As the AI and Innovation Director, Future Civil Service, you will sit at the heart of the Civil Service’s transformation programme over the coming years. You will report directly to the Director General, Future Civil Service and work closely with the Cabinet Secretary.
The Cabinet Secretary has established the Future Civil Service programme to reform the Civil Service, so it is recognised for excellence in delivery, innovation and improved productivity. The role of AI and Innovation Director presents a unique opportunity to drive forwards the Cabinet Secretary’s agenda and shape a Civil Service operating model fit for the future directly at the centre of Government.
Embracing innovative technological advancements and adopting and scaling up the use of AI must be centrally wired into the reform programme. You will bring the collective work on AI across Government into an articulated programme and ensure that the Civil Service transforms technology opportunities into workable policies and a cohesive delivery plan.
You will work closely with the Prime Minister’s AI Advisor and with the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology to deliver this work. You will inherit a small, but high-performing team and have the chance to shape the longer-term growth of your directorate. You will play a lead role across HM Government in innovating and adopting AI.
Key Responsibilities
This pivotal leadership role will deliver a reform agenda across four pillars:
1. Re-imagining the future workforce and business model for the Civil Service.
- Ensure that we have a clear understanding of what AI means for the future size and shape of the Civil Service, developing an AI strategy for the Civil Service as an organisation, playing a critical role in developing a radical strategic workforce plan.
- Develop the future vision of the Civil Service operating model, driving ambition beyond automating what we have today to reshaping what service delivery looks like in an AI world.
- Work with DSIT and Civil Service HR to deploy pay, contractual and talent frameworks at pace, ensuring the Civil Service can attract and retain frontier AI capability.
2. Driving adoption of AI tools across the Civil Service.
- Support and lead departments to identify and adopt the right tools and capabilities across teams.
- Work closely with DSIT to develop a systematic way of sharing best practice innovation across Government so that initiatives can be replicated and redeployed elsewhere.
- Work with our leading-edge team of ‘innovation fellows’ – technical experts from the private sector who are deployed for 6 to 24 months across Government – to build and deploy products that deliver measurable impact on Civil Service operations.
3. Championing, coordinating and tracking AI adoption across Departments.
- Bring together current Government AI initiatives into a cohesive and clear overall programme, bringing focus to the things that will have the greatest impact, working with DSIT. This includes ensuring that pilots are not isolated but are aligned with the overall plan and priority outcomes.
- Track progress of departmental AI initiatives through agreed approval and reporting mechanisms, ensure metrics and outcomes are tracked and help inform decisions about whether initiatives should stop or scale.
- Identify and establish priority AI taskforces for critical Government priorities.
4. Driving AI-first culture and engagement:
- Be an ambassador of innovation across the Civil Service, galvanising the energy and enthusiasm needed to drive the kind of radical change envisaged by the Cabinet Secretary.
- Act as the credible voice on AI from within the Cabinet Office, building trust and credibility for the use of AI within the Civil Service through internal thought leadership.
Person specification
It is important that, through your CV and supporting statement, that you provide evidence of the professional skills, breadth of experience and personal qualities for this post.
Essential Criteria:
- Proven ability to lead and inspire small, high performing teams to deliver results
- Deep understanding of the AI landscape, traditional AI/ML and generative AI solutions
- Ability to communicate complex technical concepts simply and effectively to stakeholders at all levels
- A natural influencer and strong collaboration skills, able to build trust and engagement across large organisations
- Demonstrated ability to define, scale and execute AI/digital strategies and operational transformation in large, complex organisations
- Experience of working with public sector organisations, or within equivalent large scale, complex environments
- Entrepreneurial mindset, high ownership and accountability in ambiguous working environments
Desirable Experience & Skills
- Experience of building and deploying traditional AI/ML and generative AI solutions
Benefits
Alongside your salary of £100,000, Cabinet Office contributes £28,970 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).
Whatever your role, we take your career and development seriously, and want to enable you to build a really successful career within the Department and wider Civil Service. It is crucial that our employees have the right skills to develop their careers and meet the challenges ahead, and you’ll benefit from regular performance and development reviews to ensure this development is ongoing. As a Civil Service employee, you’ll be entitled to a large range of benefits.
This includes:
- 25 days annual leave on entry, increasing on a sliding scale to 30 days after 5 years’ service. This is in addition to 8 public holidays.
