Reporting to the Head of Engineering, success means owning complex engineering delivery across product development and TEVV support, remaining hands-on in code and raising quality through design review, reusable patterns and coaching AI Engineers to support trusted AI adoption across England & Wales policing.

Additional Information

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles.

Due to our status as Public Servants, we are not eligible to participate in the Civil Service transfer process. Therefore, while successful candidates can transfer into the organisation on their existing terms and conditions, any move back to the Civil Service may mean that continuity of service is not automatically recognised by the receiving department, and new starter or modernised terms and conditions may apply, subject to the receiving department's policies and arrangements. However, employees who move directly to a Civil Service department without a break in service may retain continuity of service for redundancy and pension purposes.

Any previous service with local government or other external Modification Order bodies will not be carried forward or count when calculating redundancy entitlement.

The College embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we comply with the Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) and apply the minimum selection criteria at sift stage of the recruitment process. Where necessary, we may increase the minimum selection criteria to support the effective management of the recruitment process, while ensuring our approach remains fair, transparent and consistent with our Disability Confident commitments.

Person specification

Some Of Your Responsibilities Will Include

• Leading the design, development and deployment of AI-enabled products, translating operational needs into scalable, secure and effective technical solutions.
• Building and maintaining reusable testing, evaluation and integration tooling to support the TEVV of internally developed and third-party AI products.
• Making technical decisions across architecture, data flows, APIs, model deployment, security and performance, ensuring solutions are fit for policing use.
• Supporting live AI services through monitoring, automated testing, incident resolution and continuous improvement.
• Providing technical leadership, coaching engineers and working with multidisciplinary teams to improve engineering standards and delivery quality.

To be successful in this role you’ll need

• Proven experience leading the end-to-end delivery of complex AI or machine learning solutions from user need through to production deployment and measurable outcomes.
• Strong technical expertise in Python, AI/ML frameworks, AI application patterns and modern software engineering and MLOps practices.
• Experience developing testing, evaluation or comparable tooling that supports the assessment and assurance of AI systems.
• Experience designing, integrating and operating AI-enabled services, data pipelines and APIs within cloud-based environments.
• The ability to provide technical leadership, coach others and communicate technical decisions, risks and findings to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Please see the attached job description which contains full details of the role. Please read the key criteria section in the job description (linked with the advert) carefully before applying. Applications will only be considered from candidates who can clearly demonstrate that they meet the essential requirements outlined for the role.

Behaviours

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

• Changing and Improving
• Making Effective Decisions
• Seeing the Big Picture

Benefits

The College is a great place to work. We're passionate about our people and offer a wide range of benefits. The benefits we can offer include:

• Defined benefit pension scheme with an employer contribution of 28.97%
• Up to 31.5 days holiday (this is in addition to 8 public holidays and 1 privilege day)
• Role-specific learning and development, with continued professional development to help you progress your career
• Enhanced maternity, paternity and adoption leave*
• Flexi-time (for certain grades)
• MyLifestyle platform which offers a wide range of shopping discounts with major retailers and includes access to discounted gym memberships, National Dental Plan, AXA Healthcare and the Cycle to Work scheme*
• Interest free season ticket loans*
• Rewards and recognition scheme
• An environment with flexible working options
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity

Please note benefits marked with an asterisk are available to College employees only. If you join us on a secondment, you will retain the terms and conditions of your substantive employer and will be eligible for all other benefits listed.

We also have a number of thriving staff networks that provide the opportunity for advice, support and to drive change. A place to get your voice heard, share experiences and challenge our working practices to ensure equality of opportunity for all.

Things you need to know

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.

Selection process details

This vacancy is using success profile and will assess your Behaviours and Experience.

This post is open to applicants who can meet the College’s nationality, UK residency and vetting requirements.

Please note that in order to work for the College of Policing you must have the Right to Work in the UK with indefinite leave to remain. Any other type of visa cannot be accepted. In addition, you will also be required to provide an address history in the UK for the preceding 5 years. Applications that do not meet these requirements will be rejected at sift stage and will not be progressed to interview.

College vacancy reference: 7336 - please quote in correspondence.

This role is available for 24 months as a fixed term appointment for external candidates or as a secondment opportunity to:

• colleagues employed directly by the College or the Civil Service. Please note you will be required to obtain the written support of your line manager prior to submitting your application.
• serving police officers substantive in the rank of Superintendent. All applicants must have the support of their Chief Officer which must be of NPCC rank, i.e., CC, ACC or DCC and this must accompany an application.
• serving police staff at the equivalent rank of Superintendent who have their chief officer's approval. Chief Officer’s approval must be of NPCC rank, i.e., CC, ACC or DCC. Approval for a secondment must accompany an application