About the job

Job summary

DSIT

Are you ready to be a part of something extraordinary? The Department for Science, Innovation & Technology (DSIT) is a new department on a mission to propel the UK to the forefront of global scientific and technological advancement. 

What We're About: 

Innovation that changes lives: We're not here to just maintain the status quo. We're driving innovations that will not only transform lives but also fuel economic growth. 

Unleashing talent and infrastructure: We're building bridges to success, from talent programs to cutting-edge digital and physical infrastructure, all to fortify our economy, security, and public services. 

Investing in the future: Our commitment to R&D funding is unwavering, ensuring that we're always pushing the boundaries of what's possible. 

If you're excited about being at the forefront of innovation, passionate about making a real impact, and ready to be a part of something extraordinary, join us. Together, we're shaping a future that will leave a legacy for generations to come. 

Our Inclusive Environment   

We are building an inclusive culture to make the Department a brilliant place to work where our people feel valued, have a voice and can be their authentic selves.

We value difference and diversity, not only because we believe it is the right thing to do, but because it will help us be more innovative and make better decisions.   

We offer first-class flexible working benefits, excellent employee well-being support and a great pension. We are fortunate to have a range of excellent staff networks and are proud to be a Disability Confident Leader employer. We will support talented people from all backgrounds to build a career and thrive.  

We actively welcome applications from anyone who shares our commitment to inclusion. We will fully support candidates with a disability or long-term condition who require adjustments in our recruitment process.

Job description

The AISI Testing Strategy and Delivery team is a small, high-profile team responsible for delivering against AISI’s core mission: developing and conducting evaluations on advanced AI systems, before and after they are deployed. AISI is the world’s first state-backed organisation doing this work. The team sits at the heart of AISI, reporting jointly into the Strategy Deputy Director and AISI’s Chief Technology Officer. It represents a unique opportunity to work closely with AISI’s world-class AI experts, drawn from companies including OpenAI and Google DeepMind, and with AISI’s senior team to shape how we assess the potential risks of new frontier models. You’ll be joining a friendly and inclusive team that commits to prioritising performance, growth and wellbeing of team members.  

We’re recruiting a high-performing G7 Testing Strategy and Delivery lead to join the team as we develop and evolve our strategic approach to testing and ramp up delivery of testing exercises. 

The work of the Testing team spans strategy, policy and delivery. You should expect to play a critical role shaping our overall testing strategy, and identifying and resolving emerging policy and operational issues. You will also be responsible for the end-to-end preparation and delivery of individual testing exercises, collaborating closely with the technical leads who design and deliver our suite of evaluations, policy and delivery teams across Whitehall, and with the leading frontier AI companies developing the next generation of models. 

You will be responsible for planning and delivering testing exercises, which will include: 

• Working closely with frontier AI companies: securing appropriate access to AI systems for testing, enabling smooth end-to-end delivery of testing projects, and ensuring impact; 

• Project management and delivery: working with a large virtual team of technical and policy leads to ensure that testing projects run efficiently and effectively to often challenging timelines; 

• Unblocking issues: working quickly and thinking creatively to unblock and resolve policy, operational delivery or other challenges; 

• Collaborating with XWH stakeholders: building and leveraging relationships with teams critical to delivery including DSIT and XWH seniors and ministerial offices, and the national security community.  

As well as driving forward strategy, policy and operational delivery, you will work closely with key teams across a range of areas, which could include: 

• Overarching testing strategy: developing and building consensus on AISI’s strategic approach to testing and ‘theory of impact’; 

• Information-sharing and disclosure: working closely with XWH leads and the national security community to develop AISI’s approach to sharing the outputs of evaluations with key stakeholders; 

• International testing: driving forward collaboration with international partners, including operationalising joint testing with the US AISI.  

 You will have task management responsibility for an SEO, with the potential to expand line management responsibilities as the team grows, as anticipated.  

The AI Safety Institute 

Advances in artificial intelligence (AI) over the last decade have been impactful, rapid, and unpredictable. Today, harnessing AI is an opportunity that could be transformational for the UK and the rest of the world. Advanced AI systems have the potential to drive economic growth and productivity, boost health and wellbeing, improve public services, and increase security.  

The UK government is determined to seize these opportunities. In September, we announced Isambard AI as the UK AI Research Resource, which will be one of Europe’s most powerful supercomputers purpose-built for AI. The National Health Service (NHS) is running trials to help clinicians identify breast cancer sooner by using AI. In the workplace, AI promises to free us from routine tasks, giving teachers more time to teach and police officers more time to tackle crime. There is a world of opportunity for the UK that we will explore.  

But advanced AI systems also pose significant risks, as detailed in the government’s paper on Capabilities and Risks from Frontier AI published in October.  AI can be misused – this could include using AI to generate disinformation, conduct sophisticated cyberattacks or help develop chemical weapons. AI can cause societal harms – there have been examples of AI chatbots encouraging harmful actions, promoting skewed or radical views, and providing biased advice. AI generated content that is highly realistic but false could reduce public trust in information. Some experts are concerned that humanity could lose control of advanced systems, with potentially catastrophic and permanent consequences. We will only unlock the benefits of AI if we can manage these risks. At present, our ability to develop powerful systems outpaces our ability to make them safe. The first step is to better understand the capabilities and risks of these advanced AI systems. This will then inform our regulatory framework for AI, so we ensure AI is developed and deployed safely and responsibly.  

The UK is taking a leading role in driving this conversation forward internationally. We launched the Frontier AI Taskforce – the first state body dedicated to the safety of advanced AI, investing more than any other nation - and hosted the world’s first major AI Safety Summit. Responsible government action in an area as new and fast-paced as advanced AI requires governments to develop their own sophisticated technical and sociotechnical expertise.  

