Technical Specialist - AI / Computer Science
Application Deadline: 3 May 2026
Department: Programmes
Employment Type: Permanent – Full Time
Location: London
Compensation: £70,000 − £105,000 / year
Salary Levels: c.£70,000, c.£90,000, c.£105,000 (eventual offers will be based on benchmarked experience levels in combination with our selection criteria)
Location: Kings X, London; Tues – Thurs (3 days) at HQ, Monday + Friday, anywhere
Employment Type: Full‑time
Contract: Permanent
Closing date: 03.05.26
Description
ARIA is a new R&D funding agency built to unlock technological breakthroughs that benefit everyone. We fund scientists and engineers to pursue research at the edge of the possible. From climate change to AI, society faces enormous challenges and opportunities that can be uniquely addressed by science and technology. ARIA was created to activate the UK’s world‑class R&D in new ways, so we can meet these head on. Our success is shaped by one question: how will ARIA transform the lives of the UK’s future generations? Whether that’s a life‑changing new technology or a burgeoning new industry, it should be obvious that ARIA played a catalytic role.
Learn more here.
Role Summary As an ARIA Technical Specialist, you will have the rare chance to catalyse breakthroughs that could change the world. You'll sit alongside Programme Director Nora Ammann and their Programme Specialist on ARIA's Safeguarded AI programme. You’ll be exposed to every aspect of the programme's technical management, delivery, and Creator experience; acting as a thought partner for technical and strategic programmatic decisions, and community building.
We’re looking for an adaptable technical professional who’s strongly motivated by the opportunity to catalyse a technological step change. You’ll be working in a bold, talented & agile team, funding projects (‘Creators’) across the entire R&D ecosystem, from startups to universities, in the pursuit of groundbreaking advancements that will shape the future of science & technology.
Meet Nora Ammann
Nora Ammann is a member of ARIA’s first cohort of Programme Directors. Her work spans the full stack of AI assurance – from AI safety, to formal verification, hardware guarantees, and game theory – developing the coordination infrastructure needed to make safety claims credible between untrusting parties. She previously founded Principles of Intelligence, bringing together AI researchers, neuroscientists, and physicists to study the foundations of intelligent behaviour.
Nora is leading an ARIA programme that seeks to build and demonstrate a mathematical assurance toolkit that lets fleets of AI agents produce formally verified artefacts at unprecedented speed and scale.
Find out more about what they’re working on here.
“My strength is in connecting big‑picture strategy to concrete R&D bets, and in synthesising across an unusually wide range of fields, ideas and layers of the tech stack. What I need alongside me is someone who lives at the mathematical core: who can independently identify what's technically promising or flawed across formal methods, programming language theory, and AI, and guide research at the frontier. If you believe, like I do, in the great potential of AI‑enabled formal methods to accelerate societal resilience in the age of AI, I would love to hear from you!”
Nora Ammann, Programme Director
What you'll do
Technical Programme Advisory and Support
* Act as the technical lead, with the Programme Director and their Programme Specialist, to shape and deliver a bold programme of research aimed at demonstrating the transformative potential of AI‑enabled formal methods and catalysing a new era of machine‑assisted mathematical modelling and verification.
* Review project proposals, grant applications, assess technical milestones, and stay close to the ground on what’s being built and tested by Creator teams.
* Plan, lead, and contribute to technical discussions in project meetings, workshops, and formal reviews, bringing depth, challenge, and direction to every interaction.
* Provide evidence‑based technical insight to the Programme Director and the ARIA team to support high‑quality decisions and sharpen the programme’s strategic direction.
* Confidently communicate complex scientific ideas surrounding the programme to stakeholders, from government and funders to key players across the ecosystem.
* Identify emerging trends and surface the most promising research, technologies, people, and ideas across the programme and its surrounding opportunity space.
* Co‑author white papers, open calls, and technical reviews that articulate the ambition of the programme and set a clear, compelling vision for external communities.
* Work closely with the Programme Specialist and Creator teams to drive project delivery, tracking against ambitious technical milestones, benchmarking progress against the state of the art, and spotting opportunities for research cross‑pollination to sustain momentum.
* Be the technical bridge between the PD and functional teams, ensuring execution aligns with the needs of the ecosystem's understanding of the programme.
Connecting the Programme to the Ecosystem
* Represent the programme, with or on behalf of the Programme Director, at events, workshops and talks.
* Build trusted relationships with world‑class researchers, labs, and founders working at the forefront of the programme’s focus area.
* Work closely with ARIA’s Activation Partners to ensure Creator teams can access the right tools, platforms, and networks to accelerate translation and achieve impact beyond ARIA’s direct reach.
Define and Cultivate ARIA’s Technical Culture
* Collaborate across ARIA on funding models, budgets, tooling, and operational mechanisms to support effective, flexible funding and programme delivery.
* Contribute as a member of ARIA’s team of Technical Specialists (‘T‑Specs’), sharing best practices and learnings between programmes to strengthen ARIA’s portfolio of work.
* Help build and sustain ARIA’s scientific and operational culture.
Who you are
Essential Criteria
* You have first‑hand research or engineering expertise in formal methods or programming language theory, including for example type theory, proof assistants, or formal models of security.
* You actively use AI tools in your technical work (including for mathematics, programming, or research) and have developed informed views on their capabilities and failure modes.
* You excel in grasping and navigating diverse technical projects.
* You can uncover non‑obvious (technical) opportunities and risks, connecting people, ideas, and research threads in novel ways that drive insights, adoption and translation.
* You are willing to ask questions and can rapidly learn and adapt to new scientific areas, comprehending key components of new technical disciplines.
* You comprehend and articulate complex concepts clearly and with conviction to diverse stakeholders, think and communicate with structure, and interrogate ideas effectively.
* Highly adaptable, you are okay with uncertainty and a fast‑paced environment.
Desirable Criteria
* You have experience in information or cybersecurity, or familiarity with security‑relevant formal properties.
* You have familiarity with category theory, including its applications to compositional systems modelling, or to the semantics of type theory and proof assistants.
* You have experience building, coordinating, or driving the adoption of software toolkits.
* You are skilled in identifying technical bottlenecks, risk analysis and resolution, tracking technical milestones, and reporting on complex technical projects.
* You have a strong working knowledge of the UK R&D ecosystem.
Qualifications You have a Scientific qualification, with a preference for PhD or other deep technical experience in computer science.
Benefits
* 27 days annual leave provision, with the option to buy/sell additional days
* Hybrid working arrangements; 60% in office / 40% at home
* Supportive environment for learning and development opportunities
* Enhanced family leave arrangements
* A free and confidential 24/7 employee assistance programme
* 2 days of paid volunteer days
* 5% defined contribution pension scheme with Smart Pension
* Cycle to Work scheme
* An excellent office location in Kings X, London
Not sure you meet 100% of our criteria? Don’t worry. If you believe that you could excel in this role, we encourage you to apply. We want to attract the broadest array of candidates, including those with diverse workplace experiences and backgrounds. Whether you’re new to this, returning to work after a gap in employment, simply looking to transition, or taking the next step in your career path, we will be glad to have you on our radar.
Please use your cover letter to tell us about your interests and what you hope to bring to this role.
If you require any reasonable adjustments throughout the recruitment process, please notify us and we will make every effort to accommodate you. Disclosing any requests are intended to provide ARIA with the best opportunity to support candidates and will have no negative impact on your recruitment process.
ARIA adopts a highly considered approach to ethical and social responsibility. You can read our policy here. Our research and development activity will abide by the 3Rs principle. You can read about those here.
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