Deputy Director AI Frontier Exemplar - Customer Experience

DSIT • Full-time • Bristol • £81k - £117.80k / year • 19h ago

The new Government Digital Service (GDS) was announced as a key pillar of DSIT’s work by the Secretary of State earlier this year, as a catalyst for the digital transformation of public services. Public Sector AI Adoption is a core part of the activity GDS will deliver to create an efficient and productive public sector. As outlined in the AI Opportunities Action Plan, AI has enormous promise for the Civil Service and the citizens it serves. It will give us the reach and opportunity to improve lives, drive economic growth and increase productivity. We must harness this by integrating AI safely and securely within the design and delivery of public services.

What’s more, we have a unique opportunity to demonstrate the use of AI in line with public values to promote equity, fairness, and transparency. The public sector can serve as a role model for the responsible use of AI and seek to partner with innovative UK AI companies in the process.

We’re looking for a highly experienced senior programme delivery manager to lead an exciting and high profile programme across government - the AI Exemplars Programme.

This work sits within the Public Sector AI Adoption Unit, a newly established team sitting within GDS to lead on AI adoption across the public sector. The AI Exemplar Programme is a high profile, cross government initiative led by GDS to pilot and scale AI projects within departments.

Job description

This role is a deputy director role, responsible for leading the programme delivery, working closely with the Director, Public Sector AI Adoption, plus senior stakeholders across government (including within Cabinet Office, no 10, DWP, HMRC, DHSC).

Responsibilities will include, but are not limited to:

establishing the process for reporting on delivery, cross government engagement across the portfolio, and regular briefing of ministers and senior officials
building extensive and trusted relationships across GDS, central government and the wider public sector
building and leading a small project team to support the AI exemplars programme and establish what is required for GDS regarding future public sector AI adoption
collaborate with government departments, academia, think tanks and industry partners to generate and test new ideas
identify and seize opportunities to enhance public service delivery from an end-to-end perspective more widely, and pilot new concepts to demonstrate effective and efficient public service models.

Person specification

You will be a passionate leader with significant experience leading complex programmes across government / multiple organisations or complex teams and have the following experience:

delivering at pace: have extensive experience of delivery across multiple teams /departments / organisations and have strong project delivery skills
communicating and influencing: be adept at building relationships and influencing across a complex range of stakeholders at all levels of seniority
leading through change: be comfortable leading in ambiguous and changing circumstances
be a strong, visible and vocal leader for digital government, setting the tone, culture and standard for data-driven working, and promoting a culture of experimentation and continuous improvement.
build, lead and motivate a team of digital, data and research specialists building a progressive and inclusive culture.
exceptional collaboration and partnership-building, communication and interpersonal skills
have a good understanding of digital product development and user centred design, some knowledge of AI would be preferable.

Benefits

There are many benefits of working at GDS, including:

flexible hybrid working with flexi-time and the option to work part-time or condensed hours
a Civil Service Pension with an average employer contribution of 28.97%
25 days of annual leave, increasing by a day each year up to a maximum of 30 days
an extra day off for the King’s birthday
an in-year bonus scheme to recognise high performance
career progression and coaching, including a training budget for personal development
paid volunteering leave
access to children's holiday play schemes across different locations in central London
a focus on wellbeing with access to an employee assistance programme
job satisfaction from making government services easier to use and more inclusive for people across the UK
advances on pay, including for travel season tickets
death in service benefits
Cycle to Work scheme and facilities
access to an employee discounts scheme
10 learning days per year
volunteering opportunities (5 special leave days per year)
access to a suite of learning activities through Civil Service learning

Any move to Government Digital Service from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax Free Childcare. Determine your eligibility at https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk

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.

DSIT does not normally offer full home working (i.e. working at home); but we do offer a variety of flexible working options (including occasionally working from home).

Things you need to know

Selection process details

The standard selection process for roles at GDS consists of:

a simple application screening process - We only ask for a CV and cover letter of up to 750 words. Important tip - please ensure that your cover letter includes how you meet the skills and experience listed in the “person specification” section above
a 60 minute in-person interview. As part of the process there may be assessment of skills either by a presentation or simulated exercise with follow-up questions. Full details of the requirements will be given to shortlisted candidates ahead of their interview.

Depending on how many applications we get, there might also be an extra stage before the video interview, for example a phone interview or a technical exercise.

While we value the use of AI technology to enhance our daily work, we also value the personal touch and urge applicants to write cover letters personally to emphasise their own unique experiences.

In the event we receive a high volume of applications, we will conduct the initial sift against the lead criteria which is: Leadership

In the Civil Service, we use Success Profiles to evaluate your skills and ability. This gives us the best possible chance of finding the right person for the job, increases performance and improves diversity and inclusivity. We’ll be assessing your technical abilities, skills, experience and behaviours that are relevant to this role.

For this role we’ll be assessing you against the following Civil Service Behaviours:

Leadership
Seeing the bigger picture,
Delivering at pace
Making Effective Decisions

Recruitment Timeline

Sift completion: W/C 07/07

Panel interviews: W/C 21/07

Candidates that do not pass the interview but have demonstrated an acceptable standard may be considered for similar roles at a lower grade.

A reserve list will be held for a period of 12 months, from which further appointments can be made.

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 and the Civil Service D&I Strategy.

Sponsorship

DSIT cannot offer Visa sponsorship to candidates through this campaign. DSIT holds a Visa sponsorship licence but this can only be used for certain roles and this campaign does not qualify.

Please note that this role requires SC clearance, which would normally need 5 years’ UK residency in the past 5 years. This is not an absolute requirement, but supplementary checks may be needed where individuals have not lived in the UK for that period. This may mean your security clearance (and therefore your appointment) will take longer or, in some cases, not be possible.

For meaningful checks to be carried out, you will need to have lived in the UK for a sufficient period of time, to enable appropriate checks to be carried out and produce a result which provides the required level of assurance. Whilst a lack of UK residency in itself is not necessarily a bar to a security clearance, an expectation of UK residency may range from 3 to 5 years. Failure to meet the residency requirements needed for the role may result in the withdrawal of provisional jobs offers.

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

This role has a minimum assignment duration of 1 year. 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.

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