Defence AI Centre – Capability Lead

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.

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.

Reporting to Head DAIC (as AI Talent Lead) and the Senior Leadership Team, this position will lead the talent and skills development for Artificial Intelligence in Defence and be a thought leader in wider Government.

This is a dynamic leadership role and you will be expected to: 

• engage across Defence, wider Government and external stakeholders to understand innovation, good practice and identify the breadth and depth of skills available. 

• work with partners in DSTL, industry and Academia, to ensure you understand the opportunities presented by AI and how you can develop and implement a skills and capability framework, to enhance and improve it’s adoption and implementation as a tool across Defence, to support strategic outcomes. 

• work closely with DAIC, Defence Digital, DSTL and DAU colleagues to understand AI good practice. 

• be at the heart of ensuring that Defence is an ‘AI Ready’ organisation, with the right people in the right place at the right time, harnessing the opportunities presented by AI to meet Defence strategic outcomes, in an efficient and effective way. 

You’ll need an innovative approach and curiosity about how new technologies can enhance Defence outcomes, above all, being motivated by the ambitious, safe and responsible use of AI in Defence. 

Joining us enables you to take advantage of our excellent benefits package, including flexible working, great discount schemes, generous leave allowance and a market-leading Civil Service pension. 

Our commitment to your development is fundamental. We’ll provide as many learning opportunities as we can, allowing you to gain industry recognised qualifications, as well as in-house training, within your field and beyond, supporting your development within the role from day 1. 

Responsibilities 

Lead development and adoption of the AI talent and skills capability in Defence by:

• Working across Defence, DSTL, wider government, Industry and Academia to understand existing AI Capability Frameworks, and how these can be adapted and adopted to support the requirement for and potential development of an AI Profession in Defence.

• Working with Digital Jobs Family leads to ensure that the AI Profession is set out in a way that it compatible with, and complementary to, existing digital skills frameworks.

• Working with Defence L&D professionals across civilian and military structures to ensure that appropriate learning opportunities are available, to create a Defence workforce with the right skills to develop and deliver AI solutions and be ‘Intelligent Customers’ in the field of AI.

• Supporting the recruitment of people in Defence with the right skills to embed AI now and in the future, as Defence seeks to deliver on its strategic objectives to be world-leading in the field of AI.

• Mapping out how people in Defence can grow, develop and progress within the AI community.

• Supporting closer industry engagement, including the provision of secondments, to ensure skills remain relevant and up-to-date.

• Supporting closer Academic engagement, including the provision of deep learning opportunities, to enhance the skills Defence can call upon. 

• Enabling a wider Defence understanding of the range of skills available to it, through the creation and maintenance of mechanisms to understand and map current skills within the civilian and military workforce.

• Supporting engagement and communication of the role of DAIC and the possible value of AI tools and techniques across Defence and partners across Government, industry and Academia.   

• Supporting wider DAIC implementation plans in a range of areas, as we develop a deeper understanding of where DAIC can maximise value to Defence.  

• Providing line management of a small team.

In this role, you’ll need to use your experience of collaboratively designing and implementing plans, in order to develop a skills and capability framework through to adoption and implementation.

You’ll need excellent communication and relationship building skills, interacting with a range of internal and external organisations, including MOD colleagues, cross-Government partners, start-ups, SMEs, Academia and wider industry; mobilising, attracting, and engaging internal and external stakeholders.

Developing an understanding of the bigger picture, you’ll use industry perspectives and experiences to direct the specific activities that will help our outcomes become operational, adapting to a rapidly evolving, fast-paced environment.

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).

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.

Where business needs allow, some roles may be 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.

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. 

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

• Leadership
• Communicating and Influencing
• Working Together
• Developing Self and Others

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

• Maintaining Delivery Momentum
• Planning

Alongside your salary of £57,670, Ministry of Defence contributes
£15,570 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 with a dedicated minimum of 5 days per year
• 25 days paid annual leave rising (by 1 day per year) to 30 days upon completion of five years’ service
• Ability to roll up to 10 days annual leave per year
• In addition to eight public holidays per year, you will also receive leave for HM The King’s birthday
• A Civil Service pension with an average employer contribution of 27%
• Parental and Adoption Leave
• Discounts on a range of services within and external to the civil service – Defence Discount Service, Civil Service societies for Sports and Leisure, Healthcare, Insurance, Motoring, Company discounts with Virgin, Vodafone, and Microsoft Office.
• In year rewards and ‘thank you’ schemes such as vouchers and gift cards
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
• Please see Benefits Leaflet for more detail

Our people are at the heart of everything we do at Defence Digital. It’s vital that our workforce reflects the diversity of both our audience and the wider society in the UK, so we’re proud to be an equal opportunities employer and we actively seek candidates from diverse backgrounds and communities. We also recognise the importance of a good work life balance, so we do everything we can to accommodate flexible working, including part-time and job shares for all our roles. Please let us know in your application or at any stage throughout the process if this is something you want to explore.

Defence Digital operates an organisation model in which every individual belongs to a Government Profession. The successful applicant will be posted into one of the defined Government Professions on Standard Terms of Reference for the grade. Defence digital reserves the right to move individuals between roles, within their allocated profession, to meet the needs of the business and in support of agile resourcing.

Within Defence Digital each profession is led by a Professional Head of Community who will lead professional development and support the Continuous Professional Development path for their group.

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.

The post does not offer relocation expenses.

External recruits who join the MOD who are new to the Civil Service will be subject to a six-month probation period.

Please Note: Expenses incurred for travel to interviews will not be reimbursed.

Please be advised that the Department is conducting a review of all pay related allowances which could impact on those allowances that the post currently being advertised attracts.

Any move to MOD 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/.

The Ministry of Defence is committed to providing a safe and healthy working environment for its staff which includes educating them on the benefits of not smoking, protecting them from the harmful effects of second-hand smoke and supporting those who want to give up smoking. Under the Smoke-Free Working Environment policy, Smoking and the use of all tobacco products (including combustible and chewing tobacco products) will not be permitted anywhere in the Defence working environment however some exemptions are in place, please refer to local guidance. The policy is Whole Force and includes all Defence personnel, contractors, visitors and other non-MOD personnel. All applicants seeking, considering, or accepting employment with the Ministry of Defence should be aware of this policy and that it is already in place at a number of Defence Establishments.

MOD Recruitment Satisfaction Survey – we may contact you regarding your experience to help us improve our customer satisfaction. The survey is voluntary and anonymous. You may however be given the opportunity to provide additional information to help us improve our service which includes the collection of some personal data as defined by the United Kingdom General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR). The MOD Privacy Notice sets out how we will use your personal data and your rights.

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Job contact :

• Name : Defence Digital Talent Acquisition Team
• Email : ukstratcomdd-hr-talentacqdel@mod.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : DBSCivPers-Resourcingteam3@mod.gov.uk