Science and Technology Lead - Next-Generation Compute Architectures

About ARIA

What you'll do

• Act as the technical lead, with the Programme Director and their Programme Specialist, to shape and deliver a bold programme of research aimed at reducing the cost of AI hardware by 1000x.
• You will serve as the ‘first user’ of the technologies being developed within the programme.
• Review project proposals, grant applications, assess technical milestones, and stay close to the ground on what’s being built and tested by Creator teams.
• Plan, lead, and contribute to technical discussions in project meetings, workshops, and formal reviews, bringing depth, challenge, and direction to every interaction.
• Provide evidence-based technical insight to the Programme Director and the ARIA team to support high-quality decisions and sharpen the programme’s strategic direction.
• Confidently communicate complex scientific ideas surrounding the programme to stakeholders, from government and funders to key players across the ecosystem.
• Identify emerging trends and surface the most promising technologies, people, and ideas across the programme and its surrounding opportunity space.
• Co-author white papers, open calls, and technical reviews that articulate the ambition of the programme and set a clear, compelling vision for external communities.
• Work closely with the Programme Specialist and Creator teams to drive project delivery, tracking against ambitious technical milestones, benchmarking progress against the state of the art, and spotting opportunities for research cross-pollination to sustain momentum.
• Provide continuity to the opportunity space, and maintain a deep understanding of past and present programmes, and Creator projects, to help new Programme Directors build on what has worked, avoid what hasn’t, and leverage existing technologies and insights.

• Represent the programme, often on behalf of the Programme Director, at events, workshops and talks.
• Support the broader opportunity space by identifying and developing innovative ways to expand it, bringing in new ideas, talent, and opportunities that deliver long-term value beyond the immediate needs of one programme.
• Build trusted relationships with world-class researchers, labs, and founders working at the forefront of the programme’s focus area, as well as the broader opportunity space.
• Work closely with ARIA’s Activation Partners to ensure Creator teams can access the right tools, platforms, and networks to accelerate translation and achieve impact beyond ARIA’s direct reach.
  
  

• Collaborate across ARIA on funding models, budgets, tooling, and operational mechanisms to support effective, flexible funding and programme delivery.
• Contribute as a member of ARIA’s team of Science and Technology Leads, sharing best practices and learnings between programmes to strengthen ARIA’s overall portfolio of work.
• Identify opportunities to expand the opportunity space and build the connective tissue between adjacent spaces.
• Help build and sustain ARIA’s scientific and operational culture.

Who you are

• A first-principles understanding of physics, mathematics, or hardware constraints that govern modern computing, with the ability to quickly generalise this knowledge to unfamiliar AI architectures.
• You are familiar with a variety of programming languages/frameworks and have demonstrated proficiency with at least one. . 
• You have proven adept at learning new ideas/technologies extremely quickly, assessing their risks, and understanding how they may fit into or shift existing industries.
• Ability to rigorously benchmark novel, unproven hardware concepts or academic papers against established baseline architectures
• You can uncover non-obvious opportunities and risks, connecting teams, ideas, and research threads in novel ways that drive adoption and translation.
• Highly adaptable, you are okay with uncertainty and a fast-paced environment.
• You comprehend and articulate complex concepts clearly and with conviction, think and communicate with structure, and interrogate ideas effectively.

• You have hands-on experience with the modern AI software stack (PyTorch/JAX/ CUDA/Triton/etc).
• You are proficient in profiling, debugging, or benchmarking software-hardware boundaries (e.g., tracking memory bandwidth bottle-necks, execution latency, or compute efficiency)
• You have a solid understanding of modern AI architectures (e.g., Transformers, Diffusion Models, etc..). You can clearly articulate a view of existing system-level performance limitations for each.   
• You possess an understanding of the hardware technologies underpinning modern AI systems.
• Familiarity with or research exposure to non-von Neumann architectures, such as in-memory computing, analogue acceleration, neuromorphic systems, or optical/photonic computing.
• You have a strong working knowledge of the UK R&D ecosystem.

Benefits

• 27 days annual leave provision, with the option to buy/sell additional days
• Hybrid working arrangements; 60% in office / 40% at home
• Supportive environment for learning and development opportunities
• Enhanced family leave arrangements
• A free and confidential 24/7 employee assistance programme
• 2 days of paid volunteer days
• 5% defined contribution pension scheme with Smart Pension
• Cycle to Work scheme
• An excellent office location in Kings X, London