Location
Remote working (anywhere in the UK)
Salary: £78,000 to £85,000 (including a £10,000 market rate allowance), plus a further £5,000 for candidates based in London.
About the job
Job summary
This post is open to applicants who can meet the College’s nationality, UK residency and vetting requirements.
About us:
PoliceAI is a nationally significant technology and transformation programme in UK policing. Backed by central government investment and positioned at the heart of the police reform agenda, PoliceAI is the new National Centre for AI in Policing, helping to shape how policing uses data, technology and artificial intelligence to tackle crime, protect the public and modernise frontline operations.
We bring together operational policing, technical expertise, product delivery, assurance and the responsible use of AI to develop and scale capabilities that improve public safety outcomes. Our work helps forces respond more effectively to demand, strengthen investigations, identify risk and harm earlier, and free up frontline time for the activities that matter most to communities.
This is an opportunity to contribute to a programme with national reach and meaningful public service impact, helping to define how AI is developed, governed and adopted across one of the UK’s most important public services. The work is varied and complex, moves at pace, and has the potential to deliver better tools for policing, better outcomes for the public, and stronger foundations for the responsible use of AI.
PoliceAI is hosted within the College of Policing.
About the College of Policing:
Our mission is: Leadership, Standards, Performance. This guides our work with individuals, forces, and policing partners towards our vision. We exist to support police officers, police staff and volunteers to deliver the best service to the public. Only through high quality leadership, consistent standards and continual performance improvement can everyone in policing reach their full potential. Our mission guides our work with individual, forces and partners towards our vision.
We offer a supportive and inclusive environment for people to thrive through our extensive flexible-working policy, employee wellbeing support, family friendly policies, and status as a disability confident leader.
Location
Remote working (anywhere in the UK). Please note, some travel may be required.
Job description
We are looking for people who are motivated by public service, interested in responsible innovation, and comfortable working collaboratively across organisational, operational and technical boundaries. Joining PoliceAI means contributing to a supportive, multidisciplinary team that is helping to shape the future of policing and ensure AI is used in ways that are effective, responsible, operationally useful and worthy of public trust.
As a Senior AI Engineer at PoliceAI, you will lead hands-on engineering across both AI product development and support for testing, evaluation, verification and validation (TEVV). Working with end-users, product owners and subject matter experts, you will translate policing needs into technical solutions and the engineering capability needed to assess AI products.
You will build secure, maintainable and scalable services, while working with Data Science & Evaluation to develop reusable test harnesses, integrations and tooling for TEVV of internally developed and third-party AI products. Collaborating with platform engineers, software engineers, user-centred designers and governance colleagues, you will support repeatable assessment of system performance, limitations and suitability for intended policing use.
Reporting to the Head of Engineering, success means owning complex engineering delivery across product development and TEVV support, remaining hands-on in code and raising quality through design review, reusable patterns and coaching AI Engineers to support trusted AI adoption across England & Wales policing.
Additional Information:
We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles.
Due to our status as Public Servants, we are not eligible to participate in the Civil Service transfer process. Therefore, while successful candidates can transfer into the organisation on their existing terms and conditions, any move back to the Civil Service may mean that continuity of service is not automatically recognised by the receiving department, and new starter or modernised terms and conditions may apply, subject to the receiving department's policies and arrangements. However, employees who move directly to a Civil Service department without a break in service may retain continuity of service for redundancy and pension purposes.
Any previous service with local government or other external Modification Order bodies will not be carried forward or count when calculating redundancy entitlement.
The College embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we comply with the Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) and apply the minimum selection criteria at sift stage of the recruitment process. Where necessary, we may increase the minimum selection criteria to support the effective management of the recruitment process, while ensuring our approach remains fair, transparent and consistent with our Disability Confident commitments.
Person specification
Some of your responsibilities will include:
Leading the design, development and deployment of AI-enabled products, translating operational needs into scalable, secure and effective technical solutions.
Building and maintaining reusable testing, evaluation and integration tooling to support the TEVV of internally developed and third-party AI products.
Making technical decisions across architecture, data flows, APIs, model deployment, security and performance, ensuring solutions are fit for policing use.
Supporting live AI services through monitoring, automated testing, incident resolution and continuous improvement.
Providing technical leadership, coaching engineers and working with multidisciplinary teams to improve engineering standards and delivery quality.
To be successful in this role you’ll need
Proven experience leading the end-to-end delivery of complex AI or machine learning solutions from user need through to production deployment and measurable outcomes.
Strong technical expertise in Python, AI/ML frameworks, AI application patterns and modern software engineering and MLOps practices.
Experience developing testing, evaluation or comparable tooling that supports the assessment and assurance of AI systems.
Experience designing, integrating and operating AI-enabled services, data pipelines and APIs within cloud-based environments
The ability to provide technical leadership, coach others and communicate technical decisions, risks and findings to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
Please see theattached job description which contains full details of the role. Please read the key criteria section in the job description (linked with the advert) carefully before applying. Applications will only be considered from candidates who can clearly demonstrate that they meet the essential requirements outlined for the role.
