Department for Science, Innovation and Technology
AISI Pay and Reward Lead
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AISI Pay and Reward Lead
People and Reward Strategy Lead – Pay and Retention Specialism
Locations: Birmingham, Manchester, London
Job Summary
AISI is driving one of the most critical and fast-moving initiatives in UK government: advancing our understanding and mitigation of frontier AI risks. To excel, we need exceptional talent in a fast-evolving and competitive labour market—particularly outside of traditional Civil Service norms.
This role sits at the core of AISI’s focus on pay, reward, and retention, shaping the organisation’s human capital strategy and ensuring competitive talent competitiveness innovation for globally scarce technical skills. If you thrive in dynamic, high-stakes environments where discretion and analytical acuity are key, we’d love to hear from you.
About the Role
The People and Reward Strategy Lead (Pay & Retention) will deliver tactical and strategic rewards initiatives within Artificial Intelligence Safety and Security (AISI), supporting senior leadership in attracting and retaining talent while advancing the department’s broader mission. You’ll design innovative pay structures, model retention solutions, and champion data-driven strategies.
This isn’t just about compliance—it’s about shaping a digitally competent and competitive workforce that can stay ahead of both technical advancements and market needs.
Responsibilities
In this role, you’ll be responsible for:
Strategy & Policy Development
- Lead the formulation of AISI’s pay and rewards strategy, generating options, recommendations, and implementation plans for senior leaders.
- Own high-priority workstreams, particularly in equitable allowances, retention incentives, and novel reward approaches.
- Ensure proposals align with tight deadlines and support evidence-based liberation and flexibility in skills offering.
Senior Stakeholder Engagement
- Act as the lead architect of critical compensation cases, synthesising evidence, inconsistencies, risks, and trade-offs to inform top-level decisions.
- Draft, collaborate on, and present high-imact briefings and proposals to senior management, including the Director and CTO.
- Deliver insights to tensions across AISI, DSIT, and cross-government workspace, ensuring alignment with recruiting needs.
Data-Driven Analytics & Evidence
- Develop and maintain AISI’s pay and reward evidenced base, integrating market data, progressive trends, and competitor benchmarking.
- Offer quantitative expertise in high-stakes anecdotes: spot insights in complex decision data and present actionable recommendations for leadership evaluation.
Coordination & Cross-Government Leadership
- Serve as the single point of contact—guiding priorities for AISI’s pay and technical staff across divisions.
- Partner with the Pay Lead to execute an integrated rewards programme, balancing interdependencies and risks.
- Escalate challenges and collaborate to resolve obstacles, including stakeholder friction and unidentified obstacles.
Key Requirements
Person Specification
Essential Skills & Experience
- You can independently lead and resolve complex workforce issues, applying the sound judgment needed to balance internal and external needs.
- Talent to clarify intricate questions into clear briefings, pitches, and executive-facing decisions.
- Experience in developing and consistently influencing strategy through high-quality analysis and actionable briefings conducted in line with senior counterfactual needs.
- Irrefutable track record of orchestrating cross-team alignment, ensuring diverse stakeholders work to common goals.
- Proficiency managing identities and multiple priorities in fast-changing environments, with resilient resiliency in pivots.
- Proven discretion in complex bureaucratic environments where policies, financial constraints, and personal sensitivities are intertwined.
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Desirable Additions
- Recent success in pay, analytics, retention, or aligned people policy roles, dealing with nuances of non-standard reward mechanisms.
- Experience across HR/strategy, revenue retention, or government bureaucracy, particularly pay-grade/allowable considerations.
- Expertise in the Civil Service’s pay frameworks, technical points, advanced allowances, or related public sector incentives.
- Scalability in fast-growing agencies under steady, rigorous change—historic resilience in adaptive scalability.
- Familiarity with or engagement in alignment with AISI’s strategic priority areas or desire to assert your position in frontier AI recruitment challenges.
“What Success Looks Like” Outcomes
To excel in this position, you’ll build impact through: ✔ A strong advocacy infrastructure, steering AISI’s leading utility and priority earning actions with clarity. ✔ Sharp diagnosis of patterns in sensitive compensation cases, with cohesive continuity from articulation to execution. ✔ Clear outcomes from targeted pay, reward, and retention interventions, amassing visible impact on hiring success, worker surveying, and talent developmentäck. ✔ A rigorous and trusted analytical foundation for national decisions, underpinning a robust, effective strategy. ✔ Enablers to broaden AISI’s institutional leadership capabilities for proactive people strategy and governance.