- This will be complimented by one further day paid privilege entitlement to mark the King’s Birthday;
- A competitive contributory pension scheme that you can enter as soon as you join where we will make a significant contribution to the cost of your pension; where your contributions come out of your salary before any tax is taken; and where your pension will continue to provide valuable benefits for you and your family if you are too ill to continue to work or die before you retire;
- Generous paid maternity and paternity leave which is notably more than the statutory minimum offered by many other employers;
- Childcare benefits (policy for new employees as of 5 April 2018): The government has introduced the Tax- Free Childcare (TFC) scheme. Working parents can open an online childcare account and for every £8 they pay in, the government adds £2, up to a maximum of £2000 a year for each child or £4000 for a disabled child. Parents then use the funds to pay for registered childcare. Existing employees may be able to continue to claim childcare vouchers, so please check how the policy would work for you here;
- Interest-free loans allowing you to spread the cost of an annual travel season ticket or a new bicycle;
- The opportunity to use onsite facilities including fitness centres and staff canteens (where applicable); and occupational sick pay.
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
Application
To apply for this post, you will need to complete the application process, outlined below. This should be completed no later than 23:55 on Monday 13th July 2026.
1. A CV setting out your career history, with key responsibilities and achievements. Please ensure you have provided reasons for any gaps within the last two years.
2. A Statement of Suitability (no longer than 1,000 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.
Your full application should then be sent to [email protected].
Failure to complete both sections of the 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.
As part of the application process, you will be asked a number of diversity-related questions. If you do not wish to provide a declaration on any of the particular characteristics, you will have the option to select 'prefer not to say’. See the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategyfor more information.
Should you encounter any issues with your application please get in touch with us via: [email protected].
Shortlist
Your application will be acknowledged when it is received.
A panel, including the hiring manager, will assess your application to select those demonstrating the best fit with the role by considering the evidence you have provided against the criteria set out in the ‘Person Specification’ section. Failure to address any or all of these may affect your application.
Candidates who are successful at sift will then be invited to attend a preliminary interview conducted by Global Resourcing, our chosen Executive Search provider for this role.
Reports from these interviews will then form the basis of the Shortlist meeting.
The timeline further down this page indicates the date by which a decision is expected to be made, and all shortlisted candidates will be advised of the outcome as soon as possible thereafter.
Assessment
Candidates successful at sift will be invited to a panel interview where you will be asked to complete a technical exercise as part of the assessment process directly preceding the interviews. Then you will have a more in-depth discussion of your previous experience and professional competence in relation to the criteria set out in the Person Specification and may also be asked for a 5-minute presentation on a particular topic.
Further information of the technical assessment and interview process will be made available to shortlisted candidates.
The process will be chaired by Atul Devani, Civil Service Commissioner.
If we receive applications from more suitable candidates than we have vacancies for at this time, we may hold suitable applicants on a reserve list for 12 months, and future vacancies in the Civil Service requiring the same skills and experience could be offered to candidates on the reserve list without the need for a new competition.
Offer
We will notify all candidates of the outcome as soon as possible.
Indicative Timeline
We will try and offer as much flexibility as we can, but it may not be possible to offer alternative dates for assessments or interviews. You are therefore asked to note the below timetable, exercising flexibility through the recruitment and selection process, in order to meet the dates given. Please note that these dates may be subject to change.
The anticipated timetable is as follows:
- Advert Closing Date: 23:55, Monday 13th July 2026
- Shortlist: Week Commencing 27th July 2026
- Panel Interview: Week Commencing 17th August 2026
Reasonable Adjustments
We are committed to making reasonable adjustments in order to support disabled job applicants and ensure that you are not disadvantaged in the recruitment and assessment process. Reasonable adjustments could include: allowing extra time during selection tests; ensuring that information is provided in an accessible format or; by providing training.
If you feel that you may need a reasonable adjustment to be made, or you would like to discuss your requirements in more detail, please contact:
[email protected] in the first instance.
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 assignment duration set out above. This will not result in a contractual change to your terms and conditions.
Please note this is an expectation only, it is not something which is written into your terms and conditions or indeed which the employing organisation or you are bound by. It will depend on your personal circumstances at a particular time and business needs, for example, would not preclude any absence like family friendly leave. It is nonetheless an important expectation, which is why we ask you to confirm you agree to the assignment duration set out above.
Security
Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.
Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window). See our vetting charter (opens in a new window).
People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) 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) (opens in a new window)
- 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
Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window).
Working for the Civil Service
The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) 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 (opens in a new window).
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 attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).
Apply and further information
This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.
Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.
Contact point for applicants
Job contact
Recruitment team
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 in the first instance you should contact Government Recruitment Service at: [email protected].
If you are not satisfied with the response that you receive, then you can contact the Civil Service Commission at: [email protected].
For further information on the Recruitment Principles, and bringing a complaint to the Civil Service Commission, please visit their website at: https://civilservicecommission.independent.gov.uk.
Attachments
AI Innovation Director - Candidate Information Pack.pptx - Opens in new window (pdf, 827kB)
