London, Manchester, Birmingham, Edinburgh (office attendance 2-3 times a week with regular visits to London).
Job Summary
Sovereign AI:
AI is not a sector like any other. It is becoming the substrate on which future economic growth, scientific discovery and national resilience are built. Countries that control their own compute, talent and frontier capability will shape the next decade of geopolitics and prosperity. Countries that don't will rent it from someone else.
Backed by up to £500 million, the Sovereign AI Fund exists to turn ambition into action, supporting high-potential AI startups and scaleups to become national champions and strengthening the UK’s sovereign capability in frontier AI.
The Team:
The Sovereign AI Fund Is Setting Up Two New, High-profile Funding Programmes To Strengthen The UK’s AI Capabilities And Support The Growth Of High Potential UK AI Companies:
- Strategic Assets Programme – a grant programme funding the creation of shared, strategically important AI assets (e.g., high value datasets, automated laboratory infrastructure).
- Visa reimbursement – a grant programme reimbursing the visa fees for hires in our portfolio companies, helping them to access the talent they need to scale in the UK.
We are looking for a strong and experienced Delivery Lead to take on the day-to-day management of these schemes. You will play a central role in managing grants and contracts, supporting competitions and assessments, and ensuring robust governance, financial control and assurance across both programmes. This is a unique opportunity to be at the centre of one of the UK Government's most high-profile and globally significant initiatives, as we build the Sovereign AI Fund.
Job Description
You will work closely with policy, commercial, financial and legal teams to execute the following initiatives.
Programme Design And Delivery:
- Own and lead the end-to-end delivery of grant competitions, from launch through assessment, contracting and project delivery.
- Lead on the design and operation of clear, proportionate delivery processes to deliver value for money and strong customer service.
- Manage the rolling application process, coordinate assessment panels, prepare Investment Committee (IC) recommendations and oversee grant and contract awards.
Project Assessment:
- Lead the selection process to ensure that it identifies high-impact projects which will deliver strategic results, applying a high level of challenge to identify risks and impact, in a field with a high level of technical complexity.
- Build and maintain a detailed understanding of the UK AI sector’s requirements for strategic assets and the support required to attract talent to the UK
Grant And Contract Management:
- Lead the management of a portfolio of live grants and contracts, including:
- Monitoring progress against milestones, deliverables and spend.
- Reviewing reports, claims and evidence submitted by funded organisations.
- Escalating risks, issues and underperformance appropriately.
- Maintain accurate records to support audit, assurance and evaluation requirements.
Financial Management And Assurance:
- Lead financial management of programme budgets, working with finance colleagues to track commitments and spend.
- Ensure funding is used for eligible, auditable activity and in line with Managing Public Money and departmental guidance.
What success looks like: Strategic Assets
- First 6 months: Prove we can find and fund strategic assets that the market won't deliver by itself and show that founders see the programme as a valuable part of the wider Sovereign AI offer.
- 6-12 months: Get assets into use and demonstrate that they're solving real constraints for UK AI companies, from data to infrastructure and research capability.
- 12+ months: Create assets that become part of the UK's long-term AI advantage, helping strategically important companies build, scale and stay in the UK.
Visas
- First 6 months: Launch a trusted and effective scheme, process the first reimbursements successfully, and demonstrate that founders see visa support as a valuable part of the wider Sovereign AI offer.
- 6-12 months: Get support flowing smoothly to the right companies and demonstrate that visa support is working alongside other Sovereign AI interventions to support company growth in the UK.
- 12+ months: Build a strong evidence base on talent barriers facing UK AI companies and use it to shape the future evolution of Sovereign AI support for our growing portfolio of companies.
You will work closely with policy, commercial, financial and legal teams to execute the following initiatives.
Financial Management And Assurance:
- Lead financial management of programme budgets, working with finance colleagues to track commitments and spend.
- Ensure funding is used for eligible, auditable activity and in line with Managing Public Money and departmental guidance.
What success looks like: Strategic Assets
- First 6 months: Prove we can find and fund strategic assets that the market won't deliver by itself and show that founders see the programme as a valuable part of the wider Sovereign AI offer.
