Department for Science, Innovation and Technology
Policy Adviser - Sovereign AI
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Location: London, Manchester, Birmingham
Job Summary
Sovereign AI
Artificial intelligence is central to the UK's economic and national security. As countries around the world compete to develop and deploy this transformative technology, the UK must ensure it can build, attract and retain the companies that will shape the future of AI. The Sovereign AI Fund sits at the heart of this mission, with a clear mandate to identify, back and scale the companies that will define the UK's position in one of the most consequential technologies of our time.
Backed by up to £500 million, the Fund exists to turn ambition into action, supporting high-potential AI startups and scaleups to become national champions and strengthening the UK's sovereign capability in frontier AI.
Job Description
The Policy Adviser sits within the Policy team, reporting to the Policy Lead (G7), and plays a central role in ensuring the Fund remains strategically coherent as government priorities, funding opportunities and the AI market evolve. This is a unique opportunity to shape the strategic backbone of one of the UK Government's most high-profile initiatives, working across strategy, delivery, finance and ministerial priorities to ensure the Fund is well-governed and built to last.
You'll work closely with HM Treasury, BIST and wider departmental stakeholders, as well as the Fund's Board, ensuring the Fund's strategy, funding model and performance framework keep pace with a fast-moving policy and market landscape.
Key Responsibilities
You will own:
- Thesis and KPIs: You will own the Fund's thesis, objectives and KPIs, leading on work with analysts and delivery teams to develop and run the Fund's impact and evaluation framework, clearly evidencing its impact.
- Business cases and spending reviews: You will support the development of business cases, Spending Reviews and funding proposals. You will support the Board with decisions on major programmes.
- Remit and delivery model advice: You will coordinate cross-team advice on proposed changes to the Fund's remit, priorities or delivery model across delivery teams so decisions are well informed and consistent.
- Institutional model: You will support policy work on the Fund's long-term institutional model and future delivery arrangements, helping shape how the Fund operates as it matures.
- HMT and departmental relationships: You will build and manage relationships with HM Treasury, BIST and wider departmental stakeholders, ensuring the Fund’s strategic direction remains aligned with government priorities.
- Ministerial and parliamentary business: You will lead ministerial and parliamentary business including PQs, FOIs, correspondence and briefings. Ensuring the Fund’s ministerial and parliamentary business is handled to a high standard.
This Might Not Be The Role For You If:
- You prefer working on a single, well-defined policy area rather than across strategy, finance, delivery and ministerial business simultaneously.
- You're less comfortable producing high-stakes advice for senior decision-makers under time pressure.
- You'd rather execute an existing strategy than help shape and evolve one.
- You find it challenging to manage relationships with stakeholders who have competing priorities (e.g. HM Treasury vs delivery teams).
- You're looking for a role with limited exposure to ministerial or parliamentary business.
What Success Looks Like
- The Fund operates with a clear and coherent strategy, thesis and performance framework that stands up to scrutiny.
- Senior leaders and the Board receive high-quality, timely policy advice that supports confident decision making.
- Strong, trusted working relationships are maintained with HM Treasury and key departmental stakeholders.
- Business cases, Spending Review products and ministerial commissions are delivered to a high standard, on time and fit for purpose.
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Person Specification
You’ll Thrive If You Bring:
- Policy expertise: You have experience developing policy or strategy in government or a comparable organisation.
- Drafting and communication: You produce high-quality policy advice for senior decision-makers, including designing new interventions or policy proposals from scratch.
- Analytical: You can evidence strong analytical and problem solving skills, including assessing progress towards long-term goals, and developing stop/start-change options as needed.
- Whitehall fluency: Experience of HM Treasury processes, business cases or public spending is desirable.
- Stakeholder management: Experience building and maintaining relationships with a wide group of stakeholders, resolving conflicts as needed.
- Comfortable context switching: You’re comfortable working across strategy, delivery, finance and ministerial priorities, adapting your approach to the audience and ask.
Behaviours
We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
- Making Effective Decisions
- Communicating and Influencing
- Delivering at Pace
Salary and Benefits
Alongside your salary of £44,620, Department for Science, Innovation & Technology contributes £12,926 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.
Office attendance
The Department operates a discretionary hybrid working policy, which provides for a combination of working hours from your place of work and from your home in the UK. The current expectation for staff is to attend the office or non-home based location for 40-60% of the time over the accounting period.
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.
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Application:
Please apply here. You will be asked to submit your CV and answer the following application questions:
- What interests you in the SovAI Fund? (250 words)
- Tell us about a time you developed policy, strategy or advice to support senior decision-making. What was your contribution and what was the outcome? (250 words)
- How would you approach maintaining a clear strategy and set of objectives in a fast-moving and changing environment? (250 words)
Interview 1: Experience and motivations interview.
Interview 2: Civil service behaviours interview with task. (The details of the task will be send beforehand)
Interview 3: Final stage with senior leadership team.
Candidates who pass the initial sift may be progressed to a full sift, or progressed straight to assessment/interview.
Sift and interview dates
Sift and interview dates to be confirmed.
Further Information
Former DSIT recruitment campaigns are continuing as usual, but candidates should be aware that following the Government’s announcement on the changes to some civil service departments, roles will be subject to the machinery of government moves and will ultimately be in one of the new departments. We will provide more information if you are selected for a role. This work remains of high importance to the civil service, and we thank you for your continued interest.
Existing Civil Servants and applicants from accredited NDPBs are eligible to apply, and can be considered on loan basis (Civil Servants) or secondment (accredited NDPBs). Prior agreement to be released on a loan basis must be obtained before commencing the application process. In the case of Civil Servants, the terms of the loan will be agreed between the home and host department and the Civil Servant. This includes grade on return.
This role is full time only. Applicants who wish to work an alternative pattern are welcome to apply however your preferred working pattern may not be available and you should discuss this with the vacancy holder before applying.
Reasonable Adjustment
We are proud to be a disability confident leader and we welcome applications from disabled candidates and candidates with long-term conditions.
Information about the Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) and some examples of adjustments that we offer to disabled candidates and candidates with long-term health conditions during our recruitment process can be found in our DSIT Candidate Guidance. A DSIT Plain Text Version of the guidance is also available.
We encourage candidates to discuss their adjustment needs by emailing the job contact which can be found under the contact point for applicants section.
If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the 'Contact point for applicants' section.
If successful and transferring from another Government Department a criminal record check may be carried out.
New entrants are expected to join on the minimum of the pay band.
A location based reserve list of successful candidates will be kept for 12 months. Should another role become available within that period you may be offered this position.
Candidates who meet the minimum benchmark may be placed on a Reserve List for consideration for similar roles, including those at a lower grade. Candidates who narrowly miss the benchmark and are not placed on the Reserve List may still be considered for an offer in a similar role at a lower grade.
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