People & Skills ยท PPL-03
Specialist roles and careers
The organisation defines the specialist AI roles it needs, with career paths and a professional community that help people grow and stay.
Why it matters
Specialists who have no defined role or route to progress tend to leave or move into unrelated work. Clear roles and careers make it possible to recruit, develop and keep the people who build, assure and run AI.
Levels
| 0 Absent | Confirmed absent: the evidence shows nothing is in place. Not known is recorded as insufficient evidence, not 0. |
|---|---|
| 1 Initial | Specialist AI work is done by people in unrelated roles with no recognition or route to progress. |
| 2 Developing | Some AI roles are defined locally, but titles, grades and expectations differ across the organisation. |
| 3 Defined | Specialist AI roles are defined in the same way across the organisation, with skills expectations, career paths and an active professional community. |
| 4 Managed | Progression, retention and role coverage for specialists are measured and reported, and gaps or attrition are acted on. |
| 5 Optimising | Roles and career paths are updated as AI work changes, and the organisation is known as a place where specialists develop. |
Level 3 criteria
Level 3 is met when every applicable criterion is met. Criteria marked with an overlay apply only to organisations with that characteristic (overlays).
- PPL-03.1 Specialist AI roles are defined and the same definitions are used across the organisation.
- PPL-03.2 Each specialist AI role has stated skills expectations.
- PPL-03.3 Career paths are set out for specialist AI roles.
- PPL-03.4 A professional community for AI specialists is in place and active.
Assessment questions
- Which specialist AI roles does the organisation need, and are they defined?
- How does a specialist progress, and what professional community can they join?
- Role profiles and career framework for AI specialists
- Professional community terms of reference or activity records
How to reach Level 3
- List the specialist AI roles the organisation needs, using the skills assessment (PPL-04) as the starting point.
- Write one role profile per specialist role with skills expectations, and agree common titles and grades across the organisation.
- Set out a career path for each role family showing how people progress and what they need to show at each step.
- Set up a professional community for specialists with a named lead, regular meetings and a shared space, and keep a record of its activity.
Common pitfalls
- Letting each team invent its own titles and grades, which blocks movement and fair pay.
- Defining roles without a route upwards, so experienced specialists leave to progress.
- Starting a community with no lead or time set aside, so it fades after a few meetings.
Starter artefacts
- Specialist AI role profiles
- AI career framework
- Professional community terms of reference
Ownership and sequence
- Accountable
- people lead
- Contributors
- delivery lead
- Depends on
- PPL-04
- Roadmap step
- 2
- Lifecycle
- strategy, operate
Cross-references
| GDS AI Playbook | P9 direct |
|---|---|
| ISO/IEC 42001 | 7.2 partial |
| JSP 936 Part 1 | para 103 partial |
| MITRE AI Maturity Model | P3.2 partial; P3.3 partial |
| UNESCO AI Maturity Framework | 2.1 direct; 2.2 partial |
direct: this control at Level 3 meets the item. partial: it covers part of it.