Research Scientist/Research Engineer- Safeguards

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 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.

Role Description

The AI Security Institute research unit is looking for exceptionally motivated and talented people to join its Safeguard Analysis Team.

Interventions that secure a system from abuse by bad actors will grow in importance as AI systems become more advanced and integrated into society. The AI Security Institute's Safeguard Analysis Team researches such interventions, which it refers to as 'safeguards', evaluating protections used to secure current frontier AI systems and considering what measures could and should be used to secure such systems in the future.

The Safeguard Analysis Team takes a broad view of security threats and interventions. It's keen to hire researchers with expertise developing and analysing attacks and protections for systems based on large language models, but is also keen to hire security researchers who have historically worked outside of AI, such as in - non-exhaustively - computer security, information security, web technology policy, and hardware security. Diverse perspectives and research interests are welcomed.

The Team seeks people with skillsets leaning in the direction of either or both of Research Scientist and Research Engineer, recognising that some technical staff may prefer work that spans or alternates between engineering and research responsibilities. The Team's priorities include research-oriented responsibilities - like assessing the threats to frontier systems and developing novel attacks - and engineering-oriented ones, such as building infrastructure for running evaluations.

In this role, you'll receive mentorship and coaching from your manager and the technical leads on your team. You'll also regularly interact with world-famous researchers and other incredible staff, including alumni from Anthropic, DeepMind, OpenAI and ML professors from Oxford and Cambridge.

In addition to Junior roles, Senior, Staff and Principle RE positions are available for candidates with the required seniority and experience.

Person Specification

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

• Experience working on machine learning, AI, AI security, computer security, information security, or some other security discipline in industry, in academia, or independently.
• Experience working with a world-class research team comprised of both scientists and engineers (e.g. in a top-3 lab).
• Red-teaming experience against any sort of system.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Comprehensive understanding of large language models (e.g. GPT-4). This includes both a broad understanding of the literature, as well as hands-on experience with things like pre-training or fine tuning LLMs.
• Extensive Python experience, including understanding the intricacies of the language, the good vs. bad Pythonic ways of doing things and much of the wider ecosystem/tooling.
• Ability to work in a self-directed way with high agency, thriving in a constantly changing environment and a steadily growing team, while figuring out the best and most efficient ways to solve a particular problem.
• Bring your own voice and experience but also an eagerness to support your colleagues together with a willingness to do whatever is necessary for the team's success and find new ways of getting things done within government.
• Have a sense of mission, urgency, and responsibility for success, demonstrating problem-solving abilities and preparedness to acquire any missing knowledge necessary to get the job done.
• Writing production quality code.
• Improving technical standards across a team through mentoring and feedback.
• Designing, shipping, and maintaining complex tech products.

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, salaries comprise of a base salary, technical allowance plus additional benefits as detailed on this page.

• Level 3 - Total Package £65,000 - £75,000 inclusive of a base salary £35,720 plus additional technical talent allowance of between £29,280 - £39,280
• Level 4 - Total Package £85,000 - £95,000 inclusive of a base salary £42,495 plus additional technical talent allowance of between £42,505 - £52,505
• Level 5 - Total Package £105,000 - £115,000 inclusive of a base salary £55,805 plus additional technical talent allowance of between £49,195 - £59,195
• Level 6 - Total Package £125,000 - £135,000 inclusive of a base salary £68,770 plus additional technical talent allowance of between £56,230 - £66,230
• Level 7 - Total Package £145,000 inclusive of a base salary £68,770 plus additional technical talent allowance of £76,230

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

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.

Selection Process

In accordance with the Civil Service Commission rules, the following list contains all selection criteria for the interview process.
Required Experience

This job advert encompasses a range of possible research and engineering roles within the Safeguard Analysis Team. The 'required' experiences listed below should be interpreted as examples of the expertise we're looking for, as opposed to a list of everything we expect to find in one applicant:

• Writing production quality code
• Writing code efficiently
• Python
• Frontier model architecture knowledge
• Frontier model training knowledge
• Model evaluations knowledge
• AI safety research knowledge
• Security research knowledge
• Research problem selection
• Research science
• Written communication
• Verbal communication
• Teamwork
• Interpersonal skills
• Tackle challenging problems
• Learn through coaching

Additional Information

Internal Fraud Database

The Internal Fraud function of the Fraud, Error, Debt and Grants Function at the Cabinet Office processes details of civil servants who have been dismissed for committing internal fraud, or who would have been dismissed had they not resigned. The Cabinet Office receives the details from participating government organisations of civil servants who have been dismissed, or who would have been dismissed had they not resigned, for internal fraud. In instances such as this, civil servants are then banned for 5 years from further employment in the civil service. The Cabinet Office then processes this data and discloses a limited dataset back to DLUHC as a participating government organisations. DLUHC then carry out the pre employment checks so as to detect instances where known fraudsters are attempting to reapply for roles in the civil service. In this way, the policy is ensured and the repetition of internal fraud is prevented. For more information please see - Internal Fraud Register.
Security
Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check and get baseline personnel security standard (BPSS) clearance before they can be appointed. Additionally, there is a strong preference for eligibility for counter-terrorist check (CTC) clearance. Some roles may require higher levels of clearance, and we will state this by exception in the job advertisement. See our vetting charter here.

Nationality requirements

We may be able to offer roles to applicant from any nationality or background . As such we encourage you to apply even if you do not meet the standard 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. The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).