Software Engineer (all levels) - Core Technology

<div class="content-intro"><h2>About the AI Security Institute</h2> <p>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.</p> <p>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.</p></div><div class="vac_display_field"> <div class="vac_display_field_value"> <div class="vac_display_field"> <div class="vac_display_field_value"> <h2>Role Description</h2> <p><span class="TextRun SCXW156930224 BCX0" lang="EN-US" data-contrast="auto"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW156930224 BCX0">The AI Security Institute's Research Unit is looking for motivated and talented Software Engineers to join AISI's Core Technology Team. We are looking for exceptional candidates at all experience levels, from junior through to senior or staff, to work</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW156930224 BCX0"> in small teams on a range of critical research-oriented software and infrastructure.</span></span></p> <p>In this role, you’ll work with cutting-edge technologies on research problems with real-world impact, and 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, Google, Apple, and professors from Oxford and Cambridge).</p> <h3>About our Core Technology Team</h3> <p style="font-weight: 400;">AISI Core Technology Team comprises several teams building tools and infrastructure used across all of our research work. This includes projects like Inspect (our open-source evaluation framework), systems for running evaluations at scale, and hosting frontier open-weights models for evaluations or human studies.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">As a software engineer on one of these teams, you might:</p> <ul> <li>Add a feature to one of our “sandbox plugins” for Inspect, supporting advanced agentic evals with safe mechanisms to let models write and execute arbitrary code</li> <li style="font-weight: 400;">Implement support for a new class of open-weights model on our model hosting platform</li> <li style="font-weight: 400;">Support a research team with designing custom infrastructure for a new research project</li> <li style="font-weight: 400;">Collaborate with the open-source community on a feature in Inspect or Inspect's plugin ecosystem</li> <li style="font-weight: 400;">Assist with an evaluation testing exercise of a frontier AI model, debugging issues that appear in Inspect from API changes in the lab's latest SDK</li> </ul> </div> </div> <div class="vac_display_field"> <h3>Person Specification</h3> <div class="vac_display_field_value"> <p>You may be a good fit if you have <strong>some</strong> of the following skills, experience and attitudes:</p> <ul> <li>Writing production quality code at fast pace.</li> <li>Designing, shipping, and maintaining complex tech products.</li> <li>Improving technical standards across a team, through mentoring and feedback.</li> <li>Strong written and verbal communication skills.</li> <li>Experience working with a world-class research team comprised of both scientists and engineers (e.g. in a top-3 lab).</li> <li>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.</li> <li>Experience building and maintaining systems on AWS or other cloud providers using infrastructure-as-code.</li> </ul> <p>Motivated candidates are encouraged to apply even if you don't meet all the above criteria.</p> <h3>Required Experience</h3> <p>We select based on skills and experience regarding the following areas:</p> <ul> <li>Writing production quality code</li> <li>Writing code efficiently</li> <li>Python</li> <li>Written communication</li> <li>Verbal communication</li> <li>Teamwork</li> <li>Interpersonal skills</li> <li>Tackling challenging problems</li> </ul> <h3>Desired Experience</h3> <p>We additionally may factor in experience with particular areas like:</p> <ul> <li>Expertise in Cloud Infrastructure or Dev Ops (AWS, Azure, Kubernetes, Terraform, CDK, Docker, etc.)</li> <li>Cybersecurity expertise</li> <li>ML Ops (vLLM, agent frameworks, fine-tuning, RAG systems, etc.)</li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="vac_display_field"> <div class="vac_display_field_value"> <p> </p> </div> </div><div class="content-conclusion"><h2><strong><span data-contrast="none">What We Offer</span></strong><span data-ccp-props="{"134233117":false,"134233118":false,"335557856":16777215,"335559685":0,"335559738":0,"335559739":0}"> </span></h2> <p><strong><span data-contrast="none">Impact you couldn't have anywhere else</span></strong><span data-ccp-props="{"134233117":false,"134233118":false,"335557856":16777215,"335559685":0,"335559738":240,"335559739":240}"> </span></p> <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"><span data-contrast="none">Incredibly talented, mission-driven and supportive colleagues.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"134233117":false,"134233118":false,"335557856":16777215,"335559738":0,"335559739":0}"> </span></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"><span data-contrast="none">Direct influence on how frontier AI is governed and deployed globally.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"134233117":false,"134233118":false,"335557856":16777215,"335559738":0,"335559739":0}"> </span></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"><span data-contrast="none">Work with the Prime Minister’s AI Advisor and leading AI companies.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"134233117":false,"134233118":false,"335557856":16777215,"335559738":0,"335559739":0}"> </span></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"><span data-contrast="none">Opportunity to shape the first & best-resourced public-interest research team focused on AI security.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"134233117":false,"134233118":false,"335557856":16777215,"335559738":0,"335559739":0}"> </span></li> </ul> <p><strong><span data-contrast="none">Resources & access</span></strong><span data-ccp-props="{"134233117":false,"134233118":false,"335557856":16777215,"335559685":0,"335559738":240,"335559739":240}"> </span></p> <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"><span data-contrast="none">Pre-release access to multiple frontier models and ample compute.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"134233117":false,"134233118":false,"335557856":16777215,"335559738":0,"335559739":0}"> </span></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"><span data-contrast="none">Extensive operational support so you can focus on research and ship quickly.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"134233117":false,"134233118":false,"335557856":16777215,"335559738":0,"335559739":0}"> </span></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"><span data-contrast="none">Work with experts across national security, policy, AI research and adjacent sciences.