Senior Engineering Manager (AI) Ref. 3710

Job Description

Salary: £89,191 and recruitment and retention allowance of £11,380, with an opportunity to qualify for additional allowances and a skills-related payment under the Government Digital and Data Profession Capability (GDDPC) Framework - formerly known as DDaT.

Flexible working: we support full time, part time, compressed, job share and other flexible working patterns. Due to the sensitive nature of our work this is an office based role; remote or home working is not possible.

About us

We're MI6, also known as the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS). Our mission is to protect the security and economic wellbeing of the UK from overseas threats such as regional instability, terrorism, and cyber attacks. Working across the globe and in close partnership with MI5 and GCHQ, we help the Government to counter these threats through the provision of secret intelligence A role in MI6 will see you providing vital support to this work, within a supportive and encouraging environment that puts the emphasis on teamwork.

The role

We’re focused on bringing AI into some of our most mission critical areas, helping develop technologies that enhance how MI6 operates today and prepare us for the challenges of tomorrow. As a Senior Engineering Manager (AI), you’ll help shape how MI6 adopts, develops and governs the next generation of AI enabled engineering practices. This is a new and exciting opportunity to embed modern AI, including generative and agentic capabilities, into sensitive operational environments. You’ll lead teams, support the growth of engineering talent and work in an environment where creativity, autonomy and experimentation are encouraged, and where your work has a direct impact on national security.

You’ll provide leadership across AI focused engineering teams, helping them adopt AI assisted development, machine learning operations and modern software engineering practices. A significant part of the role involves reviewing and evaluating emerging AI technologies so teams can make informed, responsible choices. As the landscape evolves, you’ll advise senior stakeholders on what AI can realistically achieve and help them understand how best to use these capabilities.

Your influence will extend across multiple product areas, where you’ll help define engineering strategy, strengthen delivery mechanisms and support sound technical decision-making. You’ll work closely with Product, Principal Engineers and delivery leaders to ensure that AI tooling, AI assisted workflows and ML Ops practices are used effectively and ethically. Alongside this, you’ll nurture engineering talent, create the conditions for teams to thrive and ensure they have the practices, tools and support they need to deliver secure, sustainable and high quality systems.

This is a rare opportunity to help define how a public sector intelligence organisation uses AI, working on unique challenges with meaningful real world impact. You’ll have a key role in shaping an emerging discipline, influence strategic direction and contribute to an environment that embraces innovation, encourages curiosity and recognises the value engineers bring.

About you

You’re an experienced engineering leader with a strong foundation as a hands on engineer and a proven history of technical leadership. You’ve managed engineering teams before and have built a reputation for getting the best out of people, helping them grow and creating the conditions for high performing teams. You understand that effective engineering leadership is as much about supporting individuals as it is about delivering technology.

Your technical grounding is robust. You’ve contributed directly to software engineering and you’re credible when discussing architecture, delivery practices and product engineering models. You bring experience across cloud, modern development patterns and engineering processes, and you’re comfortable guiding teams through complex technical decisions. Crucially, you also have exposure to AI – whether through AI assisted development, MLOps practices or demonstrable experience improving engineering productivity with AI driven tools.

You’re strategic and pragmatic, equally comfortable shaping direction with senior leaders and working with engineers to solve challenging technical issues. You can explain what’s possible, and what isn’t, with clarity and confidence, and you understand how to apply AI safely, securely and ethically within an organisation like MI6. You stay curious, keep up to date with emerging tools and techniques, and enjoy reviewing and experimenting with new technologies to understand where they can add value.

Collaboration sits at the centre of how you work. You build strong relationships across teams, partner effectively with product and delivery colleagues, and support the development of sound engineering practices. You’re motivated by thoughtful leadership, continuous improvement and the opportunity to help teams contribute to work with real world mission impact.

Training and development

We take professional growth seriously, and you’ll be joining a community that invests deeply in the development of its engineers. You’ll have access to a broad mix of learning opportunities, from structured classroom courses to online modules, technical deep dives and tailored development pathways that reflect your interests and the needs of the organisation. This includes support to strengthen your experience across AI assisted engineering, cloud technologies, modern software engineering practices and wider leadership skills.

We’re committed to developing you and recognise this will look different for everyone. We’ll use the Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework (formerly known as DDaT) as a compass to provide guidance and tools to support you. You can find out more about the framework here: Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework. You’ll also have the chance to work with external professional bodies, including the Institute for Engineering and Technology and the British Computer Society, who provide routes to formal accreditation and professional recognition. Whether you choose to specialise further or broaden your capability, you’ll have the guidance and support needed to progress.

