Our high performing research operations team, embedded within AISIs Research Unit, is recruiting operations specialists to equip AISI technical staff with the tools and environment to deliver our shared mission.  

The research operations team plays a critical role in creating the environment for this technical team to deliver its mission and shape the trajectory of AI safety research. The research operations team is charged with solving the many operational challenges that face a start-up inside government: success in this mission not only amplifies the quality and pace of AISIs technical output, but also serves as a blueprint for how governments can move quickly to respond to new technical challenges.  

This will not be a typical operations position: you will not only build core operations practices, but you will also help shape the delivery of key strategic capabilities for AISI with high exposure to technical staff and leaders. 

The successful candidate will have a wide-ranging portfolio of operational responsibilities spanning AISIs Research Unit. The nature of AISIs mission, and its role in a fast-evolving technical environment, means that the post-holder will need to be able to adapt quickly to changing requirements. Early responsibilities include:  

• Partner with AISIs world class technical talent: You will embed into AISIs Research Unit, helping identify blockers and opportunities where the operations team can improve efficiency and performance. 
• Delivering an outstanding onboarding experience for technical hires: delivering an exceptional experience for new technical hires so they can deliver outstanding research from day one.   
• Supporting cross-functional teams to deliver the Research Units commercial pipeline: AISIs Research Unit has a substantial budget to achieve its mission: you will help deliver a portfolio of commercial activity, tracking spend with finance to remain within budget and achieve good value for money.  
• Supporting research teams to assure their activity against AISIs responsible research guidelines: AISI requires that all research meets expected ethical, legal, commercial and security requirements. The post holder will be expected to support teams to navigate project approval by senior leaders and partner organisations.  
• Developing and executing routine operational workflows that improve the efficiency of AISI researchers: the post holder will be highly experienced in developing efficient processes that automate or simplify routine processes. 
• Take a task-and-finish approach to high priority operational challenges facing researchers: The post holder will excel in building relationships with corporate colleagues and executing at pace to implement new solutions like compute and software services for technical staff.  

The AI Safety Institute

Advances in artificial intelligence (AI) over the last decade have been impactful, rapid, and unpredictable. Today, harnessing AI is an opportunity that could be transformational for the UK and the rest of the world. Advanced AI systems have the potential to drive economic growth and productivity, boost health and wellbeing, improve public services, and increase security. 

The UK government is determined to seize these opportunities. In September, we announced Isambard AI as the UK AI Research Resource, which will be one of Europes most powerful supercomputers purpose-built for AI. The National Health Service (NHS) is running trials to help clinicians identify breast cancer sooner by using AI. In the workplace, AI promises to free us from routine tasks, giving teachers more time to teach and police officers more time to tackle crime. There is a world of opportunity for the UK that we will explore. 

But advanced AI systems also pose significant risks, as detailed in the governments paper on Capabilities and Risks from Frontier AI published in October.  AI can be misused this could include using AI to generate disinformation, conduct sophisticated cyberattacks or help develop chemical weapons. AI can cause societal harms there have been examples of AI chatbots encouraging harmful actions, promoting skewed or radical views, and providing biased advice. AI generated content that is highly realistic but false could reduce public trust in information. Some experts are concerned that humanity could lose control of advanced systems, with potentially catastrophic and permanent consequences. We will only unlock the benefits of AI if we can manage these risks. At present, our ability to develop powerful systems outpaces our ability to make them safe. The first step is to better understand the capabilities and risks of these advanced AI systems. This will then inform our regulatory framework for AI, so we ensure AI is developed and deployed safely and responsibly. 

The UK is taking a leading role in driving this conversation forward internationally. We launched the Frontier AI Taskforce the first state body dedicated to the safety of advanced AI, investing more than any other nation - and hosted the worlds first major AI Safety Summit. Responsible government action in an area as new and fast-paced as advanced AI requires governments to develop their own sophisticated technical and sociotechnical expertise. 

The Artificial Intelligence Safety Institute (AISI) is the next step in this process. The AI Safety Institute is the first state-backed organisation focused on advancing AI safety for the public interest. We launched at the Bletchley Park AI Safety Summit in 2023 because we believe taking responsible action on this extraordinary technology requires a capable and empowered group of technical experts within government.  

We have ambitious goals and need to move fast.  

1. Develop and conduct evaluations on advanced AI systems. We will characterise safety-relevant capabilities, understand the safety and security of systems, and assess their societal impacts. 

1. Develop novel tools for AI governance. We will create practical frameworks and novel methods to evaluate the safety and societal impacts of advanced AI systems, and anticipate how future technical safety research will feed into AI governance. 

1. Facilitate information exchange. We will establish clear information-sharing channels between the Institute and other national and international actors. These include stakeholders such as policymakers and international partners. 

Our staff includes senior alumni from OpenAI, Google DeepMind, start-ups and the UK government, and ML professors from leading universities. This is a truly unique opportunity to help shape AI safety at an international level. 

As more powerful models are expected to hit the market over the course of 2024, AISIs mission to push for safe and responsible development and deployment of AI is more important than ever 

This is a once-in-a-generation moment, and these roles will sit at the heart of the team. Joining the team represents a unique opportunity to deliver the vision for a constantly evolving area of UK policy. We are looking for applicants with an enthusiasm for supporting the Institutes mission while embodying our values. 

We are seeking candidates with multiple years of professional experience. Essential skills/experience include:  

• Track record of delivery: You have delivered big projects in a technical / R&D context, showing skills in the design, set-up and execution phases of these operational projects. 
• Creativity and tenacity: AISI routinely pushes against the limits of the civil services operational norms; solving these challenges requires the right mix of creativity, tenacity and good judgement to find the right solution and deliver through others effectively. 
• Methodical and organised: you instinctively document and systematise processes so they can be repeated more quickly and easily next time. You track work with the right level of rigour for the job, and understand how to leverage software, automations and data to improve the speed of routine operational work. 
• Managing parallel projects: You excel in running multiple complex projects in parallel and deliver them to a very high standard, continually re-assessing priorities and protecting critical deliverables from being knocked off course. 
• Independence: You are confident delivering your work with limited oversight, but know how and when to seek support from your manager. 
• Excellence: You are motivated by excellence and enjoy solving operational challenges to boost the efficiency and quality of work delivered by technical staff.  
• Resilience: You enjoy a fast-paced work environment and remain calm and resilient under pressure.  
• Attention to detail: You have excellent written and oral communication skills and catch problems/errors early. You can write a clear, engaging email or guidance document quickly with limited oversight from seniors.   
• Proactive: You relish getting up to speed on a technical topic quickly, and learning about the pain-points facing technical staff even where these are outside your comfort zone; you are comfortable developing and driving solutions to these pain-points. 

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

• Delivering at Pace
• Making Effective Decisions
• Working Together
• Managing a Quality Service

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 average employer contribution of 27%.
• 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.

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.

Job contact :

• Name : Jordan Holland
• Email : [email protected]

Recruitment team

• Email : [email protected]