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"134233117":false,"134233118":false,"335557856":16777215,"335559738":0,"335559739":0}"> </span></li> </ul> <p><strong><span data-contrast="none">Growth & autonomy</span></strong><span data-ccp-props="{"134233117":false,"134233118":false,"335557856":16777215,"335559685":0,"335559738":240,"335559739":240}"> </span></p> <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"><span data-contrast="none">If you’re talented and driven, you’ll own important problems early.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"134233117":false,"134233118":false,"335557856":16777215,"335559738":0,"335559739":0}"> </span></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"><span data-contrast="none">5 days off and annual stipends for learning and development, and funding for conferences and external collaborations.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"134233117":false,"134233118":false,"335557856":16777215,"335559738":0,"335559739":0}"> </span></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"><span data-contrast="none">Freedom to pursue research bets without product pressure.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"134233117":false,"134233118":false,"335557856":16777215,"335559738":0,"335559739":0}"> </span></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"><span data-contrast="none">Opportunities to publish and collaborate externally.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"134233117":false,"134233118":false,"335557856":16777215,"335559738":0,"335559739":0}"> </span></li> </ul> <p><strong><span data-contrast="none">Life & family*</span></strong><span data-ccp-props="{"134233117":false,"134233118":false,"335557856":16777215,"335559685":0,"335559738":240,"335559739":240}"> </span></p> <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"><span data-contrast="none">Modern central London office, or where applicable, option to work in similar government offices in Birmingham, Cardiff, Darlington, Edinburgh, Salford or Bristol.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"134233117":false,"134233118":false,"335557856":16777215,"335559738":0,"335559739":0}"> </span></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"><span data-contrast="none">Hybrid working, flexibility for occasional remote work abroad and stipends for work-from-home equipment.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"134233117":false,"134233118":false,"335557856":16777215,"335559738":0,"335559739":0}"> </span></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"><span data-contrast="none">At least 25 days’ annual leave, 8 public holidays, extra team-wide breaks and 3 days off for volunteering.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"134233117":false,"134233118":false,"335557856":16777215,"335559738":0,"335559739":0}"> </span></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"><span data-contrast="none">Generous paid parental leave (36 weeks of UK statutory leave shared between parents + 3 extra paid weeks + option for additional unpaid time).</span><span data-ccp-props="{"134233117":false,"134233118":false,"335557856":16777215,"335559738":0,"335559739":0}"> </span></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"><span data-contrast="none">On top of your salary, we contribute 28.97% of your base salary to your pension.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"134233117":false,"134233118":false,"335557856":16777215,"335559738":0,"335559739":0}"> </span></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"><span data-contrast="none">Discounts and benefits for cycling to work, donations and retail/gyms.</span> <br><span data-ccp-props="{"134233117":false,"134233118":false,"335557856":16777215,"335559738":0,"335559739":0}"> </span></li> </ul> <p><em><span data-contrast="auto">*These benefits apply to direct employees. Benefits may differ for individuals joining through other employment arrangements such as secondments.</span></em><span data-ccp-props="{"134233117":false,"134233118":false,"335559738":240,"335559739":240}"> </span></p> <h2><span data-contrast="auto">Salary</span></h2> <p><span data-contrast="auto">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.</span><span data-ccp-props="{}"> </span></p> <p><span data-contrast="auto">This role sits outside of the </span><a href="https://ddat-capability-framework.service.gov.uk/"><span data-contrast="none"><span data-ccp-charstyle="Hyperlink">DDaT pay framework</span></span></a><span data-contrast="auto"> given the scope of this role requires in depth technical expertise in frontier AI safety, robustness and advanced AI architectures.</span><span data-ccp-props="{}"> </span></p> <p><span data-contrast="auto">The full range of salaries are available below:</span><span data-ccp-props="{}"> </span></p> <ul> <li><strong>Level 3:</strong> £65,000–£75,000 (Base £39,850 + Technical Allowance £25,150–£35,150)</li> <li><strong>Level 4:</strong> £85,000–£95,000 (Base £47,355 + Technical Allowance £37,645–£47,645)</li> <li><strong>Level 5:</strong> £105,000–£115,000 (Base £61,620 + Technical Allowance £43,380–£53,380)</li> <li><strong>Level 6:</strong> £125,000–£135,000 (Base £74,605 + Technical Allowance £50,395–£60,395)</li> <li><strong>Level 7:</strong> £145,000 (Base £74,605 + Technical Allowance £70,395)</li> </ul> <p> </p> <hr> <h4>Additional Information</h4> <div class="vac_display_field"> <div class="vac_display_nullclass"> <h3><span style="font-size: 8pt;"><strong>Use of AI in Applications</strong></span></h3> <p><span style="font-size: 8pt;">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 <u><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></u>for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.</span></p> <h3><span style="font-size: 8pt;"><strong>Internal Fraud Database</strong> </span></h3> <p><span style="font-size: 8pt;">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. </span><span style="font-size: 8pt;">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></span></p> <h3><span style="font-size: 8pt;">Security</span></h3> <span style="font-size: 8pt;">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></span></div> </div> <div class="vac_display_field"> <h3><span style="font-size: 8pt;">Nationality requirements</span></h3> <p><span style="font-size: 8pt;">We may be able to offer roles to applicant from <strong>any nationality or background</strong>. 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></span></p> </div> <div class="vac_display_field"> <h3><span style="font-size: 8pt;">Working for the Civil Service</span></h3> <div class="vac_display_field"> <div class="vac_display_field_value"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">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.</span></div> </div> </div> <div class="vac_display_field"> <h3><span style="font-size: 8pt;">Diversity and Inclusion</span></h3> <div class="vac_display_field_value"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">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>.</span></div> </div></div>

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