- 6-12 months: Get assets into use and demonstrate that they're solving real constraints for UK AI companies, from data to infrastructure and research capability.
- 12+ months: Create assets that become part of the UK's long-term AI advantage, helping strategically important companies build, scale and stay in the UK.
Visas
- First 6 months: Launch a trusted and effective scheme, process the first reimbursements successfully, and demonstrate that founders see visa support as a valuable part of the wider Sovereign AI offer.
- 6-12 months: Get support flowing smoothly to the right companies and demonstrate that visa support is working alongside other Sovereign AI interventions to support company growth in the UK.
- 12+ months: Build a strong evidence base on talent barriers facing UK AI companies and use it to shape the future evolution of Sovereign AI support for our growing portfolio of companies.
Person specification
What You'll Bring:
- AI & Deep Tech Experience - You have experience in AI, deep tech or science-based companies, or a demonstrable understanding of how these companies operate, the constraints they face, and what they need to scale in the UK.
- Purpose - You care about emerging technologies and are genuinely motivated by the opportunity to strengthen the UK's sovereign capability in frontier AI. You have prior experience, personal projects, or a demonstrable curiosity about how funding, technology and national strategy come together.
- Delivery - You may have experience delivering grants or R&D programmes end-to-end, from designing competitions through to managing live awards. You have owned a scheme from launch through assessment, contracting and delivery, rather than just one stage of the process.
- Budget Fluency - You understand the mechanics of grant funding: assessment criteria, panel processes and milestone-based delivery management.
- Organisation - You use structure and systems to stay on top of complex, fast-moving work. You have managed multiple grants or contracts simultaneously, tracking milestones, spend and risk without losing sight of deadlines or dropping quality.
- Sound Judgement - You know when to make a decision independently and when something is too ambiguous to assume, choosing to escalate rather than guess. You exercise sound judgement in fast-paced environments, particularly where processes were still being built or precedent didn't exist.
- Communication - You communicate clearly and concisely, whether preparing IC recommendation papers, briefing senior stakeholders or drafting applicant correspondence. You produce outputs that others have relied on to make decisions or move things forward.
- Communicating to Non-Specialist Audiences - You can translate technical and commercial information into clear advice for decision makers who may not share your specialist background.
- Rigour with Process - You have strong attention to detail and can work confidently with guidance, processes and documentation, using them as scaffolding rather than a constraint e.g. maintaining audit-ready records or managing compliance-heavy processes.
- Familiarity with innovation, R&D, or technology focused programmes - You have worked on programmes designed to support innovation, R&D or technology-driven growth, and understand the challenges of funding activity that is inherently uncertain or exploratory.
- Experience working with financial information - You are comfortable working with budgets, claims and spend tracking, and can evidence this through prior experience managing financial data as part of a grant, contract or programme role, e.g. reconciling spend against milestones or reviewing financial claims for eligibility.
Behaviours
We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
- Communicating and Influencing
- Making Effective Decisions
- Managing a Quality Service
Alongside your salary of £56,850, Department for Science, Innovation & Technology contributes £16,469 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).
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.
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
This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours and Experience.
Application: Please apply here. You will be asked to submit your CV & and answer the following questions:
- Why do you want to work at the Sovereign AI Fund? Please highlight any experience working with (or supporting) AI, deep tech, or science-based companies. (250 words max)
- What do you think will be the biggest delivery challenge in setting up a brand-new grant scheme like the ones outlined above from scratch? (250 words max)
- Describe a time you had to make judgement calls and keep a project moving forward while the process, rules, or governance around it were still being built? (250 words max).
Interview 1: Experience and motivation interview
Interview 2: Task and Behaviour interview (task details will be sent ahead of the interview)
Interview 3: Interview with Senior Leadership
Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.
This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours and Experience.
Security
Successful candidates must undergo a basic (or equivalent) criminal record check.
Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is counter-terrorist 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.
Successful candidates must undergo a basic (or equivalent) criminal record check.
Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is counter-terrorist 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.
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 : Gareth Holvey
- Email : Gareth.Holvey@sovereignai.gov.uk
Recruitment team
- Email : Georgia.Stone@dsit.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/