About the job
The Incubator for AI (i.AI) is a high-agency technical unit within the UK government, building and shipping frontier AI systems that materially change how government works. We combine startup pace with national-scale impact, guided by three principles. Talent: we work with some of the best researchers, engineers and product people in government and beyond. Innovation: we move at startup speed inside one of the world's largest organisations. Impact: we apply AI for the public good across health, planning, education, and the work of government itself. We are based in London, Bristol and Manchester, with hybrid working.
Full Stack engineers at i.AI build the products and services that bring our AI capabilities to users: the interfaces, APIs, data layers, infrastructure and delivery pipelines that make AI safe, reliable and useful for citizens and civil servants. Our stack includes Python (Django, FastAPI), TypeScript, modern JS frameworks (React, Astro, Svelte), PostgreSQL, AWS and Terraform. We integrate frontier LLMs through providers and tooling such as Amazon Bedrock, and the AI-integration landscape evolves as the ecosystem matures. You will work in small cross-disciplinary teams alongside Applied AI Engineers, User Researchers, Designers and Product Managers.
Job summary
We build a portfolio of AI products at different stages of maturity, from early discovery through to services running at scale. You will be part of a small cross-disciplinary team working on one of these products, owning problems end-to-end and shipping real improvements for users. Over time you may move between products as priorities shift, giving you breadth across different problem domains and technologies. We’re looking for engineers who care as much about understanding the problem as writing the code, and who thrive when working closely with people from different disciplines.
Job description
Role responsibilities:
Work with your team to develop a deep understanding of the problem space, participating in discovery, interrogating assumptions, and aligning on what success looks like.
Shape technical approaches collaboratively, weighing trade-offs with designers, product managers and other engineers to arrive at solutions that work for users and the team.
Deliver working software across the full stack, from infrastructure and data layers through to APIs and user interfaces, in small, frequent increments.
Communicate openly by sharing progress, surfacing risks early, and documenting decisions so the team can move confidently.
Maintain high standards through automated testing, code review, and operational practices that keep services reliable.
Mentor and support other engineers through pairing, knowledge sharing, and constructive feedback.
Get stuck in beyond building features, whether that's participating in user research, supporting a live service, or picking up unfamiliar work to keep the team moving.
Person specification:
We’d love to hear from you if you have:
Strong experience building and maintaining production services across the stack, with depth in at least one backend language and one frontend framework.
A collaborative mindset. You believe the best outcomes come from people with different skills and backgrounds solving problems together, and you actively invest in that.
Experience shaping technical direction in ambiguous environments. You’re comfortable making decisions with incomplete information and revisiting them as you learn more.
Clear, proactive communication. You naturally keep people around you informed and bring others into decisions.
A commitment to quality through automated testing, code review, and thoughtful engineering practices.
Experience of the following would be beneficial:
Working in early-stage or greenfield product teams where the problem space is still being defined.
Familiarity with our tech stack or similar technologies (e.g., Python, TypeScript, React, Svelte, PostgreSQL, AWS, Terraform).
Experience building or integrating AI-powered features into production products, whether that’s working with LLM APIs, embedding models, or designing systems around AI capabilities.
Contributing to open source projects or engaging with the wider software community.
Behaviours
We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
Changing and improving
Communicating and influencing
Delivering at pace
What we offer
Career-defining projects with outsized impact
Backing from the Prime Minister and No10 to scope and build transformative AI projects.
Unique opportunities to apply technology that could transform the public sector and impact citizens’ lives.
Talented, supportive and mission-driven colleagues.
Resources & access
Access to frontier models and ample compute.
Extensive operational, product, strategy, design and delivery support so you can focus on shipping.
Work with experts across national security, policy, AI research and adjacent sciences.
Growth & empowerment
A team culture and development support that prioritises personal growth.
Opportunities to own important products early and develop them in small empowered teams.
5 days off learning and development, annual stipends for learning and development and funding for conferences and external collaborations.
Life & family*
Opportunity to work from London, Manchester or Bristol offices.
Hybrid working, flexibility for occasional remote work abroad and stipends for work-from-home equipment.
Generous annual leave - 25 days plus one additional day for each year of service
Generous paid parental leave (up to 39 weeks full pay + option for additional unpaid time).
On top of your salary, we contribute 28.97% of your base salary to your pension.
Discounts and benefits for cycling to work, dental insurance, donations and retail/gyms.
*These benefits apply to direct employees. Benefits may differ for people joining through other employment arrangements such as secondments.
Salary
Salary is paid within the grade range shown below.
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.
G7 - Base salary of £61,620-£68,570 for London or £56,850-63,980 for national, plus a skills-related allowance of up to £20,100.
Selection Process
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). More detail on clearance eligibility can be found on the UK Government website: National security vetting: clearance levels - GOV.UK
In accordance with the Civil Service Commission rules, the following list contains all elements of the selection process.
Candidates should expect to go through some or all of the following stages once an application has been submitted:
A short initial conversation
Technical take home test
Second interview in which we’ll review the technical test
Third interview with wider representation from the team
Final interview with members of the senior team
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 (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window) . As part of the application process, we monitor statistics on D&I. You can see how we process this data here: Recruitment privacy notice - GOV.UK .
Salary
£69,675 — £90,756 GBP