At DSIT we’re all about improving people’s lives by maximising the potential of science & technology.

We accelerate innovation, investment and productivity through world-class science, research and development.

We use technology for good by ensuring new and existing technologies are safely developed and deployed across the UK, with the benefits more widely shared.

We are driving forward a modern digital government which gives citizens a more satisfying experience and their time back.

We do all this to enable the Government’s 5 national missions: kickstarting economic growth, making Britain a clean energy superpower, taking back our streets, breaking down barriers to opportunity and building an NHS fit for the future.

Above all, we focus on improving people’s lives. Whether it’s researching new treatments for disease, developing better batteries, reducing burdens through better public services, keeping children safe online, and much more, outcomes for citizens are at the heart of what we do.

Our Inclusive Environment

We offer flexible working benefits, employee well-being support and a great pension. We are enormously proud to be a Disability Confident Leader employer. We support candidates with adjustments throughout our recruitment process. Information about disability confidence and just some examples of the adjustments that you can request can be found in the reasonable adjustment section below.

The Role and Our Team

This role sits within the Fund’s strategy and operations function. This function ensures the Fund works effectively, supporting areas such as:

• Strategy: the team develops the strategic direction of the Fund, driving the development of our theory of change, priority areas and focus as well as Fund objectives.
• Relationship Management: the team develops and maintains key relationships with portfolio companies, cross-government partners and industry.
• Stakeholder engagement and communications: the team develops and executes key stakeholder engagement plans to surface opportunities across both industry and Whitehall. Alongside this, the team owns key reporting requirements from both an internal and external perspective.

This is where the pace of our Fund meets operational rigour. This role sits at the centre of that.

Key Responsibilities

The Programme Manager and Governance Lead ensures the Sovereign AI Fund can make high-quality decisions at the pace the market demands while maintaining the governance standards expected of a public investment programme.

Core responsibilities include:

Governance

• Design, build and run the end-to-end governance cycle for the Fund, including its Investment Committee and Strategy Board - shaping how a new government fund makes decisions from day one.
• Maintain the delegated authority framework, decision audit trails and conflicts of interest registers across all of the Fund's offers.
• Prepare and quality-assure decision packs and performance reporting for professional investors, senior civil servants and external stakeholders.

Programme Management

• Own the programme plan, risk register and milestone tracker across the Fund.
• Drive cross-workstream coordination across investment, compute, grants and procurement - ensuring the Fund operates as one coherent machine.

Operational Delivery

• Manage the day-to-day relationships with the Fund's key delivery partners.
• Coordinate with commercial, legal and finance colleagues to navigate assurance requirements at pace.
• Spot and solve operational blockers before they become problems, creating the conditions for other teams to work effectively.

Essential Criteria

• Proven experience in programme management and governance in government or regulated environments.
• Genuine interest in emerging technologies and supporting UK innovation.
• Experience servicing senior boards or committees including agenda management, paper quality assurance, decision recording and action tracking.
• Strong commercial awareness and experience managing supplier or partner relationships.
• Ability to manage multiple complex workstreams simultaneously while maintaining accuracy and pace.
• Excellent stakeholder management across senior leaders, external partners and technical teams.
• Good organisational skills, with the ability to manage multiple tasks and deadlines.
• Clear, concise written communication skills.
• Comfortable operating in ambiguity and building processes from scratch.

Desirable Criteria

• Experience in or exposure to venture capital, investment management or fund operations.
• Experience with novel government programmes or programme start-ups where structures didn't yet exist.
• Knowledge of the UK AI or technology ecosystem.

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

• Delivering at Pace
• Communicating and Influencing
• Making Effective Decisions

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 office or non-home based location for 40-60% of the time over the accounting period.