Department for Science, Innovation and Technology
Strategy Associate
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London
Job Summary
The AI Security Institute (AISI) 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 and security 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 cyber-attacks, enable crimes such as fraud, and the possibility of loss of control.
The risks from AI are not sci-fi, they are urgent. By combining the agility of a tech start-up with the expertise and mission-driven focus of government, we’re building a unique and innovative organisation to prevent AI’s harms from impeding its potential.
Working at AISI is an incredible and exciting professional challenge and provides the opportunity to work with leading experts in the field of AI Safety and a wider multidisciplinary team from a broad range of personal and professional backgrounds.
Job Description
The successful candidate will be working at the forefront of AI Safety and Security. Making significant personal impact on some of the most difficult problems in the field and ensuring that this transformative technology is harnessed for good. If you want a job with high agency, high impact, and exceptional opportunities to develop and grow –then AISI is the perfect place for you.
In this role as Strategy Associate you will be
- Supporting setting AISI’s overall strategy working closely with Executive Committee including AISI’s Director and CRO.
- Run discrete strategic projects end to end: decomposing the problem, design an approach, gather the evidence, land a recommendation, and follow through to a decision.
- Do the analysis and problem-solving behind those recommendations; including research into the frontier AI landscape, the technical, policy and regulatory environment, and what comparable organisations do.
- Write and present for senior audiences: papers for ExCo, briefings and submissions for ministers.
- Work with technical and non-technical teams across AISI; researchers, engineers, experts in international policy, national security policy etc — to bring their input into strategic work and align their plans with AISI's overall direction.
- Interface with other parts of government where AISI's strategy depends on them.
- Keep projects on track: manage the plan, the stakeholders and the risks.
Person Specification
Essential Skills And Experience
- Has experience working in Strategy Consultancy or an in internal central strategy team, and developed the core strategy ‘toolkit’, namely
- Structured Problem-Solving: Taking an ambiguous, contested question, breaking it into parts that can be answered, and identifying what evidence would change the answer.
- Stakeholder Management: Proficiency in managing relationships with key stakeholders up to senior levels across an organisation.
- Change Management: Experience in managing and facilitating organizational change initiatives.
- Cross-Functional Collaboration: Ability to work effectively with different departments to drive strategic projects.
- Written Communication: Proficiency in clear, structured, precise, written communication, able to synthesize complex topics simply, tailored for different audiences.
- Verbal Communication: Strong ability to present strategic recommendations to senior leadership.
- Strives for excellence. Always aims for the best quality outputs, has a high attention to detail, catches problems/errors early.
- Is motivated by a strong desire to ensure that frontier AI systems benefit people globally.
- Proactive and self-motivated. Can operate with high autonomy, maintain delivery momentum in a fast-paced environment.
- Organised and prioritises effectively: Strong ability to manage tasks efficiently, ensuring that priorities are set and adhered to, leading to timely delivery
- Works well in a team. Collaborates effectively with colleagues, builds strong relationships, and contributes to a positive team
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Desirable (not Essential) Skills And Experience
- Domain knowledge on Frontier AI, AI security or AI governance - or evidence of getting up to speed on technical subjects quickly.
- Experience delivering a broad portfolio of projects simultaneously.
If you have the skills, experience and motivation to help drive forward AISI's critical mission at the cutting edge of AI security, we want to hear from you. Join us and let's ensure that the immense potential of artificial intelligence benefits humanity while navigating the risks and challenges responsibly.
Behaviours
We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
- Communicating and Influencing
- Delivering at Pace
Alongside your salary of £61,620, Department for Science, Innovation & Technology contributes £17,851 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).
The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology offers a competitive mix of benefits including:
- A culture of flexible working, such as job sharing, homeworking and compressed hours.
- Automatic enrolment into the Civil Service Pension Scheme, with an employer contribution of 28.97%.
- A minimum of 25 days of paid annual leave, increasing by 1 day per year up to a maximum of 30.
- An extensive range of learning & professional development opportunities, which all staff are actively encouraged to pursue.
- Access to a range of retail, travel and lifestyle employee discounts.
Office Attendance
The Department operates a discretionary hybrid working policy, which provides for a combination of working hours from your place of work and from your home in the UK. The current expectation for staff is to attend the office or non-home based location for 40-60% of the time over the accounting period.
Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.
Selection Process Details
This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours and Experience.
AISI colleagues come from all walks of life. We seek to hire talented, dedicated people with a diversity of perspectives and backgrounds, who can work together to advance the field of AI security.
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Our interview process is designed to help us hire the best talent possible, help us get to know you and you to know us, and to ensure every candidate has the opportunity to showcase their strengths as much as possible.
The process for this role will be split across four stages, as follows:
PAPER SIFT
- Candidates will submit a CV and Personal Statement which will be used to assess whether the core criterion of the role are met.
SCREENER INTERVIEW – 20 mins
- Overview of candidate's experience & interest to assess fit for the role
Interview
- Task-based assessment, including a presentation. Details of the presentation and task will be sent out to candidates in advance of this interview to assess role relevant skills.
Civil Service Behaviours Assessment
- Delivering at Pace
- Communicating and Influencing
SCS INTERVIEW
- This will give candidates an opportunity to meet a senior stakeholder to discuss the role, gain a broader perspective on the organisation, and discuss their motivation for joining AISI. This will also allow the candidate to ask any questions they may have regarding the role.
Our hope is that this is a rigorous and rewarding process for candidates and – alongside allowing us to identify exceptional talent – gives you a strong insight in what it is like at AISI, and the team we are seeking to build.
In the event of a high number of applications, we will sift off of the CV.
Candidates who pass the initial sift may be progressed to a full sift, or progressed straight to assessment/interview.
Sift and Interview Dates
Sift and interview dates to be confirmed.
Further Information
Former DSIT recruitment campaigns are continuing as usual, but candidates should be aware that following the Government’s announcement on the changes to some civil service departments, roles will be subject to the machinery of government moves and will ultimately be in one of the new departments. We will provide more information if you are selected for a role. This work remains of high importance to the civil service, and we thank you for your continued interest.
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.
Information about the Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) and some examples of adjustments that we offer to disabled candidates and candidates with long-term health conditions during our recruitment process can be found in our DSIT Candidate Guidance. A DSIT Plain Text Version of the guidance is also available.
We encourage candidates to discuss their adjustment needs by emailing the job contact which can be found under the contact point for applicants section.
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.
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