• Details

Reference number

398372

Salary

£67,126 - £103,924

Offers above the band minimum are subject to our assessment of your skills and experience as demonstrated at interview. Salaries over the band minimum will be paid as a non-pensionable allowance.

A Civil Service Pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

GBP

Job grade

Grade 6

Contract type

Permanent
Fixed term
Loan
Secondment

Length of employment

Role will be offered on either a permanent basis or as a 22-month loan/FTA/secondment based on the successful candidate’s preference.

Business area

Incubator for Artificial Intelligence (i.AI)

Type of role

Digital

Working pattern

Flexible working, Full-time, Part-time

Number of jobs available

1

Contents

• Location
• About the job
• Benefits
• Things you need to know
• Apply and further information

Location

Bristol, London, Manchester

About the job

Job summary

About the team

Government must seize the opportunity of AI to drive outcomes in the public interest. This is of critical importance now. Government needs innovation and must not sleep on the opportunity presented by AI to drive better services for taxpayers and citizens.

In November 2023, the creation of the incubator for AI (i.AI) was announced, and following early successes, the team was expanded in March 2024. Our mission is to harness the opportunity of AI to improve lives, drive growth, and deliver better public services. This is an AI product team that focuses on delivery of technical solutions to public service challenges, responding to ministerial steers about priorities and driving impact out into departments from the centre.

i.AI delivers high impact products and is mission-led, delivering value and innovation within government. We are able to move fast and build things, and are set up specifically to pivot quickly towards priority use cases, and re-use technologies for future impact.

You can see more about our work on ai.gov.uk and on LinkedIn. We work in the open and our code can be found here: https://github.com/i-dot-ai

The Incubator for Artificial Intelligence (i.AI) will be moving to the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) to form part of the new digital centre of government. If offered the position, you will be on-boarded to, and initially employed by, the Cabinet Office, but will move with us to DSIT under the machinery of government change. This is expected to happen on 1st June 2025, but this date is subject to change. If shortlisted, the hiring panel will be happy to answer any questions you might have. You’re also welcome to reach out to us at i-dot-ai-recruitment@cabinetoffice.gov.uk

Our team is based across Bristol, Manchester and London, and we work in a hybrid manner as default. A minimum 60% of your working time should be spent at your principal workplace, although requirements to attend other locations for official business will also count towards this level of attendance. We will consider part-time and flexible working arrangements - we encourage you to discuss your needs with the hiring manager if you are offered the role.

About the role

We are seeking a talented Cloud Platform Engineer to join our leading AI team. You will collaborate with AI engineers, researchers and other roles to architect and implement the platform that powers our cutting-edge AI products and services.

This is a radical innovation team, and we hire team members who are collaborative, energetic, and are motivated to “get stuff done”, as well as being optimistic big picture thinkers. This role is perfect for somebody looking to operate in a start-up environment, using their skills and experience in central Government to make things happen for the public good.

Role Responsibilities

• Build and design cutting-edge cloud architecture that can support rapid development of in-house prototypes and then be rolled out and leveraged across government for transformational impact across the public sector.
• Support the team to develop our AI capability and build out a modern and flexible architecture that can be leveraged for a whole variety of projects.
• Collaborate across the civil service working with existing technical solutions and understand how to best build into existing architectures.
• Build robust and secure infrastructure that is capable of meeting security standards when handling sensitive data.
• Work flexibly with all team members to deliver on the mission of i.AI - to harness the power of AI for the public good. This means sometimes you will be working outside of your direct brief.

Person specification

Essential experience:

• Deep experience in designing production architectures on Cloud Platforms eg. AWS
• Well versed in Infrastructure-as-code e.g Terraform
• Strong experience working in a DevOps Environment & configuring CI/CD pipelines
• Comfortable working in codebases using Python or TypeScript
• Detailed knowledge of Networking and Security concepts

Desirable experience:

• Good familiarity with Docker and containerisation
• Detailed experience running workloads at production scale on AWS compute such as ECS, EKS & serverless technologies
• Some experience with the infrastructure required to train and run Large Language Models
• Experience with orchestration technologies like Dagster
• Knowledgeable about scaling challenges with Kubernetes

Strong candidates come from many different backgrounds, and we encourage a broad range of applications to ensure we have a well-balanced team. Studies show that talented people, especially those from groups underrepresented in their field, are more likely to doubt themselves and feel like an “imposter”. Unique perspectives enrich teams, so we urge you to have confidence in your potential contributions. If aspects of this role resonate with you, please apply. We look forward to your application.

