Deputy Director, AI Product

Ministry of Justice; Cardiff; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Flexible Working

Job summary

Ministry of Justice is seeking a senior AI product leader to set the vision and strategy for AI across the Justice AI Unit, ensuring investments align with user needs and measurable justice outcomes. You will lead a portfolio of AI products, prioritising opportunities and guiding teams in turning pilots into scalable products.

You will embed responsible AI practices, drive evidence-based decisions, and collaborate with cross-functional teams to deliver high-impact outcomes across the justice

Qualifications

• Proven ability to define product visions and roadmaps across AI initiatives.
• Experience leading portfolios of AI products and prioritising investments.
• Strong leadership skills with coaching of product teams.

Responsibilities

• Set the product vision and strategy for AI across the Justice AI Unit.
• Lead the portfolio of AI products and prioritise investments.
• Define high standards for AI product development and responsible delivery.
• Shape adoption of AI products across the justice system.

Skills

Product strategy

AI product leadership

Stakeholder management

Team leadership

Job description

Full Time, Part Time/Job Share, Flexible Working

Vacancy Approach

External

Location

Cardiff, London

Region

Closing Date

27-Sep-2026

Post Type

Permanent

SCS 1

Number of jobs available

1

Reserve List

12 Months

Job ID

22197

Descriptions & requirements

Reporting into the Director of the Justice AI Unit you will:
Strategic Product Leadership

• Set the product vision and strategy for AI across the Justice AI Unit, ensuring investment is focused on genuine user needs and measurable justice outcomes.
• Lead the Justice AI Unit’s portfolio of AI products, making clear choices about priorities, investment and where teams should focus.
• Define and embed high standards for AI product development, ensuring products are outcome-driven, user-obsessed, evidence-led and developed responsibly.
• Shape how AI products are built and adopted across the justice system, moving from ideas and pilots to products that can deliver impact at scale.

Product Development and Delivery

• Lead the development of AI-native products, working across product, engineering, design, research and operational teams to turn emerging AI capabilities into valuable products.
• Ensure teams deeply understand the problems they are solving, test assumptions early and use evidence and user insight to guide product decisions.
• Create empowered multidisciplinary teams that can move quickly, make good decisions and take responsibility for outcomes.
• Challenge established ways of working where they constrain effective product development, and establish better ways to build, test, learn and scale AI products.

Reporting into the Director of the Justice AI Unit you will:
Strategic Product Leadership

• Set the product vision and strategy for AI across the Justice AI Unit, ensuring investment is focused on genuine user needs and measurable justice outcomes.
• Lead the Justice AI Unit’s portfolio of AI products, making clear choices about priorities, investment and where teams should focus.
• Define and embed high standards for AI product development, ensuring products are outcome-driven, user-obsessed, evidence-led and developed responsibly.
• Shape how AI products are built and adopted across the justice system, moving from ideas and pilots to products that can deliver impact at scale.

Product Development and Delivery

• Lead the development of AI-native products, working across product, engineering, design, research and operational teams to turn emerging AI capabilities into valuable products.
• Ensure teams deeply understand the problems they are solving, test assumptions early and use evidence and user insight to guide product decisions.
• Create empowered multidisciplinary teams that can move quickly, make good decisions and take responsibility for outcomes.
• Challenge established ways of working where they constrain effective product development, and establish better ways to build, test, learn and scale AI products.

Team Leadership and Capability

• Build and lead a high-performing product management function, providing clear direction, coaching and development to product leaders and teams.
• Create a strong product culture focused on curiosity, collaboration, experimentation, evidence and measurable outcomes.
• Build product capability across the Justice AI Unit, helping teams and senior stakeholders develop a shared understanding of what good AI product development looks like.

Responsible AI and Adoption

• Embed responsible AI throughout the product lifecycle, ensuring products are developed and adopted safely, ethically and with appropriate consideration of fairness and public trust.
• Ensure AI products have clear measures of success and plans for adoption, evaluation and continuous improvement.
• Work across organisational boundaries to ensure AI products can be adopted effectively across MoJ services and deliver sustainable value at scale.

Senior Leadership and Influence

• Act as a trusted product adviser to senior leaders across the Ministry of Justice and wider government, communicating complex product choices and trade-offs clearly.
• Work as part of the Justice AI Unit senior leadership team, ensuring product strategy and delivery are aligned with the Unit’s wider priorities.
• Represent the Justice AI Unit in senior forums and, where required, deputise for the Director.

Deputising for the Director of AI

• Represent the Director in strategic forums, including cross-government AI working groups, high-level stakeholder engagements, and external conferences.
• Lead Criteria - Significant experience leading product strategy and a portfolio of products, making clear prioritisation and investment decisions based on user needs, evidence and measurable outcomes.
• Excellent leadership skills, with a proven ability to provide clear direction and coaching to high-performing product teams.
• Proven experience building new products people want from 0 to 1, and taking successful products through adoption and scale.
• Exceptional stakeholder skills, with an ability to act as a trusted adviser to senior stakeholders, influence strategic decisions and build strong relationships across organisational boundaries.
• Experience building and delivering AI-native products, with strong product judgement and an understanding of the opportunities, limitations and responsible use of AI.
• Entrepreneurial or start-up experience.

Additional Information

We encourage applications from people from all backgrounds and aim to have a workforce that represents the wider society that we serve. We pride ourselves on being an employer of choice. We champion diversity, inclusion and wellbeing and aim to create a workplace where everyone feels valued and a sense of belonging. To find out more about how we do this visit: https://www.gov.uk/governments/organisation/ministry-of-justice/about/equality-and-diversity

Diversity & Inclusion
The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the https://www.gov.uk/government/people/ministry-of-joinc/people-plan and the https://www.gov.uk/government/people/ministry-of-justice/diversity-and-inclusion-strategy.

Job Description Attachment

DD AI Product Candidate Information Pack.docx(Job Description Attachment)

We will assess your experience for this role via the following methods

CV or Work History, Statement of Suitability

Statement of Suitability

Guidance for the Statement of Suitability

It is important that your Statement of Suitability give evidence and examples of how you meet the essential experience and desirable experience. In the event of a high volume of applications, an initial sift will be conducted using the lead criteria. Applications will be assessed against the "Significant experience leading product strategy and a portfolio of products, making clear prioritisation and investment decisions based on user needs, evidence and measurable outcomes" criteria.

Essential Experience:
Lead Criteria - Significant experience leading product strategy and a portfolio of products, making clear prioritisation and investment decisions based on user needs, evidence and measurable outcomes.
Excellent leadership skills, with a proven ability to provide clear direction and coaching to high-performing product teams.
Proven experience building new products people want from 0 to 1, and taking successful products through adoption and scale.
Exceptional stakeholder skills, with an ability to act as a trusted adviser to senior stakeholders, influence strategic decisions and build strong relationships across organisational boundaries.
Experience building and delivering AI-native products, with strong product judgement and an understanding of the opportunities, limitations and responsible use of AI.

Desirable experience:
Entrepreneurial or start-up experience.

Evidence of Experience

CV or Work History, Statement of Suitability

Interview stage assessments

Interview Dates

w/c 26th Oct - Subject to change

Behaviours

Communicating and Influencing

Leadership

Delivering at Pace

Changing and Improving

Managing a Quality Service

Other Assessments

Which assessment methods will be used?

Presentation

Level of security checks required

Security Clearance (SC)

Use of Artificial Intelligence (Al)

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.Please see ourcandidate guidance for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.