Talent Manager

Job summary

The UK AI Security Institute is the world's largest and best-funded team dedicated to understanding the capabilities and impacts of advanced AI and developing practical risk mitigations. We’re in the heart of the UK government with direct lines to No. 10, and we work with frontier developers and governments globally.

We’re here because governments are critical for advanced AI going well, and UK AISI is uniquely positioned to mobilise them. With our resources, agility and international influence, this is the best place to shape both AI development and government action to ensure AI systems are deployed safely and responsibly.

Former DSIT recruitment campaigns are continuing as usual, but candidates should be aware that following the Government’s announcement on the changes to some civil service departments, roles will be subject to the machinery of government moves and will ultimately be in one of the new departments. We will provide more information if you are selected for a role. This work remains of high importance to the civil service, and we thank you for your continued interest.

Job description

The Talent & Operations team is central to AISI's ability to deliver — a small, ambitious function responsible for attracting, assessing and appointing the exceptional people AISI needs: frontier AI researchers, ML engineers, policy specialists and operational leaders. We work across four programmes — AISI, Sovereign AI, the i.AI Incubator and No. 10 — partnering directly with senior leaders.

We are proud of what we've built: a hiring manager NPS of +38, a live ATS and real-time MI reporting, and a culture that takes quality seriously. We operate with the pace, ambition and standards of a high-performing private-sector talent team, inside an organisation doing some of the most important work in UK government.

This G7 role is a new, genuinely senior position, created to provide the senior delivery capacity, line management and strategic project leadership that AISI's growing pipeline requires.

Primary objective: To lead AISI's most complex and highest-stakes recruitment campaigns end-to-end, line manage and develop HEO Talent Partners, and own strategic talent projects that improve how AISI attracts and retains exceptional people.

Core responsibilities:

• Lead the most complex campaigns and team builds end-to-end — scoping, assessment design through to offer — for AISI's highest-stakes roles.
• Train hiring managers to recruit well, and provide expert advice on strategy, market realities and assessment design.
• Lead the design and governance of the Research Unit's internal mobility and promotion framework, setting clear progression standards.
• Design bespoke assessment frameworks for specialist technical and senior roles (structured interviews, stakeholder engagement exercises, practical tasks).
• Line manage 1–2 HEO Talent Partners — objectives, structured feedback, coaching on complex cases, professional growth.
• Act as first point of escalation for the HEO team on compliance, stakeholder and process issues, freeing the G6 Head of Recruitment Operations for senior work.
• Own optimisation of the Greenhouse ATS and recruitment tooling; build and maintain MI/reporting frameworks giving live visibility of pipeline health, time to hire and hiring quality.
• Build market presence — relationships with specialist talent communities, employer-brand representation, and proactive pipeline strategies with sourcing partners.

Impact: Sets and models the standard for campaign quality, candidate experience and hiring manager engagement across the function, making a visible and lasting impact on how AISI hires.

Measurable success: 90 days — embedded, owning a portfolio of complex campaigns and line managing effectively. 6 months — delivered improvements to assessment/tooling and evidenced impact via MI. 1 year — demonstrable uplift in hiring quality, time to hire and hiring manager satisfaction, plus an established RU mobility/promotion framework.

Person specification

Essential

• Significant experience delivering end-to-end recruitment for complex, specialist or senior roles in a fast-moving organisation, with demonstrable accountability for outcomes and specific improvements driven.
• The seniority and confidence to partner credibly with Director and Deputy Director level hiring managers, provide expert advice and push back constructively when needed.
• Ability to set clear standards, develop capability in others and act as a trusted, effective point of escalation.
• Strong project management and process improvement capability; comfortable driving and delivering strategic initiatives.
• A data-driven approach to recruitment — comfortable using MI and metrics to identify problems, drive decisions and demonstrate impact.
• Sound judgement under pressure, balancing pace, quality and compliance without letting any collapse.
• Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills; adapts style, builds trust quickly and manages competing priorities.

Preferred

• Experience recruiting in highly competitive technical markets (AI, data science, engineering or adjacent).
• Familiarity with Civil Service Recruitment Principles, SCS appointment processes or GRS campaign management.
• Experience optimising an ATS (Greenhouse or equivalent) in a live environment.
• A genuine interest in AI safety and the work of AISI.

Behaviours

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

• Delivering at Pace
• Seeing the Big Picture
• Managing a Quality Service
• Working Together

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).

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.

Office attendance

The Department operates a discretionary hybrid working policy, which provides for a combination of working hours from your place of work and from your home in the UK. The current expectation for staff is to attend the off