About The AI Security Institute
The AI Security Institute is the world’s largest and best‑funded team dedicated to understanding advanced AI risks and translating that knowledge into action. We’re in the heart of the UK government with direct lines to the Prime Minister’s office and work with frontier developers and governments globally.
Team & Role Overview
Our Societal Impacts team studies high‑impact societal risks caused by frontier AI deployment. The team’s mandate is to build a rigorous, world‑class evidence base for the safe and responsible development of frontier AI by identifying risks, measuring impacts, and informing mitigation strategies.
Responsibilities
As a researcher and engineer on this multidisciplinary team you will design, implement and run experiments that answer important questions about the effects of AI on society. Illustrative tasks include:
* Implementing human–AI interaction studies where multiple human and AI participants converse and play a game
* Building pipelines to scrape and analyse publicly available AI agent implementations
* Designing and running model evaluations for various societal risks from AI behaviour
Required Skills and Experience
* Experience writing scalable, maintainable Python code
* Experience in one or more of the following areas:
o Data engineering, including data collection, cleaning, processing and visualisation
o ML engineering with PyTorch or a similar library
o Full‑stack web development
o Knowledge of machine learning sufficient to understand recent papers in the field
o Strong verbal communication, experience working on a collaborative research team, and interpersonal skills
o Demonstrable interest in and understanding of the societal impacts of AI
Desired Skills and Experience
* Building and maintaining complex data products
* Designing and implementing experiments in human‑AI interaction
* Training or evaluating frontier AI models
* Research related to societal impacts of AI systems
* Specialisation in a relevant field such as social or political science, economics, cognitive science, criminology, security studies, AI safety, or another relevant discipline
What We Offer
* Incredibly talented, mission‑driven and supportive colleagues
* Direct influence on how frontier AI is governed and deployed globally
* Work with the Prime Minister’s AI Advisor and leading AI companies
* Opportunity to shape the first and best‑resourced public‑interest research team focused on AI security
* Pre‑release access to multiple frontier models and ample compute
* Extensive operational support so you can focus on research and ship quickly
* Work with experts across national security, policy, AI research and adjacent sciences
* Freedom to pursue research bets without product pressure
* Opportunities to publish and collaborate externally
* Modern central London office (or government offices in Birmingham, Cardiff, Darlington, Edinburgh, Salford or Bristol), hybrid working and flexibility for remote work abroad
* Annual leave of at least 25 days, 8 public holidays and additional team‑wide breaks
* Generous paid parental leave and pension contributions of 28.97% of base salary
Salary
Annual salary is benchmarked to role scope and relevant experience. Most offers range between £65,000 and £145,000, made up of a base salary plus a technical allowance. Salary ranges by level:
* Level 3: £65,000–£75,000 (Base £37,150 + Technical Allowance £27,850–£37,850)
* Level 4: £85,000–£95,000 (Base £44,195 + Technical Allowance £40,805–£50,805)
* Level 5: £105,000–£115,000 (Base £58,040 + Technical Allowance £46,960–£56,960)
* Level 6: £125,000–£135,000 (Base £71,525 + Technical Allowance £53,475–£63,475)
* Level 7: £145,000 (Base £71,525 + Technical Allowance £73,475)
Security & Clearance
Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check and obtain baseline personnel security standard (BPSS) clearance before appointment. Preference is given to those eligible for counter‑terrorist check (CTC) clearance. Some roles may require higher levels of clearance; these will be specified in the job advertisement.
Nationality and Equality
The Civil Service is committed to diversity and equal opportunity. We may be able to offer roles to applicants from any nationality or background and encourage applications even if you do not meet standard nationality requirements. We conduct training on disability inclusion and support Redeployment Interview Scheme for civil servants at risk of redundancy. We monitor diversity and inclusion statistics as part of our recruitment process.
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