Head of Policy & Engagement

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: Sunday
15 March 2026.

Proposed Interview Date: Interviews are likely to be weeks commencing 06 and 13 April 2026.

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.

• 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.
• Developing an understanding of, and communicating, how our work aligns with and supports key national policies.
• Supporting the delivery of time-bound strategic projects within the UKRI Infrastructure team.

The following criteria will…