Title: Forward Deployed Engineer I

Function: Justice AI Unit

Grade: SEO

Summary

Our justice system faces serious challenges, from rising demand and staff shortages to siloed systems and inconsistent access. AI presents an opportunity to address these problems at scale. But this opportunity must be seized with care.

The Justice AI Unit is a small, fast-moving and innovative team. We build and ship products quickly across the Ministry of Justice. By embedding AI that enhances, not replaces, human judgement, we aim to deliver better outcomes, faster services, and greater fairness for all.

Role

As Forward Deployed Engineer I at the Justice AI Unit, you will help build and deploy AI products that have real-world impact across courts, prisons, and probation services. You’ll work with frontline staff and multidisciplinary teams to understand user needs, develop practical solutions, test and improve products, and support deployment into live operational environments. This is a role designed for engineers early in their career who want to grow fast in a high-agency environment. You'll be paired with a senior engineer, given scoped ownership from day one, and expected to stretch — not to arrive fully formed.This is a hands-on, high-agency role for engineers who want to work at pace, across the full AI and software stack, and in service of one of the most complex and vital systems in the country. Join us to transform justice through practical, responsible AI.

We value curiosity, pragmatism, and the ability to work in ambiguity. If you don’t meet all of the experience below, don’t worry- we’re looking for people who can learn quickly on the job and adapt to a rapidly evolving landscape.

Responsibilities

• Develop practical AI products, tools, workflows and technical components for use across the Ministry of Justice.

• Work with users in operational settings such as courts, prisons and probation to understand needs, gather feedback and improve solutions.

• Contribute across the software and AI stack, including frontend, backend, databases, APIs, data pipelines, model integration, LLM workflows and deployment support.

• Support end-to-end delivery, from understanding the problem and building prototypes through to testing, documentation, deployment and iteration.

• Apply user feedback to improve products and ensure solutions are useful, accessible and aligned to operational needs.

• Identify and raise quality, usability, data, security, accessibility or operational risks early.

Essential Criteria

• Experience and/or working knowledge of building, testing and deploying software, data products or technical components in a real-world environment.

• Experience working across parts of the software or AI stack, such as frontend, backend, databases, APIs, data pipelines, model integration or cloud deployment.

• Experience supporting the development of solutions such as LLM workflows, predictive models, automation tools, scheduling tools, data pipelines or user-facing applications.

• Ability to work and adapt in complex or ambiguous organisational contexts.

• Strong collaboration skills, including the ability to work effectively in multidisciplinary teams.

Desirable Criteria

• Experience with our stack- NextJS, FastAPI, Postgres

• Experience with LLM observability and evaluation tools like Langfuse

• Cloud and infrastructure experience - Terraform, Azure etc.

• Entrepreneurial or startup experience

Agreed Expectations

The successful candidate will be expected to work from London as the home base of the Justice AI Unit. Candidates not currently based in London will be required to either relocate or undertake regular travel to London, with attendance expected at least once per week, in line with business needs.

How to apply

The selection process for this vacancy will utilise Civil Service Success Profiles and will assess your Experience, Technical skills and Behaviours.

Application

Applicants should provide a CV which demonstrates evidence of the essential criteria for this role.

Following sift, candidates who meet the required standard will be invited to take part in a two-stage assessment process:

Stage 1: Technical Assessment (Online)

Candidates will be asked to complete a technical assessment designed to evaluate their role-specific skills focussing on a realistic engineering scenario, allowing candidates to demonstrate their problem-solving approach and technical judgement. This will be followed by a 30-minute discussion, where we will explore your technical approach.

Only candidates who meet the required standard at this stage will progress to the Behavioural Interview.

Stage 2: Behavioural Interview (Face-to-Face)

Successful candidates from Stage 1 will be invited to attend a full interview. The following Civil Service behaviours will be assessed:

• Changing & Improving

• Managing a Quality Service

• Delivering at Pace

• Working Together

Further details will be provided to candidates invited to each stage.

The Justice AI Unit has established a Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) career framework to provide a clear professional pathway for software and AI engineers to develop their skills, expertise and leadership capability. The framework comprises three levels: Forward Deployed Engineer I (SEO), Forward Deployed Engineer II (Grade 7) and Forward Deployed Engineer III (Grade 6), reflecting increasing levels of technical proficiency, responsibility, influence and organisational impact.

As a Forward Deployed Engineer I, you will develop your engineering expertise through hands-on delivery, contributing to the design, build, testing and deployment of AI-enabled products and services. Working as part of multidisciplinary teams, you will apply modern engineering practices, learn from experienced colleagues, and help solve user problems through technology. This role is suited to engineers with strong technical potential who are keen to develop their skills across the software and AI development lifecycle.

Forward Deployed Engineer II represents the next stage of progression, where engineers are expected to take ownership of significant products, services or technical workstreams. At this level, you will lead the delivery of complex solutions, make sound technical decisions, mentor and support the development of others, and work closely with stakeholders to ensure products meet user and organisational needs. FDE IIs combine strong technical expertise with increasing responsibility for delivery, service quality and technical leadership.

Forward Deployed Engineer III is aligned to principal-level engineering capability. FDE IIIs provide technical leadership across multiple products, teams or problem domains, setting technical direction and helping shape the strategic application of AI across the Ministry of Justice. They are responsible for tackling highly complex technical challenges, establishing engineering standards and best practice, developing organisational capability, and ensuring that solutions are scalable, sustainable and deliver measurable outcomes for users. Working across organisational boundaries, they influence senior stakeholders, support the development of the wider engineering community, and drive the adoption of AI-enabled services at scale.

This framework enables us to attract talented engineers at different stages of their careers, support their professional development, and build a sustainable pipeline of software and AI engineering capability. By aligning with the Government Digital and Data Profession's Software Developer framework, it provides a recognised route for progression while helping the Justice AI Unit deliver transformational change across courts, prisons and probation.