Delivery Lead, Strategic Assets Grants and Visas - Sovereign AI Fund

What success looks like:

Strategic Assets

• First 6 months: Prove we can find and fund strategic assets that the market won't deliver by itself and show that founders see the programme as a valuable part of the wider Sovereign AI offer.
• 6-12 months: Get assets into use and demonstrate that they're solving real constraints for UK AI companies, from data to infrastructure and research capability.
• 12+ months: Create assets that become part of the UK's long-term AI advantage, helping strategically important companies build, scale and stay in the UK.

Visas

• First 6 months: Launch a trusted and effective scheme, process the first reimbursements successfully, and demonstrate that founders see visa support as a valuable part of the wider Sovereign AI offer.
• 6-12 months: Get support flowing smoothly to the right companies and demonstrate that visa support is working alongside other Sovereign AI interventions to support company growth in the UK.
• 12+ months: Build a strong evidence base on talent barriers facing UK AI companies and use it to shape the future evolution of Sovereign AI support for our growing portfolio of companies.

Person specification

What You'll Bring:

• AI & Deep Tech Experience - You have experience in AI, deep tech or science-based companies, or a demonstrable understanding of how these companies operate, the constraints they face, and what they need to scale in the UK.
• Purpose - You care about emerging technologies and are genuinely motivated by the opportunity to strengthen the UK's sovereign capability in frontier AI. You have prior experience, personal projects, or a demonstrable curiosity about how funding, technology and national strategy come together.
• Delivery - You may have experience delivering grants or R&D programmes end-to-end, from designing competitions through to managing live awards. You have owned a scheme from launch through assessment, contracting and delivery, rather than just one stage of the process.
• Budget Fluency - You understand the mechanics of grant funding: assessment criteria, panel processes and milestone-based delivery management.
• Organisation - You use structure and systems to stay on top of complex, fast-moving work. You have managed multiple grants or contracts simultaneously, tracking milestones, spend and risk without losing sight of deadlines or dropping quality.
• Sound Judgement - You know when to make a decision independently and when something is too ambiguous to assume, choosing to escalate rather than guess. You exercise sound judgement in fast-paced environments, particularly where processes were still being built or precedent didn't exist.
• Communication - You communicate clearly and concisely, whether preparing IC recommendation papers, briefing senior stakeholders or drafting applicant correspondence. You produce outputs that others have relied on to make decisions or move things forward.
• Communicating to Non-Specialist Audiences - You can translate technical and commercial information into clear advice for decision makers who may not share your specialist background.
• Rigour with Process - You have strong attention to detail and can work confidently with guidance, processes and documentation, using them as scaffolding rather than a constraint e.g. maintaining audit-ready records or managing compliance-heavy processes.
• Familiarity with innovation, R&D, or technology focused programmes - You have worked on programmes designed to support innovation, R&D or technology-driven growth, and understand the challenges of funding activity that is inherently uncertain or exploratory.
• Experience working with financial information - You are comfortable working with budgets, claims and spend tracking, and can evidence this through prior experience managing financial data as part of a grant, contract or programme role, e.g. reconciling spend against milestones or reviewing financial claims for eligibility.

Behaviours

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

• Communicating and Influencing
• Making Effective Decisions
• Managing a Quality Service

Alongside your salary of £56,850, Department for Science, Innovation & Technology contributes £16,469 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).

The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology offers a competitive mix of benefits including:

• A culture of flexible working, such as job sharing, homeworking and compressed hours.
• Automatic enrolment into the Civil Service Pension Scheme, with an employer contribution of 28.97%.
• A minimum of 25 days of paid annual leave, increasing by 1 day per year up to a maximum of 30.
• An extensive range of learning & professional development opportunities, which all staff are actively encouraged to pursue.
• Access to a range of retail, travel and lifestyle employee discounts.
• A hybrid office/home based working model where staff will spend a norm of 40-60% of their time in the office (minimum of 40%) over a month with flex dependent on balancing business and individual need.

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

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

Application: Please apply here. You will be asked to submit your CV & and answer the following questions:

• Why do you want to work at the Sovereign AI Fund? Please highlight any experience working with (or supporting) AI, deep tech, or science-based companies. (250 words max)
• What do you think will be the biggest delivery challenge in setting up a brand-new grant scheme like the ones outlined above from scratch? (250 words max)
• Describe a time you had to make judgement calls and keep a project moving forward while the process, rules, or governance around it were still being built? (250 words max).

Interview 1: Experience and motivation interview

Interview 2: Task and Behaviour interview (task details will be sent ahead of the interview)

Interview 3: Interview with Senior Leadership

Feedback will only be provided