Department for Science, Innovation and Technology
Director, AI Economics Institute (AIEI)
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Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Darlington, Edinburgh, London, Manchester
Job Summary
As Director of the AI Economics Institute (AIEI) you will work closely across both HM Treasury (HMT) and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT), ensuring they are embedded in senior teams in both departments, and that the AIEI’s programme of analysis and research underpins both departments’ policy agendas. This includes close work with HMT officials to ensure the institute addresses core macroeconomic, fiscal, labour market and productivity questions arising from AI and DSIT’s work on AI policy. AIEI should also provide input for other Government departments’ work, including Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), Department for Education (DfE) and Department for Business and Trade (DBT).
The Director’s initial focus will be on set up and launch, designing the detailed operating model, financial planning within the agreed budget, recruiting senior leaders and early staff, establishing governance with HMT and DSIT, and agreeing an initial research agenda.
The Director will work closely with Professor Simon Johnson, Chair of the AIEI.
Job Description
Key Responsibilities
As Director of the AI Economics Institute (AIEI) your key responsibilities will include:
Establishing the Institute
- Lead the next phase of the detailed design and establishment of the AI Economics Institute following its launch by the Chancellor and Secretary of State on 8 June. This includes its target operating model, governance and ways of working, ensuring it can operate effectively as a joint DSIT–HMT unit.
- Work with DSIT, HMT and central finance teams to complete further formal governance steps, including the Institute’s detailed business case, financial plans and pay frameworks, and arrangements for corporate services such as technology (including frontier AI capability) and talent sourcing.
- Ensure rapid and effective follow-up from the launch of the Institute, including agreement of a more detailed organisational identity, building on the published Prospectus, and external positioning.
Strategic leadership and direction
- Set a clear strategic vision for AIEI, focused on rigorous, policy-relevant research into the economic impacts of AI, spanning productivity, labour markets, and growth.
- Work in partnership with the AIEI Chair and the senior team, including the Chief Economist, to shape the Institute’s research agenda and ensure analytical quality and credibility.
- Ensure AIEI maintains a disciplined focus on its comparative advantage so that it complements, rather than duplicates, existing capability across government, academia and international partners, including AISI and other AI programmes.
Joint working with DSIT and HMT and cross-government impact
- Embed joint ownership of AIEI across HMT and DSIT, ensuring the Institute’s work speaks directly to both departments’ priorities.
- Build strong relationships across Whitehall, No. 10 and delivery departments, ensuring AIEI’s agenda is informed by live policy issues and that its findings inform decisions.
- Translate complex research findings into clear insights for Ministers and senior officials.
Building a high-performing organisation
- Recruit and lead the Institute’s senior leadership team, including Deputy Directors and the Chief Economist (once appointed), and oversee early ‘no regrets’ recruitment.
- Create a culture that combines analytical rigour with pace, relevance and openness, suitable for a policy-facing research institute.
- Determine the structures for corporate and operational services in AIEI.
- Work closely with the AIEI’s Chair, Professor Simon Johnson.
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External credibility and engagement
- Represent AIEI with credibility to a wide range of groups, including academia, civil society, the private sector, AI labs, international institutions and think tanks.
- Support the Chair in building the Institute’s profile, helping attract high-calibre talent and partnerships.
- Position the UK as a serious global contributor to debates on the economics of AI.
Scope and scale
- Management of a directorate combining civil servants and externally recruited researchers.
- Leadership of multiple senior roles (including SCS1 Deputy Directors and a Chief Economist).
- Budget primarily R&D classified, with significant scrutiny from DSIT, HMT and central finance teams.
- High visibility with Ministers, Permanent Secretaries, HMT and DSIT senior leadership teams, the Cabinet Office and No. 10.
Leadership expectations
This role requires a leader who can combine strategic clarity, delivery grip and intellectual seriousness. The Director will need to be equally comfortable shaping long-term economic thinking about AI and making pragmatic early decisions to get an organisation up and running quickly.
The post holder will be expected to model the highest Civil Service leadership standards, including integrity, inclusivity, collaboration across government, and a strong focus on public value. They will also be expected to build a team with the majority of roles outside of London.
Person Specification
Essential Criteria
It is important through your CV and Statement of Suitability that you give evidence and examples of proven experience of each of the following:
- Senior Leadership & Organisational Agility: Proven experience operating at executive level with a strong track record of inclusive leadership and the agility to rapidly set up, scale, or redesign organisations and programmes within complex, ambiguous environments.
- AI & Economic Policy Expertise: A deep understanding of AI and economic policy issues, combined with the professional credibility required to engage and collaborate effectively with senior economists, analysts, and researchers.
- Economic & Financial Expertise: Experience working directly with central government finance departments (like HM Treasury) or managing complex financial and economic policies at a senior level.
- High-Stakes Analysis Under Pressure: A proven track record of leading critical economic analysis within contested, uncertain contexts, with the ability to deliver high-quality insights under significant time pressure.
- Strategic Programme Delivery: Demonstrated experience shaping and leading coherent, sustained work programmes of strategic importance that successfully sit at the intersection of raw analysis and actionable policy.
- Strategic Judgement & Stakeholder Influence: Strong judgement when navigating non-linear change and long-term risk, backed by exceptional stakeholder management skills to influence across departmental boundaries and with senior external figures.
Desirable criteria
- Direct experience working on the economics of technology, productivity, labour markets or structural economic change.
- Experience leading or sponsoring research-intensive organisations or programmes.
- Experience representing government in international or high-profile external settings.
Salary and Benefits
Alongside your salary of £105,000, Department for Science, Innovation & Technology contributes £30,418 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.
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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 for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.
Selection process details
To apply for this post, you will need to complete the online application process, outlined below. This should be completed no later than 23:55 on Monday 3rd August 2026.
- A CV setting out your career history, with key responsibilities and achievements, (no longer than equivalent of 2 A4 pages). Please ensure you have provided reasons for any gaps within the last two years.
- A Statement of Suitability (no longer than 1000 words) explaining how you consider your personal skills, qualities and experience provide evidence of your suitability for the role, with particular reference to the essential criteria in the person specification.
Failure to complete both sections of the online application form (CV and Statement of Suitability) will mean the panel only have limited information on which to assess your application against the criteria in the person specification.
DSIT will be holding an informal information session via MSTeams on Thursday 16th July 2026 between 11:30 and 12:30 for potential applicants to find out more about the role of Director, AI Economics Institute (AIEI). Whether you are contemplating an application, or simply want more insight into the role and its potential impact, this session will provide you with a much better understanding of the environment, expectations and ambitions of DSIT’s digital and AI agendas.
Please email etai.dg@dsit.gov.uk to register your interest in attending. DSIT will then send you an MSTeams invite.
Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.
This role has a minimum assignment duration of 3 years. An assignment duration is the period of time a Senior Civil Servant is expected to remain in the same post to enable them to deliver on the agreed key business outcomes. The assignment duration also supports your career through building your depth of expertise.
As part of accepting this role you will be agreeing to the expected
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