Department for Science, Innovation and Technology
Portfolio Lead - Sovereign AI
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Job Summary
Location: London, Manchester, Birmingham
(If based in Manchester or Birmingham, you will be required to attend the London office 1x a week. Travel expenses will be reimbursed.)
About the Role
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 Portfolio Lead role is responsible for the ongoing support, monitoring, and value creation of SovAI's investment portfolio post-investment.
In venture terms, this is closest to a “platform” role: the day-to-day point of contact who makes sure portfolio companies get useful support, while giving the Fund a clear, structured view of how the portfolio is doing.
Key Responsibilities
- Coordinate cross-portfolio support, talent, compute access, procurement, in partnership with the R&D and Policy teams.
- Build a single source of truth for portfolio data (in Attio and supporting tools) usable across the investment, policy, and R&D teams.
- Prepare portfolio-level briefing materials for ministerial and cross-HMG engagements, working alongside the investment team and Policy team on materials for government stakeholders.
- Act as the day-to-day point of contact for portfolio companies, triaging requests, and routing them to the right person, team, or external resource.
- Partner closely with the Operating Partner, providing dedicated support across their operational workstreams.
Process & Team Building
- Establish scalable portfolio management processes and playbooks appropriate to a fast-growing, publicly accountable investment vehicle.
- Contribute to the Fund's broader operational build-out, including CRM infrastructure, triage workflows, and internal guidance for colleagues.
What Success Looks Like
- A portfolio CRM and reporting single source of truth adopted across investment, delivery, and compute teams.
- Strong, trusted relationships with portfolio company founders and with key government counterparts.
- Playbooks and benchmarking data measurably reduce the time it takes to resolve common portfolio requests.
Person Specification
Experience
- Familiarity with the UK AI, deep tech, or investment landscape is a strong advantage.
- Experience standing up processes and infrastructure in an early-stage or fast-growing organization.
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Skills & Attributes
- Rigorous, structured thinker who is comfortable in founder-facing conversations.
- High personal ownership and discretion; comfortable operating in a small, high-trust team.
- Collaborative operating style; able to work cross-functionally with investment, delivery, and compute colleagues, and external counterparts at HMT, BIST, BBB, and NSSIF.
- Genuine interest in UK sovereign AI capability and the mission of the Fund.
- Comfortable building and maintaining data and CRM systems, and turning them into clear, actionable views for non-technical stakeholders.
Behaviours
We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
- Communicating and Influencing
- Managing a Quality Service
- Changing and Improving
Salary and Benefits
- Salary: £56,850
- Pension Contribution: Department for Science, Innovation & Technology contributes £16,469 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme.
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.
Application Details
- Application: Please apply here. You will be asked to submit your CV and answer the following application questions:
- Why do you want to join Sovereign AI? (250 words max)
- Describe your experience working with early-stage founders or startups? (250 words max)
- This role requires coordinating between investment, policy, R&D, and external government counterparts, each with different priorities. Give an example of a time you had to align multiple stakeholders with competing interests to get something done. (250 words max)
Selection Process
- Interview 1: Experience and motivations interview.
- Interview 2: Civil service behaviours interview with task. The details of the task will be sent beforehand.
- Interview 3: Final stage with senior leadership team.
Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.
Security
Successful candidates must undergo a basic (or equivalent) criminal record check.
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People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard checks.
Nationality Requirements
This Job Is Broadly Open To The Following Groups:
- UK nationals
- nationals of the Republic of Ireland
- nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
- nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
- nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
- individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
- Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service
Working for the Civil Service
The Civil Service Code sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.
We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles.
The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.
The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.
Diversity and Inclusion
The Civil Service is committed to attracting, retaining, and investing in talent wherever it is found. To learn more, please see the Civil Service People Plan and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy.
This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans initiative.
Contact Point for Applicants
Job Contact:
Name: Georgia Stone
Email: Georgia.Stone@dsit.gov.uk
Recruitment Team Email: Georgia.Stone@dsit.gov.uk
Further Information
Appointment to the Civil Service is governed by the Civil Service Commission’s Recruitment Principles. If you feel that your application has not been treated in accordance with the recruitment principles, and wish to make a complaint, then you should contact dsitresourcing.GRS@cabinetoffice.gov.uk. If you are not satisfied with the response that you receive, then you can contact the Civil Service Commission. For further information on bringing a complaint to the Civil Service Commission, please visit their web pages at: Civil Service Commission Contact Us
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