Build the AI-native UK Government 

The Incubator for Artificial Intelligence is a team of ~60 entrepreneurial technologists and operators working at the centre of UK Government. We exist to do one thing: build and ship frontier AI systems that materially change how government works. 

We move at startup speed, operate under real-world constraints, and deploy at national scale. Our work sits directly behind the Prime Minister’s priorities and is used by Ministers, departments, and millions of citizens. 

The Role 

This role exists to make us more ambitious - technically, and as a team.

As Head of Applied AI, you will be the person who pushes on what we're building, how we're building it, and what we should be building next in the light of a rapidly changing tech landscape. You will lead a focused, high-performing group of AI engineers, set the technical and cultural bar, and stay close to the frontier so that you're the first to know when the field shifts. 

This is a specialised engineering leadership role, and we expect you to remain a credible, hands-on practitioner. You will spend a meaningful proportion of your time (>50%) doing the work, writing code, evaluating models, running experiments and building products alongside leading the team.

You’ll be running an exceptional engineering practice, developing the individuals in your team, and ensuring that we ship excellent code using the latest techniques. You will be a part of the leadership team in the incubator and a critical bridge between the technology and strategy.

What You Will Do 

You will: 

• Ensure iAI stays at the frontier. You will read the primary sources when new models drop and stay up to date with academic literature on AI. You will strive to understand where it’s heading and what that means for our practice. You will bring that intelligence into the team, raise our ambitions, and keep us close to the frontier. You will cultivate this culture in the team.
• Lead and develop the Applied AI engineering team. You will manage, mentor, and grow a focused group of Applied AI engineers. You will report to the CTO/CAIO. You will manage a small number of ‘team leads’, each with line management responsibilities for the rest of the individual contributors.
• Set and uphold exceptional engineering standards. You will drive fantastic engineering practices across the Applied AI team: code quality, evaluation rigour, deployment discipline, and pace.
• Stay hands-on. You will be a credible IC partner to your team - contributing technically as well as leading. 
• Translate ambiguity into technical direction. You will take unclear mandates and messy political priorities and turn them into engineering plans that the team can deliver.
• Be a technical advocate in the leadership group. You will represent the team's technical work to senior stakeholders, including Ministers and No10, where relevant. You will be comfortable translating technical concepts for non-technical audiences. 
• Build and scale an exceptional AI engineering team. You'll grow a high-performing group of AI engineers who are pushing the boundaries of what's possible in government, attracting top talent and creating an environment where technical excellence thrives. 

Who This Is For 

You are likely someone who is:

• Has deep, current hands-on experience in applied AI, and still enjoys doing the work
• Has led high-performing engineering teams and knows what excellent looks like
• Follows the frontier closely as a professional discipline and as a passion
• Raises the bar for the people around them, invests in the development of others, and creates a culture of craft
• Can hold both the technical detail and the strategic direction at once
• Is highly motivated to apply AI in ways that improves people’s lives

Essential Experience 

• Deep technical expertise in applied machine learning - GenAI, LLMs, agents, or adjacent fields
• Hands-on experience taking AI systems from concept to production, recently and repeatedly
• Proven leadership of high-performing engineering teams, with a track record of developing people
• Strong technical judgement: you assess trade-offs, anticipate failure modes, and make calls with incomplete information
• Experience running or evaluating AI agents in production environments
• Current, practical familiarity with frontier model capabilities and their real-world limitations
• Excellent communication skills, including the ability to explain complex technical decisions to senior non-technical stakeholders

• Strategic, first-principles thinker with a strong intuition for where AI capability is heading.

Desirable 

• Experience with fine-tuning, evaluation frameworks, and deployment of LLMs or multimodal systems
• Track record of making build / buy / partner decisions under startup-like constraints
• Familiarity with responsible AI, data protection, and UK GDPR frameworks
• Contributions to open source, published research, and public technical writing
• A track record of translating experiments into products that have impact

Leadership Profile 

You are a: 

• Pragmatic visionary - excited by what’s possible, disciplined about what actually ships. 

• High-agency operator - you take ownership and move things forward without waiting for permission. 

• Collaborative leader - able to influence across organisational boundaries and bring others with you. 

• Builder of trust - comfortable working in the open and under scrutiny. 
• Public-interest technologist - motivated by applying AI where it genuinely improves people’s lives. 

Why This Role  

This is a rare opportunity to lead the applied AI engineering function at the heart of UK Government — not in a policy advisory capacity, but as the person responsible for what actually gets built.

The decisions you make will shape public services, democratic processes, and how the state uses AI for years to come. If you want disproportionate responsibility, disproportionate impact, and the chance to work at the frontier with a team that takes craft seriously, this is the role.

What we offer 

Career-defining projects with outsized impact 

• Backing from the Prime Minister and No10 to scope and build transformative AI projects.  

• Unique opportunities to apply technology that could transform the public sector and impact citizens’ lives. 

• Talented, supportive and mission-driven colleagues. 

Resources & access 

• Access to frontier models and ample compute. 

• Extensive operational, product, strategy, design and delivery support so you can focus on shipping. 

• Work with experts across national security, policy, AI research and adjacent sciences. 

Growth & empowerment 

• A team culture and development support that prioritises personal growth. 

• Opportunities to own important products early and develop them in small empowered teams. 

• 5 days off learning and development, annual stipends for learning and development and funding for conferences and external collaborations. 

Life & family* 

• Opportunity to work from London, Manchester or Bristol offices. 

• Contract Type: Fixed-term (24 months) please feel free to ask about this. 

• Hybrid working, flexibility for occasional remote work abroad and stipends for work-from-home equipment. 

• Generous annual leave - 25 days plus one additional day for each year of service 

• Generous paid parental leave (up to 39 weeks full pay + option for additional unpaid time). 

• On top of your salary, we contribute 28.97% of your base salary to your pension. 

• Discounts and benefits for cycling to work, dental insurance, donations and retail/gyms. 

*These benefits apply to direct employees. Benefits may differ for people joining through other employment arrangements such as secondments. 

Salary 

Annual salary is aligned to role scope and relevant experience. Most offers land between £105,000 and £145,000 made up of a base salary plus a technical allowance (take-home salary = base + technical allowance). An additional 28.97% employer pension contribution is paid on the base salary. 

The full range of salaries are below: 

• Level 5: £105,000- £115,000 (Base £58,040 + Technical Allowance £46,960- £56,960) 

• Level 6: £125,000- £135,000 (Base £71,525 + Technical Allowance £53,475- £63,475) 

• Level 7: £145,000 (Base £71,525 + Technical Allowance £73,475) 

Selection Process 

Appointment is conditional on successfully completing UK Government SC clearance. Prior clearance is not required—we will sponsor and support you. You should normally have been resident in the UK for 2 of the past 5 years. Employment is conditional on obtaining and maintaining the required clearance(s). More detail on clearance eligibility can be found on the UK Government website: National security vetting: clearance levels - GOV.UK 

In accordance with the Civil Service Commission rules, the following list contains all elements of the selection process. 

Candidates should expect to go through some or all of the following stages once an application has been submitted: 

• A short initial conversation 

• Technical take home test 

• Second interview in which we’ll review the technical test 

• Third interview with wider representation from the team 

• Final interview with members of the senior team

Diversity and Inclusion