Incubator for AI (i.AI) - Sourcing Partner

Job summary

The Incubator for Artificial Intelligence (i.AI) is the UK government’s engine room for building products that shape national outcomes. We will be building tools used daily by thousands of civil servants, directly impacting millions of citizens. We take on the hardest problems in government, backed directly by No10, and solve them with a small, high-performing team. Our work is shaping how government adopts AI in practice; through what we build, who we hire, and the standards we set.

Founding Sourcing Team

The Sourcing Team will define the calibre of talent inside i.AI. We’re creating a new headhunting function that will drive candidate engagement and direct sourcing.
In these early roles, you will set the standard for how we identify and engage exceptional engineers, operators, and designers. You will build the networks, reputation, and systems that make i.AI a destination for Britain’s most talented builders.

Over time, this team will become one of the most important levers for the UK’s AI capability: consistently bringing in individuals who raise the bar, accelerate delivery, and compound the effectiveness of everyone around them. The people who join now will shape not just hiring outcomes, but the long-term quality, ambition and recognition of the organisation itself.

Job description

Find and attract top talent

• Develop a deep, non-obvious understanding of the UK AI talent landscape across startups, frontier labs and hacker houses, and then become part of that world.
• Create and deliver effective search strategies for niche technical roles and senior civil service positions. Delivering at impressive speed whilst giving each candidate an outstanding experience.

Build lasting relationships

• Identify talent through direct outreach, introductions, and events. Create and maintain these connections as friends, thought partners, or sounding boards. You are helping them do the most impressive thing they can.

Create a community and run exciting events

• Attend and run exciting and relevant events to build relationships with key organisations and candidates.
• Experiment with partnerships, meetups and sponsorship to grow brand recognition.

Collaborate across teams

• Partner closely with senior members of the Civil Service and technical staff to define role requirements, selection strategies, and candidate evaluation processes.
• Work alongside the wider Talent Operations team to ensure each candidate has a superior experience from first conversation to final offer.

Person specification

You’d be a great fit if you have some of the below:

Essential Criteria

• Experience sourcing and engaging high-calibre talent.
• Strong understanding of the UK AI ecosystem, particularly startups and frontier labs.
• Ability to design and deliver search strategies.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills.
• Evidence of building and maintaining long-term talent pipelines and professional networks.
• A proactive approach to work and a willingness to learn quickly.
• Ability to work at pace while maintaining quality and exceptional candidate experience.

Desirable Criteria

• Experience in an in-house sourcing, research, or executive search role within a technical or research-driven organisation.
• Familiarity with applicant tracking systems, sourcing tools, and data-led approaches to recruitment.
• Has run events or communities before.

Behaviours

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

• Delivering at Pace
• Communicating and Influencing
• Working Together
• Seeing the Big Picture

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £40,415, Department for Science, Innovation & Technology contributes £11,708 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.

What We Offer

Career-defining projects with outsized impact

• Backing from the Prime Minister and No10 to scope and build transformative AI projects.
• Unique opportunities to apply technology that could transform the public sector and impact citizens’ lives.
• Talented, supportive and mission-driven colleagues.

Resources & access

• Access to frontier models and ample compute.
• Extensive operational, product, strategy, design and delivery support so you can focus on shipping.
• Work with experts across national security, policy, AI research and adjacent sciences.

Growth & empowerment

• A team culture and development support that prioritises personal growth.
• Opportunities to own important products early and develop them in small empowered teams.
• 5 days off learning and development, annual stipends for learning and development and funding for conferences and external collaborations.

Life & family*

• Opportunity to work from London, Manchester or Bristol offices.
• Contract Type: Fixed-term (24 months) please feel free to ask about this.
• Hybrid working, flexibility for occasional remote work abroad and stipends for work-from-home equipment.
• Generous annual leave - 25 days plus one additional day for each year of service
• Generous paid parental leave (up to 39 weeks full pay + option for additional unpaid time).
• On top of your salary, we contribute 28.97% of your base salary to your pension.
• Discounts and benefits for cycling to work, dental insurance, donations and retail/gyms.

*These benefits apply to direct employees. Benefits may differ for people joining through other employment arrangements such as secondments.

Things you need to know

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.

Sift : Application sift. Applications will be sifted on CV and a personal statement (max 500 words).

Stage 1: Initial interview (30 minutes). Shortlisted candidates will be invited to an initial interview to see how the role aligns to the candidate’s experience.

Stage 2: Presentation and assessment (45 minutes). Progressed candidates will be invited to a behavioural and presentation-based interview. This will assess your ability to identify top talent and communities, suggest interesting events to attend and why we should attend them.

Stage 3: Final round interview (30 minutes). Candidates who progress will be invited to an interview with senior members of the team.

Timeline: We aim to move quickly through this process. Candidates can expect to hear the outcome of each stage within one week.

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 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.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see theCivil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

Apply and further information

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. Read more about prison leaver recruitment (opens in new window).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 : Eliza Cudmore
• Email : Eliza.cudmore@dsit.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : Eliza.cudmore@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/