The Artificial Intelligence Safety Institute (AISI) is the next step in this process. The AI Safety Institute is the first state-backed organisation focused on advancing AI safety for the public interest. We launched at the Bletchley Park AI Safety Summit in 2023 because we believe taking responsible action on this extraordinary technology requires a capable and empowered group of technical experts within government.   

What we Value: 

Diverse Perspectives: We believe that a range of experiences and backgrounds is essential to our success. We welcome individuals from underrepresented groups to join us in this crucial mission. 

Collaborative Spirit: We thrive on teamwork and open collaboration, valuing every contribution, big or small. 

Innovation and Impact: We are dedicated to making a real-world difference in the field of frontier AI safety and capability, and we encourage innovative thinking and bold ideas. 

We have ambitious goals and need to move fast.   

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.  

Develop novel tools for AI governance. We will create practical frameworks and novel methods to evaluate the safety and societal impacts of advanced AI systems, and anticipate how future technical safety research will feed into AI governance.  

Facilitate information exchange. We will establish clear information-sharing channels between the Institute and other national and international actors. These include stakeholders such as policymakers and international partners.  

Our staff includes senior alumni from OpenAI, Google DeepMind, start-ups and the UK government, and ML professors from leading universities. This is a truly unique opportunity to help shape AI safety at an international level.  

As more powerful models are expected to hit the market over the course of 2024, AISI’s mission to push for safe and responsible development and deployment of AI is more important than ever  

This is a once-in-a-generation moment, and these roles will sit at the heart of the team. Joining the team represents a unique opportunity to deliver the vision for a constantly evolving area of UK policy. We are looking for applicants with an enthusiasm for supporting the Institute’s mission while embodying our values. 

Person specification

AISI’s work is fast-paced, high-profile and evolving quickly. We are looking for someone who is driven, motivated and with demonstrated experience delivering under pressure. 

You should be someone who is: 

• Proactive and used to driving forward work quickly – a self-starter who is comfortable working in a high-pressure environment; 

• Able to build and leverage relationships - able to work well with a range of people, and to influence and deliver through others; 

• Comfortable delivering in ambiguity – nimble and able to adapt quickly to an uncertain and rapidly-changing environment; 

• Strategic and able to think creatively to unblock problems – used to breaking down knotty problems into tangible next steps, and situating work within the bigger picture; 

• Willing to get up to speed quickly – in-depth domain knowledge isn’t essential (although desirable), but you must be able to get to grips with complex policy and technical detail; 

• Interested in making things better – appetite to work with others to simplify and improve processes and increase efficiency.  

Desirable criteria (but not essential): 

• Experience in technical/R&D environment, or in a start-up;  

• Domain knowledge on Frontier AI. 

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £52,320, Department for Science, Innovation & Technology contributes £14,126 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

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours and Experience.

As part of the application process you will be asked to complete an anonymised CV and a personal statement (statement of suitability) You will not be considered if you do not provide both CV and personal statement.

Further details around what this will entail are listed on the application form.

Your CV should be no more than 2 pages long and should show us your work history and previous experience. It should be well structured, succinct and written in clear language.

Your personal statement (statement of suitability) should be no more than 750 words and should give us examples of how your skills and experience match those needed for this role. Consider giving an example for each bullet point, in the ‘Who you are’ section and use work you have completed to demonstrate how you meet each one. 

Please note - the CV incorporated into the application form is for information purposes only and will not be scored.

Sift will be conducted on the personal statement.

Interviews 

The interview will be focused on questions about Behaviours needed for the role.  

The following behaviours will be tested:  

• Delivering at Pace 
• Making Effective Decisions 
• Communicating and Influencing 
• Seeing the Big Picture 

For Behaviours, use the link here to understand the expectations at the grade of role you are applying for: Level 4 – G7. You can find out definitions of Strengths here.  

We highly recommend learning about Success Profiles and using the Situation, Task, Action, Result and Reflection (STARR) framework when structuring your answers. In your examples you should include evidence on ‘how’ you demonstrated the requirements and the impact of your work, as well as ‘what’ you did

Sift and interview dates

Expected Timeline subject to change

Sift dates: w/c 15/07/2024

Interview dates: w/c 22/07/2024. 

Interview Location: MS Teams.

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

Further Information

Existing Civil Servants and applicants from accredited NDPBs are eligible to apply,and can be considered on loan basis (Civil Servants) or secondment (accredited NDPBs). Prior agreement to be released on a loan basis must be obtained before commencing the application process. In the case of Civil Servants, the terms of the loan will be agreed between the home and host department and the Civil Servant. This includes grade on return.

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). 

DSIT cannot offer Visa sponsorship to candidates through this campaign.

DSIT holds a Visa sponsorship licence but this can only be used for certain roles and this campaign does not qualify.

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

For further information on the Disclosure Scotland confidential checking service telephone: the Disclosure Scotland Helpline on 0870 609 6006 and ask to speak to the operations manager in confidence, or email Info@disclosurescotland.co.uk 

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.

If you have any queries about the role, or wish to discuss, please contact clara.pelly@dsit.gov.uk. 

Vetting

For further information on National Security Vetting please visit the following page https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/demystifying-vetting

Please be aware the levels of national security clearance are changing which may impact on the level needed for this role by the time of appointment. All efforts will be made to keep candidates informed of any changes and what that will mean in terms of vetting criteria. For more information please See our vetting charter

Feedback

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

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is counter-terrorist check (opens in a new window).

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window). 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.