Who we're looking for

We are not looking for a particular CV. People do well in this role from a wide range of backgrounds and at a range of experience levels. What matters is a set of aptitudes:

• Agency: You take ownership and get things done without close direction, anticipating problems and resolving them before they escalate.
• Collaborativeness: You work well with people, gaining trust through reliability and building strong working relationships within the team, across AISI and wider government, and with external partners.
• Communication: You communicate effectively and adapt to your audience, whether expert or non-expert.
• Research interest: You can engage with academic research closely enough to coordinate it, following what a study is doing and why, without being a researcher yourself.
• Adaptability: You are comfortable with ambiguity and shifting priorities, and good at working out a sensible path forward when things are unclear.

The one thing that is essential: you want to reduce the risks that frontier AI poses to people and society, and the problems our team works on are the ones you want to help with.

This might not be the role for you if:

• You want to conduct research yourself. You will have real influence over what the team works on and how, but you will not be doing research directly.
• You want a single, clearly-defined remit. You will be holding different priorities at once, and what is on your plate will change.
• You only want to work on strategy. A meaningful share of the job is the practical, hands-on work of making projects actually happen, and the role does not work without it.
• You need to be the expert in the room before you act. You will often be adding value in areas you are still learning.

Selection Process:

• Application: CV & Application questions
• Interview 1: Experience & motivations interview
• Interview 2: Task & Civil Service Behaviours interview (Communicating & Influencing, Making Effective Decisions & Delivering at Pace)
• Interview 3: Final stage interview with Senior Leadership

Please note that in the event of a high volume of applicants, applications will be sifted on CV alone.

Salary

£44,620—£52,090 GBP

What We Offer

Impact you couldn't have anywhere else

• Incredibly talented, mission-driven and supportive colleagues.
• Direct influence on how frontier AI is governed and deployed globally.
• Work with the Prime Minister’s AI Advisor and leading AI companies.
• Opportunity to shape the first & best-resourced public-interest research team focused on AI security.

Resources & access

• Pre-release access to multiple frontier models and ample compute.
• Extensive operational support so you can focus on research and ship quickly.
• Work with experts across national security, policy, AI research and adjacent sciences.

Growth & autonomy

• If you’re talented and driven, you’ll own important problems early.
• 5 days off and annual stipends for learning and development, and funding for conferences and external collaborations.
• Freedom to pursue research bets without product pressure.
• Opportunities to publish and collaborate externally.

Life & family

• Modern central London office (cafes, food court, gym), or where applicable, option to work in similar government offices in Birmingham, Cardiff, Darlington, Edinburgh, Salford or Bristol.
• Hybrid working, flexibility for occasional remote work abroad and stipends for work-from-home equipment.
• At least 25 days’ annual leave, 8 public holidays, extra team-wide breaks and 3 days off for volunteering.
• Generous paid parental leave (36 weeks of UK statutory leave shared between parents + 3 extra paid weeks + option for additional unpaid time).
• On top of your salary, we contribute 28.97% of your base salary to your pension.
• Discounts and benefits for cycling to work, donations and retail/gyms.

Eligibility

Not all staff working in a government department or accredited non-departmental public body are considered to be civil servants.

If any of the following statements apply to your circumstances then you should select ‘No’ when answering:

• You are a member of agency staff working in a government department
• You are employed by an external organisation contracted into government roles
• You are a self-employed contractor working in a government department

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups: (non reserved posts only - text to show depending on how vacancy was built)

• 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)
• 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

This job is only open to UK nationals. (Reserved posts only - Text to show depending on how vacancy was built)

For more information on job nationality requirements and the right to work in the UK, see the [Civil Service Nationality rules](opens in a new window) and the [UK Visas and Immigration rules](opens in a new window).

Interviews under the Disability Confident Scheme

We want to encourage disabled people to apply for jobs and give them an opportunity to show their skills, talent and abilities at the interview stage. The Civil Service runs a Disability Confident Scheme, offering an interview to a fair and proportionate number of disabled applicants that meet the minimum selection criteria for the job.

To be considered for an interview under this scheme you must have:

• a physical or mental impairment, or a long term health condition which has a substantial and long term (over 12 months) adverse effect on your ability to carry out normal day to day activities
• demonstrated in your application and testing stages that you meet the minimum job criteria as set out in the advert or person specification for the post

Reasonable adjustments

We want to support you if you need an adjustment in the recruitment process, even if you do not feel you qualify for the Disability Confident Scheme.

We consider visible and non-visible disabilities, neurodiversity or learning differences