JOB SUMMARY

The Government Digital Service (GDS) is the digital centre of government. We are responsible for setting, leading and delivering the vision for a modern digital government.

Our priorities are to drive a modern digital government, by:

• joining up public sector services
• harnessing the power of AI for the public good
• strengthening and extending our digital and data public infrastructure
• elevating leadership and investing in talent
• funding for outcomes and procuring for growth and innovation
• committing to transparency and driving accountability

We are home to the Incubator for Artificial Intelligence (I.AI), the world-leading GOV.UK and at the forefront of coordinating the UK’s geospatial strategy and activity. We lead the Government Digital and Data function and champion the work of digital teams across government.
We’re part of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) and employ more than 1,000 people all over the UK, with hubs in Manchester, London and Bristol.
The Government Digital Service is where talent translates into impact. From your first day, you’ll be working with some of the world’s most highly-skilled digital professionals, all contributing their knowledge to make change on a national scale.
Join us for rewarding work that makes a difference across the UK. You’ll solve some of the nation’s highest-priority digital challenges, helping millions of people access services they need
AI is a core part of the activity GDS will deliver to create an efficient and productive public sector through the digital transformation of public services and how they are delivered. AI has enormous potential for the Civil Service and the citizens it serves. It will give us the reach and potential to improve lives, drive economic growth and increase productivity. We must harness this by integrating AI safely and securely within the design and delivery of public services.
Now we have a unique opportunity to demonstrate the use of AI in line with public values to promote equity, fairness, and transparency. The public sector can role model the responsible use of AI and seek to partner with innovative UK AI companies in the process.

JOB DESCRIPTION

As the Chief AI Officer, you will lead the AI Group in GDS within the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology. The Group includes the AI Incubator (i.AI) and the Public Sector AI Adoption Unit. This is a large scale and dynamic leadership role designed to drive transformative change throughout government services through the strategic application of AI technologies. This role requires a dynamic and innovative leader to collaborate with government departments and agencies, stakeholders, and technology experts, using AI to solve complex challenges and enhance the delivery of essential public services.
This will be a dynamic and changing brief, given the rapidly evolving nature of AI in government, and the enormous appetite for change from Ministers including the DSIT Secretary of State and the Prime Minister. This is an exciting and innovative team - we are looking for change makers who want to challenge how government operates, leading from within, and driving enormous impact through harnessing the power of AI for the public good.
You will be at the forefront of AI adoption in the public sector, balancing cutting-edge innovation with the need for transparency, fairness, and public trust. You will influence across the public sector system, shape policy, and ensure that AI-driven initiatives are deployed responsibly and ethically. You will build a leadership community across government - drawing on their expertise and needs as a collective, including developing a sourcing framework for this group.

WHILE WE VALUE THE USE OF AI TECHNOLOGY TO ENHANCE OUR DAILY WORK, WE ALSO VALUE THE PERSONAL TOUCH AND URGE APPLICANTS TO WRITE COVER LETTERS WITHOUT THE USE OF AI TO EMPHASISE THEIR OWN UNIQUE EXPERIENCES.

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 technical abilities, skills, experience and behaviours that are relevant to this role.

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

• seeing the big picture: Understand how your role fits with and supports organisational objectives. Recognise the wider Civil Service priorities and ensure work is in the national interest
• leadership: Show pride and passion for public service. Create and engage others in delivering a shared vision. Value difference, diversity and inclusion, ensuring fairness and opportunity for all
• communicating and influencing: Communicate purpose and direction with clarity, integrity and enthusiasm. Respect the needs, responses and opinions of others.
• working together: Form effective partnerships and relationships with people both internally and externally, from a range of diverse backgrounds, sharing information, resources and support.

Candidates that do not pass the interview but have demonstrated an acceptable standard may be considered for similar roles at a lower grade.
A reserve list will be held for a period of 12 months, from which further appointments can be made.
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 and the Civil Service D&I Strategy.

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)
• 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

PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES

Establish a central AI adoption unit to build and deploy AI into public services:

• lead the expansion of the work of the Incubator for AI (i.AI) to provide rapid prototyping and innovation, identifying and building solutions focused on public sector productivity which act as exemplars and show scalable impact
• accountable for building and expanding the existing Public Sector AI Adoption Unit, including the development of a ‘scan’ function to identify new opportunities and work across government to scale AI products
• lead the development and oversight of programmes such as the Frontier Exemplars announced at the Spring Statement, aimed at radically transforming how government delivers its services to enable better customer experience and simpler, more efficient service delivery
• support the building of a strong technical market intelligence capability to inform procurement and design decisions, recognising that AI and its uses are evolving rapidly
• support investment in the enabling infrastructure and common components for the public sector to use AI at scale, including data, development environment and tooling, compute, and generative AI models, and enabling support for private sector commodity tooling

Grow capacity and capability across government:

• be a thought leader on the practical use of AI technology in government and public services, taking a hands on approach to establish AI communities of practice across the public sector
• support practitioners across government by providing expert advice on AI and reusable technical solutions, working with colleagues across government to develop training and guidance for best practice AI adoption and usage
• lead the development of a sourcing framework for AI, including rapid procurement and mission- focused national tenders, and developing partnerships that enable government to procure from startups, scaleups, and established players but also seek innovative solutions from R&D agencies, academia, open source and competitions

Build trust, responsibility, and accountability into everything we do:

• accountable for the development of clear and actionable guidance to embed best practices and capability in trust and responsibility, building on the work of the Responsible Tech Adoption Unit
• establish and oversee the provision of specialist assurance support including a red-teaming service to test products before release
• be an active and engaged member of the GDS and DSIT leadership teams, accountable for delivering the public sector digital and data strategy and plans.

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

• seeing the big picture: Understand how your role fits with and supports organisational objectives. Recognise the wider Civil Service priorities and ensure work is in the national interest
• leadership: Show pride and passion for public service. Create and engage others in delivering a shared vision. Value difference, diversity and inclusion, ensuring fairness and opportunity for all
• communicating and influencing: Communicate purpose and direction with clarity, integrity and enthusiasm. Respect the needs, responses and opinions of others.
• working together: Form effective partnerships and relationships with people both internally and externally, from a range of diverse backgrounds, sharing information, resources and support