Research Engineer - Societal Impacts

London2w ago

About the role

<div class="content-intro"><h2>About the AI Security Institute</h2> The AI Security Institute is the world's largest and best-funded team dedicated to understanding advanced AI risks and translating that knowledge into action. We’re in the heart of the UK government with direct lines to No. 10 (the Prime Minister's office), and we work with frontier developers and governments globally. We’re here because governments are critical for advanced AI going well, and UK AISI is uniquely positioned to mobilise them. With our resources, unique agility and international influence, this is the best place to shape both AI development and government action.</div><h3>The deadline for applying to this role is Sunday 21st June 2026, end of day, anywhere on Earth. Team Description</h3> The Societal Impacts team studies high-impact societal risks caused by frontier AI deployment. Our mandate is to build a rigorous, world-class evidence base for the safe and responsible development of frontier AI by identifying risks, measuring impacts, and informing mitigations. Our central question is how frontier AI is coming to influence human beliefs, decisions and behaviour - and where that influence threatens human autonomy and wellbeing. The themes we study include how AI changes what people believe and do; how people defer consequential decisions, judgement, and emotional functions to AI; how AI models the mental states of those it interacts with; how AI becomes harder to distinguish from humans across modalities; and the collective dynamics that emerge as AI agents interact with humans and one another. Our work is highly interdisciplinary, drawing on methods from computational social science, AI safety and security, cognitive and behavioural science, machine learning, and data science. Typical projects include running rigorous human–AI interaction studies and randomised controlled trials, building evaluations and benchmarks that track AI capabilities across model releases, eliciting model capabilities through fine-tuning and self-play, and developing datasets to monitor real-world risk exposure and severity. <h2>Role Description</h2> Successful candidates will be strong researchers and engineers, who work with our research scientists to design, implement and run experiments that answer important questions about the effects AI will have on society. Illustrative projects might include: <ul> <li>Implementing a human-AI interaction study where multiple human and AI participants converse and play a game</li> <li>Building an automated pipeline that recruits participants and runs a human-AI experiment end-to-end, so we can track how a given capability shifts with each new model release</li> <li>Designing and running model evaluations and benchmarks for societal risks such as AI persuasion, deception, or failure to disclose that it is an AI</li> </ul> This is a multidisciplinary team, and we look for people with a diversity of backgrounds. Required Skills and Experience  <ul> <li>Experience writing scalable, maintainable Python code</li> <li>Experience in one or more of the following:  <ul> <li>Data engineering, including data collection, data cleaning, processing, and visualisation</li> <li>ML engineering, including experience training/evaluating models using PyTorch or a similar library</li> <li>Full-stack web development</li> </ul> </li> </ul> <ul> <li>Knowledge of machine learning sufficient to understand recent papers in the field</li> <li>Strong verbal communication, experience working on a collaborative research team, and interpersonal skills</li> <li>Demonstrable interest in and understanding of the societal impacts of AI</li> </ul> Desired Skills and Experience  <ul> <li>Building and maintaining complex data products</li> <li>Designing and implementing experiments in human-AI interaction</li> <li>Training or evaluation of frontier AI models </li> <li>Research related to societal impacts of AI systems</li> <li>A specialisation in a relevant field of social or political science, economics, cognitive science, criminology, security studies, AI safety, or another relevant field.</li> </ul><div class="content-conclusion"><h2>What We Offer </h2> Impact you couldn't have anywhere else  <ul> <li data-leveltext="" data-font="Symbol" data-listid="52" data-list-defn-props="{"335552541":1,"335559685":720,"335559991":360,"469769226":"Symbol","469769242":[8226],"469777803":"left","469777804":"","469777815":"hybridMultilevel"}" data-aria-posinset="1" data-aria-level="1">Incredibly talented, mission-driven and supportive colleagues. </li> </ul> <ul> <li data-leveltext="" data-font="Symbol" data-listid="52" data-list-defn-props="{"335552541":1,"335559685":720,"335559991":360,"469769226":"Symbol","469769242":[8226],"469777803":"left","469777804":"","469777815":"hybridMultilevel"}" data-aria-posinset="2" data-aria-level="1">Direct influence on how frontier AI is governed and deployed globally. </li> </ul> <ul> <li data-leveltext="" data-font="Symbol" data-listid="52" data-list-defn-props="{"335552541":1,"335559685":720,"335559991":360,"469769226":"Symbol","469769242":[8226],"469777803":"left","469777804":"","469777815":"hybridMultilevel"}" data-aria-posinset="3" data-aria-level="1">Work