Research Lead- Strategic Awareness

About the AI Security Institute

The AI Security Institute is the largest team in a government dedicated to understanding AI capabilities and risks in the world.

Our mission is to equip governments with an empirical understanding of the safety of advanced AI systems. We conduct research to understand the capabilities and impacts of advanced AI and develop and test risk mitigations. We focus on risks with security implications including the potential of AI to assist with the development of chemical and biological weapons how it can be used to carry out cyberattacks enable crimes such as fraud and the possibility of loss of control.

The risks from AI are not scifi they are urgent. By combining the agility of a tech startup with the expertise and missiondriven focus of government were building a unique and innovative organisation to prevent AIs harms from impeding its potential.

Strategic Awareness

Werefocused on keeping AISI and broader government abreast of the developments at the frontier of AI with a focus on enabling appropriate preparedness for AGI and other advanced AI systems. To achievethiswereperforming scenariobased foresight work and tracking of key developments. We couple technical research with communications activities to engage government decision makers on key developments.

Role Summary

As Research Lead you will play acrucialrole indriving the research work of the Strategic Awareness team. You willbe responsible fordriving research that foresees and tracks possible trajectories towards AGI and their impacts. Depending on your skills and interests you may build a team to advance key lines of research. You will be collaborating with team members that specialise in communicating findings to key government decision makers.

This role involves standing up research to foresee and track AI developments. This may involve identifying key scenarios for capability advances and impacts of AI systems. This may also involve tracking key developments and impacts in realtime to keep policymakers abreast of the latest developments. You will be able to draw on AISIs worldleading model evaluations capability.

Person Specification

The ideal candidate willdemonstrateexceptional technical insight into Frontier AI systems and their potential impacts. They will have clear evidence of being able to lead research that is impactful and actionable. They will have strong written and verbal communication skillswith a proventrackrecordof producing clear compelling technical content for diverse audiences.

Particular areas of expertise may include Frontier AI model training the AI supply chain and key risks associated with AI systems. Particularly relevant types of research experience include foresight data science or machine learning research.

Required Experience

We select candidates based on skills and experience in the following areas:

• Track record in relevant research

• Strong allround knowledge on frontier AI capability trajectories the supply chain and impacts.
  

• Science communication

• Interpersonal skills

Desired Experience

You may be a good fit if you have some of the following skills experience and attitudes:

• AI safety research knowledge

• Model evaluations knowledge

• Masters/Bachelorsdegree in an AI/ML discipline (Ph.D. not necessary)or equivalent professional experience.

Salary & Benefits

We are hiring individuals at all ranges of seniority and experience within this research unit and this advert allows you to apply for any of the roles within this range. Your dedicated talent partner will work with you as you move through our assessment process to explain our internal benchmarking process. The full range of salaries are available below salariescompriseof a base salary technical allowance plusadditionalbenefitsas detailed on this page.

• Level 3 Total Packageinclusiveof a base salary 35720 plusadditionaltechnical talent allowance of between

• Level 4 Total Packageinclusiveof a base salary 42495 plusadditionaltechnical talent allowance of between

• Level 5 Total Packageinclusiveof a base salary 55805 plusadditionaltechnical talent allowance of between

• Level 6 Total Packageinclusiveof a base salary 68770 plusadditionaltechnical talent allowance of between

• Level 7 Total Package 145000inclusiveof a base salary 68770 plusadditionaltechnical talent allowance of 76230

This role sits outside of theDDaTpay framework given the scope of this role requires in depth technicalexpertisein frontier AI safetyrobustnessand advanced AI architectures.

There are a range of pension options available which can be found through the Civil Service website.

Selection Process

In accordance withtheCivil Service Commissionrules the following listcontainsall selectioncriteria for the interview process.

This post requires Security Clearance (SC) which requires at least 2 years of UK residency and a willingness to undergo Developed Vetting (DV) if required. More detail on clearance eligibility can be found onthe UK Government website.

National security vetting: clearance levels

Additional Information