Senior Policy Advisor - AI and Society (Copyright and Human Creativity)

You will work with rightsholders, AI developers and other experts to gather evidence, test ideas and develop advice for Ministers. This will include understanding stakeholder perspectives, tracking developments in the UK and internationally, helping develop practical approaches on issues such as licensing, transparency and creator control. You will lead workstreams through different stages of policy development, from evidence gathering and options development through to implementation. Your role is to turn complex and evolving information into clear, balanced advice.

This role offers a high degree of autonomy and ownership, with regular engagement with senior leadership and ministers. You will be expected to lead workstreams, manage stakeholder relationships, and drive policy development from evidence through to implementation.

You will work closely with the Home Office, the Intellectual Property Office, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, and others across DSIT. This is a unique opportunity to shape policy in a fast-moving area, working through extensive and strategic engagement with industry, Parliament, and across government to develop complex, far-reaching solutions to challenging, real-world issues.

As a line manager, you will be responsible for working with your members of staff to define their objectives, as well as managing their development and performance.

Essential Criteria

• Policy development or equivalent strategic experience - demonstrated ability to analyse complex problems, develop options, and make well-evidenced recommendations, whether gained in government, industry, academia, the third sector, or another professional setting.
• Stakeholder engagement - experience building productive relationships with senior or diverse stakeholders across sectors, including industry, regulators, academia, or government.
• Delivery and project leadership - a track record of driving work forward at pace, managing competing priorities, and delivering high-quality outcomes with limited oversight.
• Communication - excellent written and oral communication skills, with experience producing clear, persuasive outputs for senior or external audiences (e.g. briefings, reports, publications, or presentations).
• Experience with or understanding of AI, digital technology, intellectual property, copyright or creative industries.

Desirable Criteria

• Experience Leading, Mentoring, Or Managing Others.
• Familiarity with legislation, parliamentary processes, or regulatory frameworks.
• Experience Running Governance Functions, Programme Management, Or Consultations.

Behaviours

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

• Making Effective Decisions
• Working Together

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.
• 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.

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, Strengths and Experience.

Applications will be sifted on CV and Personal Statement.

In the event of a large number of applicants, applications will be sifted on the personal statement only.

The interview will consist of behaviour and strength-based questions.

Interviewees will be asked to deliver a presentation; further details will be provided nearer the time.

A reserve list of candidates may be kept for up to 12 months.

Sift and interview dates to be confirmed.

Further Information

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.

Please note terms and conditions are attached. Please take time to read the document to determine how these may affect you.

Any move to the Department for Science, Innovation and