Senior Engineering Manager (AI)

Job summary

We're MI6, also known as the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS). Our mission is to protect the security and economic wellbeing of the UK from overseas threats such as regional instability, terrorism, and cyber attacks. Working across the globe and in close partnership with MI5 and GCHQ, we help the Government to counter these threats through the provision of secret intelligence. You’ll provide vital support to this work, within a supportive and encouraging environment that puts the emphasis on teamwork.

MI6 Tech

We are looking for experienced professionals to collaborate on some of the biggest challenges facing the UK.

Operating at the heart of the mission, you’ll use your technical skills to protect the UK, disrupt the activities of hostile states, and exploit opportunities in the digital space.

Almost all of MI6’s operational work is underpinned by technology; from keeping our officers safe overseas to the secure platforms that connect our global partnerships. The challenges we face are complex, varied, and vast.

You will share our vision and values, and will work on seemingly impossible puzzles, to make the country safer and more prosperous.

This is what we do, every day, at MI6.

Job description

You’ll be in a dedicated team, introducing Artificial Intelligence (AI) into new, key areas of our operations. As a Senior Engineering Manager (AI), you’ll help shape how MI6 adopts, develops and governs the next generation of AI enabled engineering practices. This is a new and exciting opportunity to embed modern AI, including generative and agentic capabilities, into sensitive operational environments. You’ll lead teams, support the growth of engineering talent and work in an environment where creativity, autonomy and experimentation are encouraged.

You’ll provide leadership across AI focused engineering teams, helping them adopt AI assisted development, machine learning operations and modern software engineering practices. A significant part of the role involves reviewing and evaluating emerging AI technologies so teams can make informed, responsible choices. As the landscape evolves, you’ll advise senior stakeholders on what AI can realistically achieve and help them understand how best to use these capabilities.

Your influence will extend across multiple product areas, where you’ll help define engineering strategy, strengthen delivery mechanisms and support sound technical decision-making. You’ll work closely with Product, Principal Engineers and delivery leaders to ensure that AI tooling, AI assisted workflows and ML Ops practices are used effectively and ethically. Alongside this, you’ll nurture engineering talent, create the conditions for teams to thrive and ensure they have the practices, tools and support they need to deliver secure, sustainable and high quality systems.

This is a rare opportunity to help define how MI6 uses AI, working on unique challenges with meaningful real world impact. You’ll have the freedom to shape an emerging discipline, influence strategic direction and contribute to an environment that embraces innovation, encourages curiosity and recognises the vital importance of engineering.

Person specification

You’re an experienced engineering leader with a strong foundation as a hands on engineer and a proven history of technical leadership. You’ve managed engineering teams before and have built a reputation for getting the best out of people, helping them grow and creating the conditions for high performing teams. You understand that effective engineering leadership is as much about supporting individuals as it is about delivering technology.

Your technical grounding is robust. You’ve contributed directly to software engineering and you’re credible when discussing architecture, delivery practices and product engineering models. You’ll bring experience across cloud, modern development patterns and engineering processes, and you’re comfortable guiding teams through complex technical decisions. Crucially, you have demonstrable experience of shaping and driving the adoption of AI-assisted development tools or MLOps practices, using them to improve engineering productivity, quality or delivery.

You’re strategic and pragmatic, equally comfortable shaping direction with senior leaders and working with engineers to solve challenging technical issues. You can explain what’s possible, and what isn’t, with clarity and confidence, and you understand how to apply AI safely, securely and ethically. You stay curious, keep up to date with emerging tools and techniques, and can critically evaluate new technologies, build the case for adoption and lead their implementation where they can add value.

You can demonstrate how you have accelerated the responsible adoption of AI across engineering teams, including the decisions you made, the barriers you addressed and the resulting impact on engineering practices and outcomes.

You can build strong relationships across teams, partner effectively with product and delivery colleagues, and support the development of sound engineering practices. You’re motivated by thoughtful leadership, continuous improvement and the opportunity to help teams contribute to work with real world mission impact.

Benefits

Training and development

You’ll be joining a community that invests in helping people to grow their skills. You’ll have access to a broad mix of learning opportunities, from structured classroom courses to online modules, technical deep dives and tailored development pathways that reflect your interests and the needs of the organisation. This includes support to strengthen your experience across AI assisted engineering, cloud technologies, modern software engineering practices and wider leadership skills.

We’ll support you with the Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework. You’ll also have the chance to work towards formal accreditation and professional recognition with multiple professional bodies. Whether you choose to specialise further or broaden your capability, you’ll have the guidance and support you need to progress.

