Tech industry leaders have blasted the UK government for offering a salary of less than £80k for a role aimed at making the country “a global leader in frontier AI”.
As per the UK’s AI Opportunities Action Plan, unveiled in January, the governing Labour Party is hoping to utilise the technology to improve public services and cut costs through automation.
In a job ad posted on Wednesday, DSIT (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology) offered up to £79,440 for a “head of ventures” position inside its new “sovereign AI unit”, set up by ex-AI advisor to the PM Matt Clifford as part of his grand AI plan for the country.
But tech leaders have thrown cold water on the compensation package offered in the UK’s latest attempt at building out the country’s AI credentials — for a role responsible for “executing deals that position the UK as a global leader in frontier AI”.
“Given the ambition and strategic importance shouldn’t this be targeted and much higher level of seniority?” said Lukasz Szpruch, programme director at the UK’s national centre for AI research The Alan Turing Institute, in a LinkedIn post.
Max Tkacz, a developer at German workflow automation platform N8n, described the salary offered as “laughable”. He added: “If [the] UK and EU want to be serious about being an AI player, they’re going to have to put their money where their mouth is.”
Rewire the state
Starmer has increasingly looked to deepen ties with the UK’s tech community, after a bruising first year in power. June saw the PM host a group of global tech CEOs at his country residence and put out a call for engineers offering £200k salaries, as well as the Treasury appointing its first entrepreneurship advisor, serial founder Alex Depledge.
The role is responsible for the delivery of “strategic initiatives" for securing the UK’s sovereign advantage, the job advert reads. It continues: “You will build and lead an interdisciplinary team with AI experts, commercial leads and policy delivery professionals.”
The salary range for the role is listed as £67,250-79,440. Clifford, who stood down from his AI advisor role last month due to personal reasons, said that the position was ideal for someone who was “early career”.
“The salary is pitiful and not competitive when someone of this skillset is likely making £200-300k,” said Grace Carey, a UK-based lead recruiter at Meta.
A government insider challenged the idea that an early-career policy employee would be earning those sums at Big Tech companies.
The 'head of ventures' role is listed as 'grade 6' seniority, one level below the senior civil service bracket featuring deputy directors, directors and permanent secretaries. The Civil Service website describes 'grade 6' roles as "very senior management" and says they would be equivalent to head of department or operations manager roles outside of Whitehall.
Just over a week ago the UK government received plaudits for offering salaries of up to £200k for top tech talent to “rewire the state” and “transform” government systems with AI.
Tkacz added: “A national government paying £75k a year for the individual responsible to set AI sovereignty strategy and make deals with the likes of Microsoft / foundation models to benefit the UK is almost the worst possible PR for ‘we are serious about AI’.”
"The salary advertised for this position sits well within the long-established pay structure which covers civil service roles," DSIT tells Sifted. "The public rightly expects that taxpayer money is being used responsibly as the government continues to fix the foundations of the economy."
Note 3/5/25: The headline was changed to clarify the seniority of the role. Sifted has further clarified in the body of the article.
