Head of Policy & Engagement
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UKRI
Salary: £58,589 per annum.
Band: UKRI Band F.
Contract Type: 3 Year Fixed Term. (With possibility of extension)
Hours: Full Time or Part Time. (Minimum 0.8 FTE)
Location: While UKRI supports hybrid working, the postholder will be required to attend one in-office team day per week at Polaris House in Swindon, Wiltshire.
Closing Date: Sunday15 March 2026.
Proposed Interview Date: Interviews are likely to be weeks commencing 06 and 13 April 2026.
About the role
We are looking for a Head of Policy & Engagement to join the UKRI Infrastructure Team and play a pivotal role in delivering the Next National Supercomputing Service (NNSS): the £750m project to ensure the UK scientific community retains access to the most advanced modelling and simulation capabilities through provision of state-of-the-art compute hardware at the University of Edinburgh and service provision and software services to support users. The NNSS is the cornerstone investment at the heart of the DSIT-UKRI compute roadmap, and a high-priority strategic investment for the UK government.
The Digital Research Infrastructure, Infrastructure Fund and Portfolio pillars form the cross-cutting UKRI Infrastructure Team that coordinates and manages UKRI’s Infrastructure portfolio. You will collaborate across the organisation and externally, engaging with relevant stakeholders in Government Departments, Public Sector Research Establishments (PSREs), academia and industry to gather insight and ensure that UKRI’s plans for Digital Research Infrastructure (DRI) enable our varied communities to use the most powerful digital tools and techniques.
This role will be critical to successful delivery of the new service. You will lead on initiatives to support the development of the user community, including development of allocation policies and ‘grand challenges’ initiatives, as well as community convening. You will also lead on the implementation of the software programme to ensure users are able to utilise the next-generation of GPU-based compute systems.
We encourage candidates with an interest and knowledge in large-scale compute and related aspects of DRI to apply for this position: relevant experience might have been gained from several different types of career path or educational background. It is likely that the successful candidate will have the opportunity to work for periods with other policy or technical teams within UKRI to enhance the knowledge needed for their work.
Your responsibilities:
- Driving the development of communities of practice that will benefit from the service, including establishing and coordinating grand challenge consortia.
- Developing user‑enablement initiatives to support effective utilisation of the service and grow the user base by facilitating access to accelerated compute. This includes overseeing the software programme to ensure a performant and accessible code base for prospective users.
- Ensuring that the NNSS service is effectively integrated within UKRI and DSIT’s broader support for the compute ecosystem, including coordination with related initiatives such as National Compute Resources (NCRs) and EuroHPC and proactively seeking opportunities for improvement.
- Maintaining and improving our understanding of the computational research and innovation landscape, including future user requirements and engagement with the technology sector to understand future roadmaps.
- Identify and drive opportunities to integrate emerging technologies—such as quantum computing—into the compute ecosystem to deliver improved coherence, performance and/or efficiency.
- Supporting the Head of Service Delivery in implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the NNSS service model, to ensure successful delivery, including liaison with the host site, technology provider and other stakeholders involved in delivering the service.
- Driving working level relationships with infrastructure leads in government, the service providers and other key stakeholders.
Person Specification
The following criteria will be assessed at either Shortlisting (S), Interview (I), or both (S&I)
Essential
- Awareness and understanding of large‑scale compute services, including key technical concepts, their operation, and how they interact within the broader digital research infrastructure ecosystem, sufficient to guide policy, governance, and access-related decisions. (S&I)
- Extensive experience of leading successful complex, high-profile and fast moving infrastructural and/or technical projects ensuring delivery to agreed specifications, cost, time and quality standards. (S&I)
- Demonstrable ability to develop and integrate services, projects or programmes within wider strategic or policy landscapes, ideally within a national research or digital infrastructure context. (S&I)
- Experience developing and coordinating research or innovation communities, consortia, or multi‑institution partnerships. You must have the ability to build and sustain productive relationships internally and externally and represent UKRI, at all levels of seniority and across government, academic, policy and wider sectors. (S&I)
- Excellent oral and written communications skills. You must be comfortable in speaking publicly to audiences of varying sizes; be able to write clear, concise and effective technical reports; and be able to absorb and convey detailed information to/from technical and non-technical audiences. (S&I)
- Able to prioritise and manage multiple commitments across a complex portfolio, applying creative and adaptive thinking to navigate ambiguity, resolve interdependent challenges, and make effective decisions. (S&I)
Benefits
We recognise and value our employees as individuals and aim to provide a favourable pay and rewards package. We are committed to supporting employees' development and promote a culture of continuous learning!
A list of benefits below:
- An outstanding defined benefit pension scheme.
- 30 days' annual leave in addition to 10.5 public and privilege days (full time equivalent).
- Employee discounts and offers on retail and leisure activities.
- Employee assistance programme, providing confidential help and advice.
- Flexible working options.
Plus many more benefits and wellbeing initiatives that enable our employees to have a great work life balance!
For further information on our benefits please see:
Benefits of working at UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)
UKRI is an Equal Opportunity & Disability Confident Employer.
Please apply online, if you experience any issue applying, please contact Recruitment@ukri.org
We encourage candidates to apply as soon as possible, as we reserve the right to close this vacancy early.
Please note if you'd like to apply for the other NNSS role 'Head of Service Delivery', please submit a separate covering letter and CV for each role.
Please note, if you will require sponsorship to work in the UK, as part of your sponsorship application, you and any dependants travelling with you, will be required to pay costs directly to The Home Office for the application before you start your role with us. UKRI is normally able to reimburse some, or all of these fees after you have become an employee and this can be discussed with the Hiring Manager. For more information, please visit https://www.gov.uk/skilled-worker-visa/how-much-it-costs or contact Recruitment@ukri.org.