Forward Deployed Engineer III in City of Westminster

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 Forward Deployed Engineer I in 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.

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.

Technical Experience & Qualifications

• 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.

Salary & Benefits

The national salary range is £42,914 – £46,182, London salary range is £49,325 – £53,081. Salary will depend on base location. Benefits include:

• Annual leave: 25 days on appointment, increasing to 30 days after five years, with option to buy or sell up to three days per year; plus public holiday and privilege day leaves.
• Pension: choice of civil service pension schemes.
• Training and development opportunities offered by the Ministry of Justice.
• Employee‑run networks for minority groups and other support networks.
• Family‑friendly policies, flexible benefits, childcare support options, parental leave, free annual sight tests for screen users.

Equal Opportunities

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. The Justice AI Unit is a disability confident employer. All suitable candidates are encouraged to apply.