About the job

Job summary

Harnessing the game-changing power of Artificial Intelligence (AI), the Defence AI Centre (DAIC) drives UK Defence's strategic advantage to safeguard UK national interests both at home and abroad.

As part of the DAIC, you’ll be a crucial member of a world-class, multi-disciplinary team at the forefront of ambitious, safe and responsible AI innovations. You’ll support our collaboration with international partners, government agencies, and industry leaders, to shape the future of AI for UK Defence.

Joining the DAIC is an opportunity to help pioneer cutting-edge AI solutions to real-world problems, directly impacting the security and protection of the UK. You'll be part of a dynamic, supportive team, contributing to work that's unparalleled in terms of scale and significance. Nowhere is AI innovation more important than Defence – and our team is at the heart of it.

Watch our video to find out more about the DAIC.

This position is advertised at 37 hours per week. 

Strategic Command is going through a significant transformation programme which aims to improve the way the Command conducts its business and delivers for Defence and the nation. As a consequence of this, all posts within Strategic Command Headquarters and in time the wider organisation, are/will be subject to review and potential changes as we continuously improve across the period of the transformation programme. These changes may be minor or could be more substantive and will generate new opportunities.  Throughout, the Command’s transformation programme is committed to following the MOD’s framework on managing and supporting people through the change process and places an emphasis on early and open consultation and engagement with the Command’s personnel and Trade Unions. 

Job description

We are looking for a dynamic individual to develop and deliver our plans to mobilise a more dynamic relationship between the Ministry of Defence and the wider AI community (aka – the ‘ecosystem’).

This role is central to the ‘Strengthen the UK’s AI ecosystem’ objective in the Defence AI Strategy – recognising it as a strategic national resource; as vital now as coal and steel were in the industrial age.

You must have keen business acumen to understand the perspectives of our government, industry, and academic partners. Combined with your strong analytical skills, you will use this to generate strategies that ensure the ecosystem is geared and incentivised to support priority national objectives. This includes delivering on commitments to:

• Clearly communicate our AI requirements, intent and expectations.
• Address barriers to frictionless collaboration.
• Incentivise engagement and co-creation.

You must have a proven ability to deliver, as you will lead interventions under an implementation roadmap that facilitates more open collaboration and connects the best talent to work on Defence challenges. Recent examples include:

• Artificial intelligence companies showcase defence capabilities at inaugural ‘DAIC Connect’ event - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
• Dstl and Google Cloud Hackathon: new era of defence AI innovation - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
• Can robot dogs programmed with AI find hidden explosive devices? - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

You’ll need excellent communication and relationship building skills, acting as a key interface with external organisations, including MOD colleagues, cross-Government partners, start-ups, SMEs, academia and wider industry. You will use these to mobilise, attract, and engage internal and external stakeholders, communicating the benefits of the ecosystem.

Above all, you will have an innovative mindset and be curious about how new technologies can enhance Defence outcomes, while being motivated by the ambitious, safe and responsible use of AI in Defence.

Responsibilities

Working in the heart of the DAIC as part of the HQ and Strategy team, you will lead on the AI ecosystem workstream, including:

• Develop a coherent strategy and implementation roadmap, prioritising those initiatives that will maximise value against the objectives of the Defence AI Strategy.

• Champion and drive the implementation of the roadmap and associated initiatives, working with agility to address challenges and risks. Report on the progress of the roadmap and capability of the ecosystem against value based metrics.

• Cohere and align wider MOD activities to ensure consistency and avoid duplication. This includes chairing the monthly AI Industry Engagement Strategy meeting with colleagues from across Defence.

• Utilise pan-defence opportunities and related initiatives for the benefit of the broader external ecosystem. Develop and deliver briefing materials for senior stakeholders and build strategic relationships across the network (internal and external).

• Lead efforts to maintain effective market intelligence of the AI Sector and associated Defence applications. Work with AI and Autonomy policy makers and Commercial to capture future requirements.

