Key Information
Salary: £70,000 – £105,000 per year.
Location: Kings X, London; Tuesday–Thursday at HQ, Monday and Friday remote.
Employment type: Full‑time.
Application deadline: 3 May 2026.
Role Summary
As an ARIA Technical Specialist you will 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.
Your impact will extend beyond a single programme; you will play a key role in strengthening the wider Mathematics for Safe AI opportunity space, bringing insights that build on existing ARIA‑funded technologies, accelerate discovery and turn past lessons into future breakthroughs, maximising impact across the portfolio.
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.
* Contribute your technical prowess in application areas for robot locomotion (e.g., inspection & maintenance, construction, etc.) and other cutting‑edge capabilities within the program, amplifying its overall effectiveness.
* Identify emerging trends and surface the most promising 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.
* Provide continuity to the opportunity space, and maintain a deep understanding of past and present programmes and creator projects to help new programme directors build on what has worked, avoid what hasn’t, and leverage existing technologies and insights.
Connecting the Programme to the Ecosystem
* Represent the programme, often on behalf of the programme director, at events, workshops and talks.
* Support the broader opportunity space by identifying and developing innovative ways to expand it, bringing in new ideas, talent and opportunities that deliver long‑term value beyond the immediate needs of one programme.
* Build trusted relationships with world‑class researchers, labs and founders working at the forefront of the programme’s focus area, as well as the broader opportunity space.
* 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 science and technology leads, sharing best practices and learnings between programmes to strengthen ARIA’s overall portfolio of work.
* Identify opportunities to expand the opportunity space and build the connective tissue between adjacent spaces.
* Help build and sustain ARIA’s scientific and operational culture.
Who You Are
Essential Criteria
* First‑hand research or engineering expertise in formal methods or programming language theory, including type theory, proof assistants or formal models of security.
* Active use of AI tools in technical work and developed views on their capabilities and failure modes.
* Ability to grasp and navigate diverse technical projects.
* Skill in uncovering non‑obvious technical opportunities and risks, connecting people, ideas and research threads in novel ways that drive insights, adoption and translation.
* Willingness to ask questions and rapidly learn and adapt to new scientific areas, comprehending key components of new technical disciplines.
* Clear and compelling communication of complex concepts to diverse stakeholders, with structured thinking.
* Highly adaptable and comfortable with uncertainty and fast‑paced environments.
Desirable Criteria
* Experience in information‑ or cybersecurity, or familiarity with security‑relevant formal properties.
* Familiarity with category theory and its application to compositional systems modelling or the semantics of type theory and proof assistants.
* Experience building, coordinating or driving the adoption of software toolkits.
* Skill in identifying technical bottlenecks, risk analysis and resolution, tracking technical milestones and reporting on complex technical projects.
* Strong working knowledge of the UK R&D ecosystem.
Qualifications
Scientific qualification, preferably a 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.
* Excellent office location in Kings X, London.
We encourage applications from 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, looking to transition, or taking the next step in your career, we welcome you to apply.
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 is intended to provide ARIA with the best opportunity to support candidates and will have no negative impact on your recruitment process.
You will be required, as and when necessary, to travel to different locations around the UK and internationally to support projects, depending on the programme you are designated to.
ARIA adopts a highly considered approach to ethical and social responsibility. Our research and development activity will abide by the 3Rs principle.
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