Forward Deployed Engineer III - Justice AI UnitRef: 16587) in Edinburgh

This is a Nationally based role.

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.

As a Forward Deployed Engineer at the Justice AI Unit, you will build and deploy AI products that have real-world impact across courts, prisons, and probation services. You’ll work directly with frontline staff to understand their needs, co-develop solutions, and own the full delivery lifecycle, from problem discovery to product deployment and scale. 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 high-impact AI products, models and agents that will be widely used across the Ministry of Justice.
• Work directly in the field (e.g., courts, prisons, probation) to understand user needs, operational challenges and co-build with users.
• Own end-to-end delivery: from identifying the problem, building the product, deploying it, and scaling adoption.

Essential Criteria:

• Experience building and deploying AI-native software in production environments.
• Experience owning all parts of the software and AI stack - frontend, backend, database, AI and ML.
• Experience building solutions like predictive models, LLM workflows, scheduling.
• Ability to work and thrive in complex organisational contexts.
• Up to date on the latest developments in AI.

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.

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.

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.

Benefits:

• Alongside your salary of 71,381, Ministry of Justice contributes 20,679 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme.
• Access to learning and development.
• A working environment that supports a range of flexible working options to enhance your work life balance.
• A working culture which encourages inclusion and diversity.
• A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%.
• Annual Leave.
• Public Holidays.
• Season Ticket Advance.

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action.

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard checks.

This job is broadly open to UK nationals, nationals of the Republic of Ireland, nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK, nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS).

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.