Talent and Operations Deputy Director (AI Safety Institute)

Department for Science, Innovation & Technology

Apply before 11:55 pm on Monday 21st October 2024

 
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Details

Reference number

372136

Salary

£76,000 - £117,800
A Civil Service Pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

Job grade

SCS Pay Band 1

Contract type

Permanent

Business area

DSIT - Digital, Technologies and Telecoms

Type of role

Operational Delivery
Policy

Working pattern

Full-time

Number of jobs available

1

Contents

London

Job summary

The AI Safety Institute (AISI) is a start up in Government, established in November 2023 at the world’s first AI Safety Summit at Bletchley Park, and it is scaling fast. AISI’s mission is to advance AI safety research, evaluations and standards both domestically and internationally. AISI is the first state-backed organisation focused on advancing AI safety for the public interest. We believe in order to reap the benefits of this extraordinary technology, this requires it to be developed and deployed safely.

The Deputy Director of Talent and Operations sits at the heart of this mission.

AISI relies on the extraordinary talent it is able to attract: researchers and engineers from AI companies, builders from start-ups and extraordinary civil servants. The Deputy Director for Talent and Operations leads this work, with responsibility for our specialist talent and recruitment function. We want to make AISI the best place to work in Government: this Deputy Director will lead our work on recruitment, retention and our proposition to employees.

The operational side of AISI is equally ambitious. This Deputy Director will be at the heart of scaling this fast-paced start up in government, exercising vision and leadership in growing the organisation’s core operations functions from zero to one. They will also lead on an ambitious set of operational special projects, such as opening a new office in San Francisco.

This is a challenging and demanding – but rewarding – position that works in partnership with the broader AISI senior leadership team, as well as the Permanent Secretary, senior leadership across DSIT and Ministers. You will be responsible for leading a team of ~25 FTE and growing, supporting AISI’s broader governance, commercial and procurement, and talent onboarding workstreams.

Job description

This is a fast-paced role responsible for enabling AISI’s continued growth and ensuring structures are in place as AISI begins planning for being placed onto a statutory footing. Given this, the responsibilities of this role will evolve over time. However, the postholder can expect to be initially responsible for:

  • Attracting world leading talent to work for AISI. Many of the skill sets we are looking for are not normally available to government. You will need to have the ability to design the offer, marketing and talent sourcing to hire extraordinary people. You will need to commit to, and articulate, our mission to compete for talent against large private sector organisations.
  • The ability to create an onboarding process that rivals the experience of leading private sector organisations. You’ll need to innovate, understand constraints, and deal with often unique personal circumstances to land talent.
  • Establishing the AISIs office in San Francisco, leading all relevant logistics, commercial activities and recruitment linked to this.
  • Leading the AISIs special projects team, responsible for both reactive and strategic projects and developing the AISIs Employee Value Proposition.
  • Lead on scoping out the significant operational start-up requirements for setting up AISI on statutory footing. This will be very akin to standing up a new organisation from scratch, with a lot of room for exercising vision, leadership, execution excellence, and exceptional judgement.
  • Leading the AISIs wider corporate support functions including L&D, Business Management, and other functions.
  • Be an active part of the wider senior leadership team of AISI, delivering and taking ownership of corporate objectives.
  • Above all, the postholder will need to be able to deliver this through their team, creating a sustainable and ambitious talent and operations function in AISI.

Person specification

We are looking for a highly motivated individual with exceptional communication, collaboration and leadership skills. They will need to successfully operate in ambiguity, grip the delivery knotty and fast-paced issues, and demonstrate exceptional judgement. We would encourage you to apply if you meet the following:

  • Highly developed leadership skills with a proven ability to develop, grow and inspire fast-paced and high-performing teams.
  • A proven track record of working closely with senior stakeholders and creating a single, cohesive vision you lead your team towards, translating priorities into effective outcomes and delivering these.
  • A proven track record of building organisational functions in a start-up like environment, and doing end-to-end delivery of complex projects to a high level of excellence.
  • Exceptional communication, influencing and negotiation skills.
  • Experience working on procurement and wider commercial contracts. Excellent prioritisation and team management skills.
  • Significant experience working in a fast-paced environment, providing clarity to complex tasks and gripping both reactive and strategic priorities.

Behaviours

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

  • Leadership
  • Making Effective Decisions
  • Seeing the Big Picture
Alongside your salary of £76,000, Department for Science, Innovation & Technology contributes £22,017 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

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.

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours and Experience.
During the interview process, you will be assessed against the following competencies:
- Leadership
- Making Effective Decisions
- Seeing the Bigger Picture
For candidates successful in the sift, there will be a multi-part interview process for applicants. This will consist of a strengths and behaviours interview, a presentation, and a final fireside chat with our Chief Technology Officer and Director of AISI.

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).
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 :

  • Name : SCS Candidate
  • Email : scscandidate.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk

Recruitment team

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

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 you should contact in the first instance dsitresourcing.GRS@cabinetoffice.gov.uk. If you are not satisfied with the response that you receive, then you can contact the Civil Service Commission. For further information on bringing a complaint to the Civil Service Commission please visit their web pages at: https://civilservicecommission.independent.gov.uk/contact-us/

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