• Support the delivery of a communications strategy, that aims to foster engagement from a wide range of external organisations and industry. Develop campaigns and deliver key market engagement events (e.g. DAIC Connect) and align with broader DAIC communication approaches and other government AI programmes.

• Manage engagement and opportunities for industry secondments into DAIC.

• Support wider DAIC implementation plans, with tasks allocated based on personal development and business need. As we move from ’start up’ to ‘scale up’ there are a range of areas that the postholder could be involved with, as we develop a deeper understanding of where the DAIC can maximise value to Defence.

Person specification

This role can be based at one of the following locations: Portsmouth (DSTL Portsdown West); Salisbury (DSTL Porton Down); Bristol (DE&S Abbey Wood); MOD Corsham, Wiltshire; MOD Main Building, Whitehall, London or Scale Space, White City, London.

This role is suitable for a combination of office and home-based working.  This is a non-contractual arrangement where all employees will be expected to spend a minimum of 60% of their working time in an office, subject to local estates capacity.  Requirements to attend other locations for official business, or carry out detached duty in another MOD workplace, will also count towards this level of attendance. Applicants can request further information regarding how this may work in their team from the Vacancy Holder (see advert for contact details). DBS cannot respond to any questions about working arrangements.

Dependent on the business need, there is a requirement to travel to meetings within the UK, including the occasional overnight stay away from home (and potentially occasional overseas visits).

The successful candidate is required to carry out all their duties from a UK location and cannot do so from an overseas location at any time.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £43,080, Ministry of Defence contributes £11,631 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Things you need to know

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Experience and Technical skills.

To apply please complete the CV template provided on the CS Jobs dashboard. You will be assessed against your relevant, skills, knowledge and experience which demonstrates the essential criteria listed within this advert.

All applicants will also need to provide a personal statement (max. 1250 words) and it is essential that this includes evidence of the following essential criteria. Each one will be scored 1-7 and make up part of your overall score to assess your suitability to be invited to interview.

1. Motivation to work in an organisation at the cutting edge of enabling Defence to harness the potential of Artificial Intelligence.

2. Business acumen, with the ability to understand what motivates our industry and government partners.

3. Analytical ability, with proven experience to use this to develop evidenced based strategies and effective implementation plans.

4. Exceptional communication skills with the ability to command credibility to build effective and inspiring collaborative partnerships across stakeholders.

Interviews 

We’ll assess you against these behaviours and technical skills during the interview process: 

Presentation

You will be asked to prepare and deliver a 10-minute (max) presentation on a role-related subject. Further details will be sent prior to interview. 

Behaviours 

• Leadership 
• Communicating and Influencing 
• Changing and improving 

Technical skills 

• Stakeholder relationship management (IT operations)
• Strategic thinking

The Digital, Data and Technology Profession Capability Framework used in this vacancy can be found at: Business relationship manager - GOV.UK (Business relationship manager - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Learn more about these roles, and other opportunities at the DAIC, by joining senior members of the team at our upcoming Candidate Brief.

The Brief is being held on the 12th January, from 16:00 to 17:00 GMT, and we would love you to join to discuss these Product Manager roles and much more. To confirm your attendance, please email us at ukstratcomdd-hr-talentacqdel@mod.gov.uk with your name, email address, and the role you're interested in.

If you're considering multiple roles, we're also hosting another Brief on January 8th, from 17:30 to 18:30 GMT. Feel free to attend both these sessions to explore all the available DAIC opportunities that interest you.

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equality of opportunity. There is a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria. If you need to advise us that you need additional help or reasonable adjustments for the recruitment process, please contact: DBSCivPers-Resourcingteam3@mod.gov.uk  

As a result of the changes to the UK immigration rules which came into effect on 1 January 2021, the Ministry of Defence will only offer sponsorship for a skilled worker visa under the points based system, where a role has been deemed to be business critical.  

The role currently being advertised has not been assessed as business critical and is therefore NOT open to applications from those who will require sponsorship under the points based system. Should you apply for this role and be found to require sponsorship, your application will be rejected and any provisional offer of employment withdrawn. 

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

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.