bring your CV to life through questions based on your experience. You might consider preparing your examples in the STAR format. We will also be asking questions around the behaviours outlined above, as well as technical questions relating to the essential criteria.

In the Civil Service, we use Success Profiles to evaluate your skills and ability. This gives us the best possible chance of finding the right person for the job, increases performance and improves diversity and inclusivity. We’ll be assessing your experience and behaviours that are relevant to this role.

For this role we’ll be assessing you against the following Civil Service Behaviours: 

• Leadership
• Communicating and influencing
• Delivering at pace

Expected timeline (subject to change)

Expected sift date – TBC
Expected interview date/s – TBC
Interview location - Your interview will either be conducted face to face or by video. You will be notified of the location if you are selected for interview.

Near miss offers may be made at a lower grade to candidates who do not meet the grade criteria for this campaign.

Further information

A reserve list may be held for a period of 12 months from which further appointments can be made.

Any move to Cabinet Office from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax Free Childcare. Determine your eligibility at https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk

If successful and transferring from another Government Department a criminal record check may be carried out.

In order to process applications without delay, we will be sending a Criminal Record Check to Disclosure and Barring Service on your behalf.

However, we recognise in exceptional circumstances some candidates will want to send their completed forms direct. If you will be doing this, please advise Government Recruitment Service of your intention by emailing Pre-EmploymentChecks.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk stating the job reference number in the subject heading.

Please note that this role requires SC clearance, which would normally need 5 years’ UK residency in the past 5 years. This is not an absolute requirement, but supplementary checks may be needed where individuals have not lived in the UK for that period. This may mean your security clearance (and therefore your appointment) will take longer or, in some cases, not be possible.

For further information on National Security Vetting please visit the following page https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/demystifying-vetting

New entrants are expected to join on the minimum of the pay band.

Applicants who are successful at interview will be, as part of pre-employment screening, subject to a check on the Internal Fraud Database (IFD). This check will provide information about employees who have been dismissed for fraud or dishonesty offences. This check also applies to employees who resign or otherwise leave before being dismissed for fraud or dishonesty had their employment continued. Any applicant’s details held on the IFD will be refused employment. 

A candidate is not eligible to apply for a role within the Civil Service if the application is made within a 5 year period following a dismissal for carrying out internal fraud against government.

If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the 'Contact point for applicants' section.

Existing Civil Servants and applicants from accredited NDPBs are eligible to apply, but will only be considered on loan basis (Civil Servants) or secondment (accredited NDPBs). Prior agreement to be released on a loan basis must be obtained before commencing the application process. In the case of Civil Servants, the terms of the loan will be agreed between the home and host department and the Civil Servant. This includes grade on return.

Reasonable Adjustment

If a person with disabilities is put at a substantial disadvantage compared to a non-disabled person, we have a duty to make reasonable changes to our processes. 

If you need a change to be made so that you can make your application, you should: 

Contact Government Recruitment Service via cabinetofficerecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs. 

Complete the ‘Assistance required’ section in the ‘Additional requirements’ page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need further on in the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at interview, or if you’re deaf, a Language Service Professional.

mailto:i-dot-ai-recruitment@cabinetoffice.gov.uk

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window).

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window).

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