with the Prime Minister’s AI Advisor and leading AI companies. </li> </ul> <ul> <li data-leveltext="" data-font="Symbol" data-listid="52" data-list-defn-props="{"335552541":1,"335559685":720,"335559991":360,"469769226":"Symbol","469769242":[8226],"469777803":"left","469777804":"","469777815":"hybridMultilevel"}" data-aria-posinset="4" data-aria-level="1">Opportunity to shape the first & best-resourced public-interest research team focused on AI security. </li> </ul> Resources & access  <ul> <li data-leveltext="" data-font="Symbol" data-listid="52" data-list-defn-props="{"335552541":1,"335559685":720,"335559991":360,"469769226":"Symbol","469769242":[8226],"469777803":"left","469777804":"","469777815":"hybridMultilevel"}" data-aria-posinset="5" data-aria-level="1">Pre-release access to multiple frontier models and ample compute. </li> </ul> <ul> <li data-leveltext="" data-font="Symbol" data-listid="52" data-list-defn-props="{"335552541":1,"335559685":720,"335559991":360,"469769226":"Symbol","469769242":[8226],"469777803":"left","469777804":"","469777815":"hybridMultilevel"}" data-aria-posinset="6" data-aria-level="1">Extensive operational support so you can focus on research and ship quickly. </li> </ul> <ul> <li data-leveltext="" data-font="Symbol" data-listid="52" data-list-defn-props="{"335552541":1,"335559685":720,"335559991":360,"469769226":"Symbol","469769242":[8226],"469777803":"left","469777804":"","469777815":"hybridMultilevel"}" data-aria-posinset="7" data-aria-level="1">Work with experts across national security, policy, AI research and adjacent sciences. </li> </ul> Growth & autonomy  <ul> <li data-leveltext="" data-font="Symbol" data-listid="52" data-list-defn-props="{"335552541":1,"335559685":720,"335559991":360,"469769226":"Symbol","469769242":[8226],"469777803":"left","469777804":"","469777815":"hybridMultilevel"}" data-aria-posinset="8" data-aria-level="1">If you’re talented and driven, you’ll own important problems early. </li> </ul> <ul> <li data-leveltext="" data-font="Symbol" data-listid="52" data-list-defn-props="{"335552541":1,"335559685":720,"335559991":360,"469769226":"Symbol","469769242":[8226],"469777803":"left","469777804":"","469777815":"hybridMultilevel"}" data-aria-posinset="9" data-aria-level="1">5 days off and annual stipends for learning and development, and funding for conferences and external collaborations. </li> </ul> <ul> <li data-leveltext="" data-font="Symbol" data-listid="52" data-list-defn-props="{"335552541":1,"335559685":720,"335559991":360,"469769226":"Symbol","469769242":[8226],"469777803":"left","469777804":"","469777815":"hybridMultilevel"}" data-aria-posinset="10" data-aria-level="1">Freedom to pursue research bets without product pressure. </li> </ul> <ul> <li data-leveltext="" data-font="Symbol" data-listid="52" data-list-defn-props="{"335552541":1,"335559685":720,"335559991":360,"469769226":"Symbol","469769242":[8226],"469777803":"left","469777804":"","469777815":"hybridMultilevel"}" data-aria-posinset="11" data-aria-level="1">Opportunities to publish and collaborate externally. </li> </ul> Life & family*  <ul> <li data-leveltext="" data-font="Symbol" data-listid="52" data-list-defn-props="{"335552541":1,"335559685":720,"335559991":360,"469769226":"Symbol","469769242":[8226],"469777803":"left","469777804":"","469777815":"hybridMultilevel"}" data-aria-posinset="12" data-aria-level="1">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. </li> </ul> <ul> <li data-leveltext="" data-font="Symbol" data-listid="52" data-list-defn-props="{"335552541":1,"335559685":720,"335559991":360,"469769226":"Symbol","469769242":[8226],"469777803":"left","469777804":"","469777815":"hybridMultilevel"}" data-aria-posinset="13" data-aria-level="1">Hybrid working, flexibility for occasional remote work abroad and stipends for work-from-home equipment. </li> </ul> <ul> <li data-leveltext="" data-font="Symbol" data-listid="52" data-list-defn-props="{"335552541":1,"335559685":720,"335559991":360,"469769226":"Symbol","469769242":[8226],"469777803":"left","469777804":"","469777815":"hybridMultilevel"}" data-aria-posinset="14" data-aria-level="1">At least 25 days’ annual leave, 8 public holidays, extra team-wide breaks and 3 days off for volunteering. </li> </ul> <ul> <li data-leveltext="" data-font="Symbol" data-listid="52" data-list-defn-props="{"335552541":1,"335559685":720,"335559991":360,"469769226":"Symbol","469769242":[8226],"469777803":"left","469777804":"","469777815":"hybridMultilevel"}" data-aria-posinset="15" data-aria-level="1">Generous paid parental leave (36 weeks of UK statutory leave shared between parents + 3 extra paid weeks + option for additional unpaid time). </li> </ul> <ul> <li data-leveltext="" data-font="Symbol" data-listid="52" data-list-defn-props="{"335552541":1,"335559685":720,"335559991":360,"469769226":"Symbol","469769242":[8226],"469777803":"left","469777804":"","469777815":"hybridMultilevel"}" data-aria-posinset="16" data-aria-level="1">On top of your salary, we contribute 28.97% of your base salary to your pension. </li> </ul> <ul> <li data-leveltext="" data-font="Symbol" data-listid="52" data-list-defn-props="{"335552541":1,"335559685":720,"335559991":360,"469769226":"Symbol","469769242":[8226],"469777803":"left","469777804":"","469777815":"hybridMultilevel"}" data-aria-posinset="17" data-aria-level="1">Discounts and benefits for cycling to work, donations and retail/gyms.   </li> </ul> *These benefits apply to direct employees. Benefits may differ for individuals joining through other employment arrangements such as secondments.  <h2>Salary</h2> 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 <a href="https://ddat-capability-framework.service.gov.uk/">DDaT pay framework</a> 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:  <ul> <li>Level 3: £65,000–£75,000 (Base £39,850 + Technical Allowance £25,150–£35,150)</li> <li>Level 4: £85,000–£95,000 (Base £47,355 + Technical Allowance £37,645–£47,645)</li> <li>Level 5: £105,000–£115,000 (Base £61,620 + Technical Allowance £43,380–£53,380)</li> <li>Level 6: £125,000–£135,000 (Base £74,605 + Technical Allowance £50,395–£60,395)</li> <li>Level 7: £145,000 (Base £74,605 + Technical Allowance £70,395)</li> </ul>   <hr> <h4>Additional Information</h4> <div class="vac_display_field"> <div class="vac_display_nullclass"> <h3>Use of AI in Applications</h3> Artificial Intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our <a href="https://eur02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.civil-service-careers.gov.uk%2Fartificial-intelligence-and-recruitment%2F&data=05%7C02%7CLynn.Tan%40dsit.gov.uk%7Ccf5d753b7f19427afc8f08de4c307014%7Ccbac700502c143ebb497e6492d1b2dd8%7C0%7C0%7C639031968075235036%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=jCrYoy62YfXN%2FLIB%2FhtHxdLGbCOgropbkZXDyQsUMC4%3D&reserved=0" target="_blank" data-outlook-id="02db05e7-03ca-4ca6-bcd9-73ff8bf258f2" data-auth="NotApplicable" data-linkindex="1">candidate guidance </a>for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use. <h3>Internal Fraud Database </h3> 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 - <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/internal-fraud-register-privacy-notice/internal-fraud-register-privacy-notice">Internal Fraud Register.</a> <h3>Security</h3> Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check and get <a class="c-link" href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/government-baseline-personnel-security-standard" target="_blank" data-stringify-link="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/government-baseline-personnel-security-standard" data-sk="tooltip_parent">baseline personnel security standard (BPSS) clearance</a> before they can be appointed. Additionally, there is a strong preference for eligibility for <a class="c-link" href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-security-vetting-advice-for-people-who-are-being-vetted" target="_blank" data-stringify-link="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-security-vetting-advice-for-people-who-are-being-vetted" data-sk="tooltip_parent">counter-terrorist check (CTC) clearance</a>. Some roles may require higher levels of clearance, and we will state this by exception in the job advertisement. <a class="c-link" href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/vetting-explained-and-our-vetting-charter/the-vetting-charter" target="_blank" data-stringify-link="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/vetting-explained-and-our-vetting-charter/the-vetting-charter" data-sk="tooltip_parent">See our vetting charter here.</a></div> </div> <div class="vac_display_field"> <h3>Nationality requirements</h3> 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 <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nationality-rules" target="_blank">nationality requirements (opens in a new window).</a> </div> <div class="vac_display_field"> <h3>Working for the Civil Service</h3> <div class="vac_display_field"> <div class="vac_display_field_value">The <a href="http://civilservicecommission.independent.gov.uk/code/" target="_blank">Civil Service Code (opens in a new window)</a> sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants. 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.</div> </div> </div> <div class="vac_display_field"> <h3>Diversity and Inclusion</h3> <div class="vac_display_field_value">The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/civil-service-people-plan-2024-2027/civil-service-people-plan-2024-2027-html" target="_blank">Civil Service People Plan (opens in a new window)</a> and the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/civil-service-diversity-and-inclusion-strategy-2022-to-2025" target="_blank">Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window)</a>. As part of the application process, we monitor statistics on D&I. You can see how we process this data here: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/government-digital-service-recruitment-privacy-notice/recruitment-privacy-notice" target="_blank">Recruitment privacy notice - GOV.UK</a>.</div> </div></div>

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