London

The AI Safety Institute (AISI) is a start up in Government, established in November 2023 at the worlds first AI Safety Summit at Bletchley Park. AISIs mission is to advance AI safety research, evaluations and standards both domestically and internationally. AISI is the first state-backed organisation focused on advancing AI safety for the public interest and we believe that to reap the benefits of this extraordinary technology, it must be developed and deployed safely.

To achieve this mission, AISI must take a truly global approach, and continue, and build on, the engagement started in Bletchley Park and Seoul at the AI Summits

The newly created International Engagement and Network of AISIs Deputy Director will play a critical role in achieving this mission. This role will be at the forefront of AISIs international collaboration effort, owning AISIs Interntional outreach programme, developing and implementing the world's first Network of AISIs, and leading the International AI Safety Report a groundbreaking report lead by the UK and involving 30 countries to better understand the safety of advanced AI systems. 

This is a stretching and fast-paced Deputy Director role. It requires an exemplary ability to understand the quickly evolving UK policy and regulatory landscape, turn this into tangible and deliverable international collaboration strategies and outcomes, and ensuring the national security community and colleagues across Government are brought along this journey. Given the exponential pace of AI development and AISIs growth the responsibilities of this role will evolve over time. However, the postholder can expect to be responsible for:

• Leading the Secretariat for the International Scientific Report on the Safety of Advanced AI. This report is one of the major outcomes from the worlds first AI Safety Summit at Bletchley Park last year with the UK acting as secretariat to a 30+ country report which aims to set out an up-to-date, science-based understanding of the safety of advanced AI systems. 
• Establishing the global 'Network of AISI's'. To truly ensure the development of safe AI, we must collaborate across borders and thats why the UK is spearheading the development of the Network of AISIs. The UK will provide the secretariat function to the Network and of the four initial projects, the UK will lead three of these.
• Leading AISI's international engagement function. This will involve working closely with AISIs SLT as well as key stakeholders across Whitehall and in Post to ensure the development and delivery of outcome driven international engagement for both senior officials and Ministers, including collaborating with the AI Safety Summit team to design AISIs input into the upcoming AI Safety Summit in France. 
• Owning and leading AISI's national security work, developing policy positions on collaborating with non-allied nations. You will need to develop excellent relationships with international partners, colleagues in Post, companies, and the national security community and have exceptional negotiation skills.

We are looking for a highly motivated individual with exceptional communication, collaboration and leadership skills who understands the complexity of AISIs work and can translate these into tangible outputs. They will need to successfully operate in ambiguity, grip the delivery of fast-paced issues, and demonstrate exceptional judgement. You would ideally have experience working in an international focused environment. We would encourage you to apply if you meet most of the following: 

• Experience working on complex international policy issues 
• An ability to quickly get up to speed on technical policy
• Highly developed leadership skills with a proven ability to develop, grow and inspire fast-paced and high-performing teams. 
• A proven track record of working closely with senior stakeholders both domestically and internationally. Creating a single, cohesive vision you lead your team towards
• Exceptional communication, influencing and negotiation skills. 
• Significant experience working in a fast-paced environment, providing clarity to complex tasks and gripping both reactive and strategic priorities.

DV clearance would be an advantage. SC clearance at a minimum.

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Leadership
• Making Effective Decisions
• Seeing the Big Picture

Alongside your salary of £76,000, Department for Science, Innovation & Technology contributes £22,017 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

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.
• A hybrid office/home based working model where staff will spend a norm of 40-60% of their time in the office (minimum of 40%) over a month with flex dependent on balancing business and individual need.

This role has a minimum assignment duration of 3 years. An assignment duration is the period of time a Senior Civil Servant is expected to remain in the same post to enable them to deliver on the agreed key business outcomes. The assignment duration also supports your career through building your depth of expertise.

As part of accepting this role you will be agreeing to the expected assignment duration set out above. This will not result in a contractual change to your terms and conditions. Please note this is an expectation only, it is not something which is written into your terms and conditions or indeed which the employing organisation or you are bound by. It will depend on your personal circumstances at a particular time and business needs, for example, would not preclude any absence like family friendly leave. It is nonetheless an important expectation, which is why we ask you to confirm you agree to the assignment duration set out above.

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).

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.

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Job contact :

• Name : SCS Recruitment
• Email : [email protected]

Recruitment team

• Email : [email protected]