Additional information:

A minimum 60% of your working time should be spent at your principal workplace. Although requirements to attend other locations for official business will also count towards this level of attendance.

Behaviours

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

• Changing and Improving
• Delivering at Pace
• Managing a Quality Service
• Communicating and Influencing

Technical skills

We’ll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

• Technical assessment at assessment

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £67,126, Cabinet Office contributes £19,446 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

• Learning and development tailored to your role.
• An environment with flexible working options.
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity.
• A Civil Service Pension which provides an attractive pension, benefits for dependants and employer contributions of 28.97%.
• A minimum of 25 days of paid annual leave, increasing by one day per year up to a maximum of 30.

Things you need to know

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles , and will assess your Behaviours, Experience and Technical skills.

Application process

As part of the application process, you will be asked to submit a CV. Please ensure your CV includes how you meet the skills and experience listed in the “essential skills” section above. At this stage we will assess experience and essential skills.

Candidates who pass the initial sift will be invited to undertake a technical assessment of your coding ability. This will involve pair programming with a member of the team. We will send further instructions about this prior to the assessment.

Candidates who pass the technical assessment will be invited to attend a panel interview to explore your experience and ask questions related to the behaviours listed above.

You might consider preparing your examples in the STAR format. We will also be asking questions around the behaviours outlined above, as well as technical questions relating to the essential criteria.

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 experience and behaviours that are relevant to this role.

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

• Changing and improving
• Delivering at pace
• Managing a quality service
• Communicating and influencing

Expected timeline (subject to change)
Expected sift date – w/c 14th April

Expected technical assessment date/s: w/c 5th May
Expected final interview date/s – w/c 19th May
Interview location - Your interview will either be conducted face to face or by video. You will be notified of the location if you are selected for interview.

Reasonable Adjustment

If a person with disabilities is put at a substantial disadvantage compared to a non-disabled person, we have a duty to make reasonable changes to our processes.

If you need a change to be made so that you can make your application, you should:

Contact Government Recruitment Service via cabinetofficerecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs.

Complete the ‘Assistance required’ section in the ‘Additional requirements’ page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need further on in the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at interview, or if you’re deaf, a Language Service Professional.

If successful and transferring from another Government Department a criminal record check may be carried out.

Further information
If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any of the attachments, please contact the email address in the ‘contact point for applicants’ section.

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.

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

Any move to Cabinet Office 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; for further information visit the Childcare Choices website

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

Near miss offers may be made at a lower grade to candidates who do not meet the grade criteria for this campaign.

In order to process applications without delay, we will be sending a Criminal Record Check to Disclosure and Barring Service on your behalf.

However, we recognise in exceptional circumstances some candidates will want to send their completed forms direct. If you will be doing this, please advise Government Recruitment Service of your intention by emailing Pre-EmploymentChecks.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk stating the job reference number in the subject heading.

For further information on National Security Vetting please visit the following page https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/demystifying-vetting

New entrants are expected to join on the minimum of the pay band.

Applicants who are successful at interview will be, as part of pre-employment screening, subject to a check on the Internal Fraud Database (IFD). This check will provide information about employees who have been dismissed for fraud or dishonesty offences. This check also applies to employees who resign or otherwise leave before being dismissed for fraud or dishonesty had their employment continued. Any applicant’s details held on the IFD will be refused employment.

A candidate is not eligible to apply for a role within the Civil Service if the application is made within a 5-year period following a dismissal for carrying out internal fraud against government.

Existing Civil Servants and applicants from accredited NDPBs are eligible to apply, but will only be considered on loan basis (Civil Servants) or secondment (accredited NDPBs). Prior agreement to be released on a loan basis must be obtained before commencing the application process. In the case of Civil Servants, the terms of the loan will be agreed between the home and host department and the Civil Servant. This includes grade on return.

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 .

See our vetting charter .

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

Further information on nationality requirements

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 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.

Apply and further information

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans initiative.

The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. Read more about prison leaver recruitment .

Contact point for applicants

Job contact :

• Name : i.AI Recruitment Team
• Email : i-dot-ai-recruitment@cabinetoffice.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : cabinetofficerecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk

Further information

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: cabinetofficerecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk