About the job

Job summary

The AI Safety Institute

The AI Safety Institute is the first state-backed organisation focused on frontier AI safety for the public interest. We launched at the AI Safety Summit because we believe taking responsible action on this extraordinary technology requires a capable and empowered group of technical experts within government. Our staff includes senior alumni from OpenAI, Google DeepMind, startups and the UK government, and ML professors from Oxford and Cambridge. We are now calling on the world’s top technical talent to build the institute from the ground up. This is a truly unique opportunity to help shape AI safety at an international level.

We have ambitious goals and need to move fast. Our top priorities are to:

• Develop and conduct evaluations on advanced AI systems. We will characterise safety-relevant capabilities, understand the safety and security of systems, and assess their societal impacts.
• Drive foundational AI safety research. We will launch moonshot research projects and convene world-class external researchers.
• Facilitate information exchange. We will establish clear information-sharing channels between the Institute and other national and international actors. These include policymakers, international partners, private companies, academia, civil society, and the broader public.

Job description

As a Research Scientist at AISI, your work will help to set directions for AI model evaluations and to establish robust evaluation frameworks for AI systems. You’ll lead and contribute to projects designed to be integrated into our evaluation suite, evaluating frontier model capabilities and safeguards, as well as more speculative work aimed at mitigations and system understanding. 

We draw on a wide range of disciplines, and value a diversity of research expertise across our six workstreams. You'll be primarily associated with one of our workstreams (please specify in your application which you’re most interested in), however, sometimes your work will intersect multiple workstreams:

• Chem/bio: studying how LLMs and more specialised AI systems are advancing biological and chemical capabilities relating to harmful outcomes.  This includes potential uplift to novice actors and future scenarios like design of biological agents.
• Cyber: studying how LLMs and more specialised AI systems may aid in cyber-criminality and the adequacy of cybersecurity measures against AI systems.
• Safeguards: evaluating the strength and efficacy of safety and security components of frontier AI systems against diverse threats which could circumvent safeguards.
• Societal harms: evaluating threats to societal fabric from frontier AI. For example, entrenching biases, promoting skewed or radical views, and systemic discrimination.
• Loss of control: testing for precursors to loss of control by measuring relevant capabilities in long-horizon computer-based tasks, for example sub-tasks of  autonomous replication, AI development and self-improvement, as well as adaptation to human attempts to intervene and the ability to profitably interact with and manipulate humans.

You’ll work closely with the Workstream Lead, Research Engineers and other Research Scientists, as well as benefit from support from our cross-functional Platform Engineering team.  You’ll also collaborate with external topic-level experts, contractors, partner organisations and policy makers to coordinate and build on external research.

There will be significant scope to contribute to the strategy of your workstream team and to design experiments with set-ups of increasing complexity.

Person specification

For this role, you’ll likely have conducted ML research, research in a domain relevant to your primary workstream, or research at the intersection of your domain and frontier AI systems.

We expect experts in both ML and a specific domain relevant to one of our workstreams to be rare, so we encourage you to apply no matter which research expertise you’re excited to bring to the institute. 

We look for some of the following skills, experience and attitudes:

• PhD or equivalent research experience in a field related to your workstream, or in machine learning. 
• Strong Python skills and at least basic machine learning experience.
• Experience with large language models, potentially related to prompt engineering, tooling, or fine tuning.
• Statistics expertise (e.g., coding in R for power calculations and statistical testing)
• Possess a strong curiosity in understanding AI systems and studying the security implications of this technology.
• Motivated to conduct research that is not only curiosity driven but also solves concrete open questions in governance and policy making.

Given the changing nature of the field, it’s most of all important to us to build a team with strong problem solving skills and a preparedness to acquire any missing knowledge necessary to get the job done.

Owing to the rapid shaping of the field of frontier AI, you will likely be up to date with the latest advancements in frontier AI development.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £85,000, Department for Science, Innovation & Technology contributes £11,474 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Things you need to know

Selection process details

Please apply with a copy of your CV and a personal statement (500 word limit) setting out your answers to the questions below:

• Why are you interested in joining the AISI right now?
• What are the most important technical projects UK government needs to undertake within the next few months to advance AI Safety?
• What do you want to be doing to drive those projects forward?
• Is there anything else about your skills, experience or background you’d like us to be aware of?

Sift and interview process

Applications will be sifted on the CV and personal statement.

In the event of a large number of applicants, applications will be sifted on the personal statement.

Candidates should expect to go through some or all of the following stages once an application has been submitted:-

Stage 1:- Coding Test - To be completed within 48 hours

Stage 2:- Sifting if successful at coding test

Stage 3:- Initial Interview

Stage 4:- Pre Interview take home test

Stage 5:- Formal interview and review of take home test

Stage 6:- Third stage interview

Stage 7:- Senior Civil Servant interview

Sift and interview dates

Expected Timeline subject to change

Sift dates: w/c 22/01/2024

Interview dates: w/c 29/01/2024

Interview Location: MS Teams.

Candidates are asked to note the above timetable, exercising flexibility through the recruitment and selection process.

If you have any questions about the role or your application, then please send an email to aisi-talentrecruitment@dsit.gov.uk

Reasonable Adjustment

We are proud to be a disability confident leader and we welcome applications from disabled candidates and candidates with long-term conditions.

We fully support adjustments throughout our recruitment process and we encourage candidates to discuss their adjustment needs by emailing the job contact which can be found under the contact point for applicants section.

We do not have an exhaustive list of adjustments that we support but just some examples include additional time to complete your application form, behaviour questions up to 72 hours prior to interview and having extra time at interview.

If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the 'Contact point for applicants' section.

If successful and transferring from another Government Department a criminal record check may be carried out.

New entrants are expected to join on the minimum of the pay band.

A location based reserve list of successful candidates will be kept for 12 months. Should another role become available within that period you may be offered this position.

Please note terms and conditions are attached. Please take time to read the document to determine how these may affect you.

Any move to the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax Free Childcare. Determine your eligibility https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk

DSIT does not normally offer full home working (i.e. working at home); but we do offer a variety of flexible working options (including occasionally working from home). 

In order to process applications without delay, we will be sending a Criminal Record Check to Disclosure and Barring Service on your behalf.

However, we recognise in exceptional circumstances some candidates will want to send their completed forms direct. If you will be doing this, please advise Government Recruitment Service of your intention by emailing Pre-EmploymentChecks.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk stating the job reference number in the subject heading. 

Applicants who are successful at interview will be, as part of pre-employment screening, subject to a check on the Internal Fraud Database (IFD). This check will provide information about employees who have been dismissed for fraud or dishonesty offences. This check also applies to employees who resign or otherwise leave before being dismissed for fraud or dishonesty had their employment continued. Any applicant’s details held on the IFD will be refused employment. 

A candidate is not eligible to apply for a role within the Civil Service if the application is made within a 5 year period following a dismissal for carrying out internal fraud against government.

Feedback

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window). The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria. The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.