Why This Role Matters
This critical position merges high-stakes people operations with your contracting analyses, secretly influencing your impact on Modern Britain’s cutting-edge AI talent acquisition battle. You’ll benefit from:
- A high-impact role on policy defining pay—a skill that impacts not just payrolls, but the speed and breadth of innovation.
- Unparalleled visibility of proper strategic questions raised and resolved across key exchanges with senior stakeholders.
- The opportunity to build expertise in original government reward models, while progressing toward senior leadership roles.
By mastering difficult generative complexity, you’ll not just support recruitment; you’ll drive a transformative vision of government innovation.
About the Team
Behaviours We Assess
We seek applicants who exemplify these core Civil Service values:
- Leadership beyond hierarchies
- Delivering at Pace without sacrificing precision
- Seeing the Big Picture while maintaining hands-on detail
- Effective Communication and Influencing, navigating ambiguity and building adaptable environments
Benefits
Package & Perks
As part of DSIT, you’ll receive:
- £44,620 basic salary
- +£12,926 towards membership of the Civil Service defined-benefit pension scheme (28.97% employer contributions). (Learn more about the great perks by clicking here.
- Hook salaries with progressive bonus elements as they evaluate.
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Additionally, you’ll have access to:
Worklyse Flexibility
- A cultured commitment to hybrid working, balancing office and home productivity
- Currently: 40-60% office attendance is required per period.
- Comprehensive arrangements for job-sharing, compressed hours, and remote settings.
Learning & Growth
- Robust pension and diversity schemes
- Career punctuation, professional development, and skills mapping
- A network opportunity to learn from DSIT’s industry-leading initiatives.
Additional Privileges
- Benefits
- 25+ days annual leave (expanding to 30 with dedication)
- Inexpensive travel perks
- Accommodation & Discounts
- Dedicated Family Care resources
Office Requirements
The hybrid management policy demands affinity with on-site attendance patterns of 40–60% calendar coverage.
(Note: DSIT services include, but do not extend, internet-based Visa sponsorship and wage assumptions.)
Diversity & Inclusion Commitments
AISI is fully adherent to the Civil Service Act’s mandates, championing the Great Place to Work for Veterans program and Disability initiatives. We recommend applying with accommodation needs—full support available via DSIT Candidate Guidance or emailing Connor.Spence@dsit.gov.uk for further clarity.
Further Application Information
Selection Process
We apply a Success Profiling charter here:
- Stage 1 – Preliminary: 25–30 minute competency-focused interview based on your CV and personal statement (max 750 words).
- Stage 2 – Structured Interpretation: Assesses behaviors with advertisements and a presentation component.
- Stage 3: High-level Leadership Review valued assessments.
All onsite security for appointees involves a counter-terrorist verification check, given DSIT commitments to baseline standards. Revelations on UK countering visa needs shall be shared pre-appointment.
Eligibility & Basics
- Open to all UK nationals along with further described non-UK immigration groups.
- Professional drawing checks and employment compliance scenarios perform data checks to mitigate fraud-related liabilities.
Support
Government Disclosure and Barring agreements allow you to submit checks independently (by advising Pre-EmploymentChecks.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk). For further assurances, the Vetting Charter provides clarity on security policies.
Feedback Protocol
You only receive remarks upon an interview/assessment phase.
Security, Nationality, and Legality
Security clearance is governed by standard Civil Service ISRs. Long-term involvement with UK assets structures interventions through all human resources.
NS= Essentials companion for role criterion includes Non-Regional Visa sponsors, legal criminal attendance adherence with counter-terrorism scrutiny checks. Upgraded oversight plans (TDS/Sizo) during promotion negotiation phases trigger candidate consideration.
Independent access may need additional authorization to elaborate. KEEP ALL GENDER OR BACKGROUND DISPECT IN ABSOLVED IN DEPARTMENTAL AGENDA, BY DOING NOT FURTHER ERROR. If you have feedback in the stages described, it’s always available for the candidate. QA BUCKET
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