He is Chief Scientific Adviser at the UK Government's Department for Culture, Media and Sport, and Professor of Digital Policy at Swansea University.

Alongside his academic work, Crick has led major reforms to the science and technology curriculum in Wales, with related contributions to digital/technology policy in the UK.

[1] His doctoral research, funded by the EPSRC, considered superoptimisation by developing practical strategies to generate provably optimal code using answer set programming.

[18][19] In 2015-2016, Crick chaired the development of the bilingual Digital Competence Framework[20] in Wales, which elevated digital competence (the skills, knowledge and attitudes required to be confident in the use of technologies[21]) to the same statutory position as literacy and numeracy in the new Curriculum for Wales.

[24] Crick was also appointed Chair of the National Network of Excellence in Science & Technology,[25] a £4m Welsh Government strategic investment which focused on supporting STEM teachers in partnership with higher education institutions.