Delivery tracking and unblocking

You will spot and solve problems so that the team's delivery continually improves, and own tracking progress to create visibility and establish control without overhead. You will surface technical blockers before they become crises, intervene directly to resolve them, and know exactly when and to whom to escalate. The goal is the team spending their time on the work, not logistics.

Cross-government technical engagement

You will speak with government partners on a technical level and be a trusted representative and ambassador for good relationships with them.

Team operations and pace

You will determine the operational rhythm that lets a small, high-performing team inside government move at the speed of billion-dollar AI companies. You will ensure the team has what it needs to deliver and be unfussy about doing whatever needs to be done to unblock things and prevent them from falling through the cracks.

Role Requirements

• A track record working with technical colleagues. You have delivered technical programmes in a similarly high-ambiguity environment. You know how to scope and structure open-ended goals (not just deliver against a pre-defined plan). You have earned the trust of technical teams by understanding their work deeply enough to provide critical challenge and engage beyond process.
• Comfort operating at the frontier of AI. You do not need to be a machine learning researcher, but you need to be fluent enough in frontier AI to operate in constant conversation with technical staff about our work, strategy, and research taste; you should have your own taste on what's hard, what's speculative, what's blocked, and what "good" looks like for a given experiment or evaluation.
• High agency and ownership. You take responsibility for outcomes, not activities. When something is stuck, you pick up the phone. You do not wait for someone else to escalate.
• Credibility with technical teams. Researchers trust you because you understand their work, respect their constraints, and demonstrably make their lives easier. You influence through competence and service, not authority or process.
• Strong prioritisation under pressure. You can identify what actually matters on a daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly level and focus the team's energy. You have the judgement to recognise work that isn't landing and the confidence to recommend that it stop.
• Discretion and judgement in a sensitive domain. You understand that the work we do often carries sensitivity.

Strong candidates may also have:

• Existing security clearances.
• Fluency in, or eagerness to adopt, modern productivity tools (coding agents, Linear, Slack) and willingness to use AI tools as part of daily work.

Selection process

Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis. We encourage you to apply early.

• Application - CV and a short cover note (max 500 words) explaining what draws you to this role and what you would bring. Please also indicate which team you would prefer to join.
• Screening interview - Lightweight conversation on trajectory, motivation and fit.
• Work test - A take-home exercise designed to test programme management judgement in context. You will receive this after the screening interview.
• Technical interview - Discussion of your work test with a current AISI TPM.
• Behavioural interview - Deeper dive on stakeholder management, prioritisation and team dynamics.
• Senior leadership interview (30 min) - Final conversation with AISI senior leadership.

Security Clearance

Appointment is conditional on successfully completing UK Government SC clearance. Prior clearance is not required—we will sponsor and support you. You should normally have been resident in the UK for the past 5 years. More detail on clearance eligibility can be found on the UK Government website: National security vetting: clearance levels - GOV.UK.

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, 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.

These benefits apply to direct employees. Benefits may differ for individuals joining through other employment arrangements such as secondments.

Salary

Annual salary is benchmarked to role scope and relevant experience. Most offers land between £65,000 and £145,000 made up of a base salary plus a technical allowance (take-home salary = base + technical allowance). An additional 28.97% employer pension contribution is paid on the base salary.

This role sits outside of the DDaT pay framework given the scope of this role requires in depth technical expertise in frontier AI safety, robustness and advanced AI architectures.

The full range of salaries are available below:

• Level 3: £65,000–£75,000 (Base £39,850 + Technical Allowance £25,150–£35,150)
• Level 4: £