Alongside formal training, you’ll benefit from mentoring, peer support and a collaborative engineering community that shares knowledge openly. You’ll have the opportunity to rotate across different teams, explore emerging technologies and contribute to shaping how South evolves its AI and engineering practices. As you grow, you’ll have the space to explore new areas, develop your expertise and play an active role in strengthening our engineering capability across the organisation.

Rewards and benefits

You’ll receive a starting salary of £89,191 and a recruitment and retention allowance of £11,380, plus other benefits including:

• 25 Days Annual Leave automatically rising to 30 days after 5 years' service, and an additional 10.5 days public and privilege holidays
• opportunities to be recognised through our employee performance scheme
• interest-free season ticket loan (travel and parking)
• excellent pension scheme
• cycle to work scheme
• facilities such as a gym, restaurant, and on-site coffee bars (at some locations)
• paid parental and adoption leave

Equal opportunities

At MI6 diversity and inclusion are critical to our mission. To protect the UK, we need a truly diverse workforce that reflects the society we serve. This includes diversity in every sense of the word: those with different backgrounds, ages, ethnicities, gender identities, sexual orientations, ways of thinking and those with disabilities or neurodivergent conditions. We therefore welcome and encourage applications from everyone, including those from groups that are under-represented in our workforce such as women, those from an ethnic minority background, people with disabilities and those from low socio-economic backgrounds.

Find out more about our culture, working environment and diversity on our website.

Offer Of Interview

We are committed to providing equitable opportunities throughout the recruitment process to support candidates with disabilities. As part of this, we aim to ensure that a fair and proportionate number of disabled applicants who best meet the essential minimum criteria for this position, will be offered an interview, if it is practical for us to do so. (This is known as the Offer of an Interview.) To secure an interview for this role, the minimum criteria (in order of application process) are:

• demonstrate technical experience gained from a career in engineering roles, including as an individual contributor.
• demonstrate your ability to lead and manage engineers, with a focus on personal development, skills growth, mentoring, and process improvement.
• demonstrate your familiarity with AI-assisted development tools and/or other ML Ops/ AI frameworks and how you have used these to improve to accelerate engineering outcomes.
• you will be required to reach the minimum pass mark for the Online Situational Judgement Test which looks at your ability to problem solve. If you meet this criteria, you will be directed to complete an application form

There is a wide range of extra support available throughout the recruitment process to enable you to do your best, visit our how to apply page for information on reasonable adjustments we can offer.

What to expect

Our recruitment process is fair, transparent, and based on merit. Here is a brief overview of each stage, in order:

1. An initial online application form.
2. Online Situational Judgement Test (SJT) rating the appropriateness of your responses to a series of short scenarios. The SJT tests criteria important for all roles in our organisation
3. Application sift looking at your skills and motivation for the role and organisation
4. An online HR interview focusing on motivation and competencies important to the role.
5. If successful at the HR interview, you will be invited to a face to face technical assessment based around the GDDPC (DDaT) framework.
6. If successful you will receive a conditional offer of employment

Please note, you must successfully pass each stage of the process to progress to the next. Your application may take around 6 to 9 months to process including vetting, so we advise you continue any current employment until you have received your final job offer.

Before you apply

To work at MI6, you need to be a British citizen or hold dual British nationality. Read about our eligibility criteria.

This role requires the highest security clearance, known as Developed Vetting (DV). It’s something everyone in the UK Intelligence Community undertakes. Find out more about the vetting process.

Please note we have a strict drugs policy, so once you start your application, you can’t take any recreational drugs and you’ll need to declare your previous drug usage at the relevant stage.

Before you apply, we advise you to consider setting up a separate email address for your contact with us, to ensure your personal and application correspondence remain separate. Try to avoid having identifying features in your email address, such as your first and/or surname and date of birth. This is good practise and will help you manage your application with us more discretely.

The role is based in central London so you’ll need to live within a commutable distance. Please consider any financial implications and practicalities before submitting an application, as we do not offer relocation costs.

We offer reasonable reimbursement of travel costs for candidates attending in person interviews or assessments during the recruitment and vetting process. Full details will be provided with your interview or assessment invitation.

Reimbursement is discretionary and will only be made in line with the Candidate Expenses Policy, as amended from time to time. Candidates must book their own travel, using the most economical option, and provide original hardcopy receipts for reimbursement.

Please note, you should only launch your application from within the UK. If you are based overseas, you should wait until you visit the UK to launch an application. Applying from outside the UK will impact on our ability to progress your application. You should not discuss your application, other than with your partner or a close family member.

Right to withdraw statement:

Please be aware that we withhold the right to bring forward the closing date for this role from the original closing date once a certain number of applications have been received. Please be mindful of this and submit your application at your earliest convenience to avoid disappointment