Product Manager- Senior to Lead- G7-G6

Job summary

About the Incubator for AI (i.AI)

The Incubator for AI (i.AI) is a fast moving, autonomous technical unit within the UK government. Our mission is to pioneer transformative applications of AI to build a better Britain.

We operate under three core principles:

Talent: We bring together the UK’s best AI talent across a range of functions. You will work alongside exceptional researchers and top government leaders, staying at the cutting edge of technology.

Innovation: We set precedents for what is possible in government. We combine the pace of a start-up with the influence of being at the digital centre of government. You will test new ideas, expand what is possible, and leverage unique government data to create novel solutions.

Impact: We are dedicated to using AI as a tool for public good - this can mean improving outcomes in schools, boosting housebuilding or providing more personalised support for those in need. With the backing of the Prime Minister, you will turn technical breakthroughs into real-world applications that affect millions of citizens.

Job description

About the role

We are hiring experienced Product Managers at i.AI to work at the frontier of the industry, building products that solve real-world problems for the public sector. Your job is to take ideas at the edge of what’s possible and turn them into products that reshape how the country works.

We are hiring at mid to lead level and have multiple roles available.

You’ll be working on:

• Product Vision & Discovery: Set direction for your product, spend real time with users, and translate frontier AI capabilities into a clear product hypothesis. Reduce the biggest uncertainties first, not the easiest.
• Evaluation & Performance: Work with engineers to define what “good enough” looks like, build evaluation sets, and weigh adoption metrics and user outcomes alongside model scores.
• Senior Stakeholder Navigation: Build relationships with partner departments and senior leaders. Explain trade-offs honestly to audiences who may be sceptical or unfamiliar with the technology.
• Delivery: Do what’s needed to get the product into users’ hands - across comms, procurement, integration and adoption. You’ll typically work alongside a Delivery Manager and engage hands-on wherever the product needs you.
• Communication & Translation: Speak the languages of the cross-functional team made up of engineers, designers, user researchers, policy leads. Tailor every message to its audience, from a Slack thread to a briefing for senior officials.
• Team Leadership & Collaboration: Influence without positional authority, know when to lead and when to listen, and actively coach colleagues, including more junior PMs.
• Prioritisation, Strategy & Accountability: Own the product’s direction and outcomes. Build strategy through written product documents that generate alignment before a prototype is built.
• Community & Capability Building: Help grow the product practice at i.AI — sharing emerging approaches to AI product development and raising the bar for how the team thinks and works.

Person specification

Who are we looking for?

You may be a good fit if you have some of the following:

• Proven experience shipping AI or ML-powered products end-to-end from idea and MVP through to iteration and impactful scaled adoption.
• Experience working in zero-to-one or early-stage contexts where the brief was unclear and you had to define it.
• Comfort operating where adoption is shaped by factors beyond the product such as policy, trust, organisational readiness, risk appetite.
• An entrepreneurial mindset and an ability to create clarity from ambiguity.

Experienced Candidates

For candidates applying at Lead level, we expect to see:

• Frontier product experience: Deep, hands-on experience shipping AI or ML-powered products at pace and enough that your judgement on AI product trade-offs gives the team a real advantage.
• AI product ownership: Proven ability to own complex, production-grade AI products from concept through launch and scaled adoption, including evaluation design, failure modes, user trust, and post-launch iteration.
• Strategy & prioritisation: Track record of setting product vision in ambiguous problem spaces and using OKRs (or equivalent) to align teams around the highest-leverage work.
• Cross-functional leadership: Demonstrated ability to lead a cross-functional team without positional authority. Familiarity with agile and the behavioural dynamics that determine whether a team performs.
• Coaching & mentorship: Track record of coaching more junior PMs and cultivating good AI product practice. Ability to design and run effective workshops and use written documents (strategy memos, PRDs) to build shared understanding.
• Problem definition: Exceptional ability to identify high-value opportunities and translate them into clear, technically grounded plans developed in genuine partnership with your tech lead.
• Cross-functional influence: Experience representing the product credibly to ministers, directors, or equivalent senior audiences.
• Risk & ethics: Proven ability to identify, mitigate, and clearly articulate the technical, ethical, and safety risks of deploying frontier AI models in sensitive environments.

We recognise that great talent comes from diverse backgrounds. Even if you don’t meet every quality listed, we encourage you to apply if you have the core skills and a passion for our mission.

Technical skills

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

• Those who progress will then attend an interview, which will include questions on their application, a technical assessment based on facilitating a team planning session across a multidisciplinary team around a product vision or goal

Benefits

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).

Salary explanation

Salary is paid within the grade range shown below. We are assessing candidates from Senior to Lead Product Manager and you will be offered either G7 or G6 in line with your prior experience and interview result.

As this is a GDAD role, the maximum salary includes a non-pensionable technical allowance, and successful candidates will be appointed somewhere within that range depending on assessment.

Grade 7

• National: £56,850 to £63,240 (max includes £6,390 non-pensionable allowance)
• London: £61,620 to £70,834 (max includes £9,214 non-pensionable allowance)

Grade 6

• National: £69,675 to £77,824 (max includes £8,149 non-pensionable allowance)
• London: £74,605 to £86,262 (max includes £11,657 non-pensionable allowance)

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.

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 Experience and Technical skills.

Selection Process

Candidates will be required to submit a CV and responses to two application questions.

Further details around what this will entail are listed on the application form.

Applications will be sifted against the essential criteria, including relevant experience and motivation for the role.

Shortlisted candidates will be invited to a preliminary call.

Those who progress will then attend an interview, which will include questions on their application, a technical assessment based on facilitating a team planning session across a multidisciplinary team around a product vision or goal, and a behavioural interview.

Further details of the technical assessment will be provided in advance.

The final stage will also include a 30-minute conversation with a Senior Civil Servant.

Sift and interview dates

Sift and interview dates to be confirmed.

Further Information

Reasonable Adjustment

We are proud to be a disability confident leader and we welcome applications from disabled candidates and candidates with long-term conditions.

Information about the Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) and some examples of adjustments that we offer to disabled candidates and candidates with long-term health conditions during our recruitment process can be found in our DSIT Candidate Guidance. A DSIT Plain Text Version of the guidance is also available.

We encourage candidates to discuss their adjustment needs by emailing the job contact which can be found under the contact point for applicants@ section.

If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the 'Contact point for applicants' section.

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

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

Candidates who meet the minimum benchmark may be placed on a Reserve List for consideration for similar roles, including those at a lower grade. Candidates who narrowly miss the benchmark and are not placed on the Reserve List may still be considered for an offer in a similar role at a lower grade.

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

Any move to the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology 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.

DSIT does not normally offer full home working (i.e., working at home); but we do offer a variety of flexible working options (including occasionally working from home).

DSIT cannot offer Visa sponsorship to candidates through this campaign.

DSIT holds a Visa sponsorship licence but this can only be used for certain roles and this campaign does not qualify.

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.

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.

Appointment is conditional on successfully completing UK Government SC clearance. Prior clearance is not required — we will sponsor and support you. You should normally have been resident in the UK for 2 of the past 5 years. Employment is conditional on obtaining and maintaining the required clearance(s).

For further information on National Security Vetting please visit the Demystifying Vetting website.

Feedback

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 (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.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 : Ben Sams
• Email : ben.sams@dsit.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : ben.sams@dsit.gov.uk

Attachments

DSIT T&Cs v1.2 Opens in new window (docx, 179kB)