AI Capability and Engagement Officer

Job summary

Defra is the UK government department responsible for safeguarding our natural environment, supporting our world-leading food and farming industry, and sustaining a thriving rural economy. Our broad remit means we play a major role in people's day-to-day life, from the food we eat, and the air we breathe, to the water we drink.

Digital, Data, Technology and Security (DDTS) is the trusted team for digital across the entire Defra Group.

We have around 1000 colleagues across DDTS and our ambition is to make it easier and faster than ever for people to interact with Defra. If you are ready to drive innovation and push boundaries, we want to hear from you. Join us and together we will create a great place for living, and a green and healthy future for all.

Find out more about DDTS:

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Job description

The AI Capability and Engagement Officer will support the effective development, adoption and responsible use of AI across Defra. They will help to build organisational capability and engagement by crafting bespoke content to ensure teams can understand, access and apply AI appropriately and effectively across the department. They will work with business stakeholders to define capability needs, explore gaps and lead on the development of capability and engagement materials that create real impact.

This role feeds into a range of high-profile outcomes, both within the department and across government. It supports the modernisation of DDTS as an innovative, AI-confident digital partner to Defra's policy and operational goals. It further supports Defra’s strategic objectives in enabling responsible and scalable AI adoption over domains such as productivity improvement, regulatory efficiency and environmental outcomes. Finally, it supports the wider transition towards a future-facing, world-class Civil Service that harnesses the best of emerging technologies to transform our ways of working. The role will play an important part in ensuring AI technologies are explainable, relevant and inspiring to colleagues across Defra and its agencies.

The role will broadly:

• Manage stakeholder relationships to understand user needs and business developments as part of a wider AI capability offer
• Work independently on capability materials and guidance, and collaboratively with relevant teams and professions where required
• Have a good understanding of the work being delivered within the AI team, with an ability to communicate this work effectively to other stakeholders
• Develop and share best practice with the wider team and business analysts within DDTS
• Identify opportunities to expand or refine the existing capability offer in collaboration with the AI Strategy Lead and Head of AI Unit
• Ensure that the design of capability and engagement materials are consistent with AI strategy and required services.

Person specification

Responsibilities:

• Create, curate and maintain capability and engagement materials for the AI Unit. This includes time spent in identifying new materials to be developed and drafting and refining them.
• Meet with stakeholders across the Defra group to promote positive collaboration on shared AI capability and engagement. This includes anticipating needs, responding to challenge, managing conflict, and surfacing opportunities for join-up.
• Employ business analysis techniques to identify organisational capability needs and areas for improvement. Translate these into actionable solution proposals with consideration for cost, risks and benefits, and support on implementation where required.
• Use business process improvement techniques to analyse current capability and engagement processes, such as content distribution and approval mechanisms, and propose optimisations to improve the quality and efficiency of future processes.
• Share knowledge with colleagues and wider DDTS communities, and support in upskilling others around capability, engagement and AI. This may include the delivery of presentations, blogs or video content.

Skills:

This role aligns primarily with the the Business Analyst (HEO) role within the Government Digital and Data profession, with a specialist focus on stakeholder relationship management, user experience and capability development. For further information please see the framework here.

The role works at the intersection of business analysis, communications and user-centred design to develop a compelling capability and engagement offering that supports AI adoption across the organisation. The role is not eligible for the skills supplement, but the following technical skills are relevant and required for the role.

• Context, problem and option analysis: working level.
• Stakeholder relationship management: working level.
• User experience analysis: working level.

Experience:

• A background working in a digital, data, communications, or business analysis environment.
• Prior involvement in content management, knowledge management or engagement activities within an organisation.
• A working-level understanding of AI/data concepts, with an ability to communicate these to others.

Selection process

The Civil Service marks each element of the selection process on a merit basis. You can visit the gov.uk website for further information on the Civil Service rating scale.

Ensure you have tailored your CV and Personal Statement to the 'skills and experience' section of the job advert by providing examples on how you are suitable for the role. Consider using the STAR method which allows you to set the scene, show what and how you did and the overall outcome.

Please ensure you demonstrate clearly, within your personal statement, how you meet these requirements, as the information you provide will form a key part when the panel is scoring your application.

For further information on STAR, you can check out our Hints and Tips document.

Application process

As part of the application process, you will be assessed on your experience. This will be evaluated by looking at your CV and personal statement, so please provide the following and ensure your experience is clearly demons