You’ll also benefit from mentoring, peer support and a collaborative community that shares knowledge openly. You’ll have the opportunity to rotate across different teams, explore emerging technologies and contribute to shaping how MI6 evolves its AI and engineering practices. As you grow, you’ll have the space to explore new areas, develop your expertise and play an active role in strengthening our engineering capability across the organisation.

Rewards and benefits

The benefits include:

• 25 days annual leave, automatically rising to 30 days after 5 years' service
• an additional 10.5 days of public and privilege holidays
• opportunities to be recognised through our employee performance scheme
• interest-free season ticket loan (travel and parking)
• pension scheme with employer contributions of at least 28.97%
• cycle to work scheme
• a subsidised gym and an on-site restaurant/coffee shop
• paid parental and adoption leave

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

Equal opportunities

At MI6 diversity and inclusion are critical to our mission. To protect the UK, we need a truly diverse workforce that reflects the society we serve. This includes those with different backgrounds, ages, ethnicities, gender identities, sexual orientations, ways of thinking and those with disabilities or neurodivergence. We therefore welcome and encourage applications from everyone, including those from groups that are under-represented in our workforce such as women, those from an ethnic minority background, people with disabilities and those from lower socio-economic backgrounds.

• Find out more on our website.

Offer of Interview

We are committed to providing equitable opportunities throughout the recruitment process to support candidates with disabilities. As part of this, we aim to ensure that a fair and proportionate number of disabled applicants, who best meet the essential minimum criteria for this position, will be offered an interview if it is practical for us to do so. (This is known as the ‘Offer of Interview’.)

To secure an interview for this role, the minimum criteria (in order of application process) are:

• Reaching the minimum pass mark for the online Situational Judgement Test which looks at your ability to problem solve.
• Demonstrating technical experience gained from a career in engineering roles, including as an individual contributor. To be assessed at sift.
• Demonstrating your ability to lead and manage engineers, with a focus on personal development, skills growth, mentoring, and process improvement. To be assessed at sift.
• Demonstrating your familiarity with AI-assisted development tools and/or other ML Ops/ AI frameworks and how you have used these to improve to accelerate engineering outcomes. To be assessed at sift.

There is a wide range of extra support available throughout the recruitment process to enable you to do your best.

• Visit our website for information on the reasonable adjustments we can offer.

What to expect

Our recruitment process is fair, transparent, and based on merit. You must successfully pass each stage of the process to progress to the next. Here is a brief overview of each stage, in order:

1. An initial online application form including pre-screening questions to ensure you meet our eligibility criteria.
2. Online Situational Judgement Test (SJT) rating the appropriateness of your responses to a series of short scenarios.
3. Application sift looking at your skills and motivation for the role and organisation.
4. An online HR interview focusing on motivation and competencies important to the role.
5. If successful at the HR interview, you will be invited to a face to face technical assessment based around the GDDPC (DDaT) framework.
6. If successful, you’ll receive an offer of employment, conditional on passing through our vetting process.

Your application may take around 6 to 9 months to process, including vetting, so we advise you to continue with any employment unless you receive a confirmed job offer.

This role requires the highest security clearance, known as Developed Vetting (DV). Find out more about the vetting process.

Before you apply

Please note we have a strict drugs policy, so once you start your application, you can’t take any recreational drugs and you’ll need to declare any previous drug usage at the relevant stage.

Familiarise yourself with our guidance on the use of artificial intelligence in applications.

We advise you to consider setting up a dedicated email address for your contact with us, to ensure your personal and application correspondence remain separate. Try to avoid having identifying features in your email address, such as your first name and/or surname and date of birth.

The role is based in London so you’ll need to live within a commutable distance. Please consider any financial implications and practicalities before submitting an application, as we do not offer relocation costs.

We offer reasonable reimbursement of travel costs for candidates attending in person interviews or assessments during the recruitment and vetting process. Full details will be provided with your interview or assessment invitation.

Reimbursement is discretionary and will only be made in line with the Candidate Expenses Policy, as amended from time to time. Candidates must book their own travel, using the most economical option, and provide original hardcopy receipts for reimbursement.

Please do not discuss your application with anyone, apart from your partner or close family member.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo an enhanced (or equivalent) criminal record check.Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is developed vetting (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

Open to UK nationals only.

Working for the Civil Service

Please note this Post is NOT regulated by the Civil Service Commission.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.

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

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 : The Recruitment Team
• Email : careers@recruitmentoffice.org.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : careers@recruitmentoffice.org.uk

Further information

https://www.sis.gov.uk/careers/