Behaviours
We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
Benefits
The College is a great place to work. We're passionate about our people and offer a wide range of benefits. The benefits we can offer include:
Defined benefit pension scheme with an employer contribution of 28.97%
Up to 31.5days holiday (this is in addition to 8 public holidays and 1 privilege days)
Role-specific learning and development, with continued professional development to help you progress your career
Enhanced maternity, paternity and adoption leave*
Flexi-time (for certain grades)
MyLifestyle platform which offers a wide range of shopping discounts with major retailers and includes access to discounted gym memberships, National Dental Plan, AXA Healthcare and the Cycle to Work scheme*
Interest free season ticket loans*
Rewards and recognition scheme
An environment with flexible working options
A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
* Please note benefits marked with an asterisk are available to College employees only. If you join us on a secondment, you will retain the terms and conditions of your substantive employer and will be eligible for all other benefits listed.
We also have a number of thriving staff networks that provide the opportunity for advice, support and to drive change. A place to get your voice heard, share experiences and challenge our working practices to ensure equality of opportunity for all.
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.
Selection process details
This vacancy is using success profile and will assess your Behaviours and Experience.
This post is open to applicants who can meet the College’s nationality, UK residency and vetting requirements.
Please note that in order to work for the College of Policing you must have the Right to Work in the UK with indefinite leave to remain. Any other type of visa cannot be accepted. In addition, you will also be required to provide an address history in the UK for the preceding 5 years. Applications that do not meet these requirements will be rejected at sift stage and will not be progressed to interview.
College vacancy reference: 7336 - please quote in correspondence.
This role is available for 24 months as afixed term appointment for external candidates or as a secondment opportunity to:
colleagues employed directly by the College or the Civil Service. Please note you will be required to obtain the written support of your line manager prior to submitting your application.
serving police officers substantive in the rank of Superintendent All applicants must have the support of their Chief Officer which must be of NPCC rank, i.e., CC, ACC or DCC and this must accompany an application.
serving police staff at the equivalent rank of Superintendent who have their chief officer's approval. Chief Officer’s approval must be of NPCC rank, i.e., CC, ACC or DCC. Approval for a secondment must accompany an application.
Police Staff and Officers may qualify for a non-pensionable Central Service Allowance (CSA).
For fixed Term contracts:
This fixed term contract is offered for a set period. However, it could be extended or made permanent should the circumstances allow.
Internal College applicants who are at risk of redundancy or in need of redeployment and pass the recruitment process, will be given priority over other applicants.
How to apply:
As part of the application process, you will be required to complete the following:
1) Curriculum Vitae (CV), not exceeding two sides of A4
2) Personal Statement (500 words maximum) - Your personal statement should provide a clear, concise, and compelling account of why you are applying for the role, the skills and experience you would bring, and how you meet the essential criteria. Use relevant, well-chosen examples to demonstrate your achievements and impact, drawing on STAR principles where appropriate. While evidence and examples are important, the statement should read as a coherent and engaging narrative rather than a series of separate responses to individual criteria.
To ensure you are assessed on merit alone, we ask you to anonymise your application. This means removing personal identifiers such as your name, age, and place of education. You do not need to remove your employment history, job titles, or any information about your work.
Initial CV Sift and Candidate Discussion
Where a high volume of applications is received, an initial sift may be conducted based on candidates' CV. As part of this process, shortlisted applicants may be invited to take part in a brief informal discussion to explore their experience, skills, and achievements in more detail before applications progress to the next stage.
This discussion will help assess suitability for the role and may be used to determine whether candidates proceed further in the selection process. Candidates who are successful at this stage may either be subject to a full sift or progressed directly to assessment and/or interview, depending on the number of applications received and the requirements of the recruitment process.
Interview
Anticipated interview dates: 5th and 6th November 2026 – subject to change due to operational priorities of the panel.
Interviews will be conducted via Microsoft Teams. As part of the assessment process, candidates will be required to deliver a10-minute presentation andcomplete a coding exercise. During the coding exercise, you will be expected to share your screen with the interview panel. Details of the presentation topic and coding exercise will be provided when you are invited to interview.
Interviews will include questions based on the listed behaviours and experience.
Our vetting
If you are successful at interview, you will be required to undertake pre-employment security checks. You will be sent a security questionnaire which must be accessed within 24 hours. Applicable vetting level NPPV3.
Please note, these checks can take up to 10 weeks. You will only be offered a start date after the checks have been completed. If the outcome of these checks is not satisfactory, your recommendation for employment will be withdrawn.
People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard 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).
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
Working for the Civil Service
The Civil Service Code 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.
Diversity and Inclusion
The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy.
Apply and further information
This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans initiative.
Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.
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