Operations Associate - AI Security Institute

Job summary

The UK AI Security Institute (AISI) exists to make frontier AI systems secure, trustworthy, and beneficial for society. We work at the heart of the UK government with direct lines to No. 10—advancing our understanding of how to evaluate and govern advanced AI systems so they can be deployed safely and responsibly.

Our mission is to strengthen state technical capacity in AI security research to support both government and global partners in managing the risks and harnessing the opportunities of this transformative technology.

We’re building a world-class team of scientists, policy specialists, and operational professionals united by one goal: ensuring AI benefits all humanity.

Job description

The Talent and Operations team is the engine that powers AISI’s mission. We need to move at the pace of frontier AI development while operating within government. That's an unprecedented challenge; we're the team making it happen.

We increase the effectiveness, efficiency, and talent density of every team at AISI, supporting world class research and enabling the organisation to achieve its objectives.

Our Operations team is split into:

1. BizOps: supporting AISIs research by navigating government machinery, owning key systems and improving processes across the organization
2. Finance: ensuring financial transparency for strategic decisions and delivering on budget
3. Grants: Leveraging government and philanthropic funding to crowd talent into technical research on priority areas, running grant schemes from set-up to closure

You'll join a high-impact team of people who love solving hard operational problems and building systems that work. We collaborate directly with AISI leadership, central DSIT and every team in AISI to remove blockers and enable pace.

The role

As an Operations Associate, you’ll sit within the Operations team, helping build the operational backbone of AISI, ensuring our people and systems can deliver world-leading research at pace.

You will focus on supporting AISI’s grants and finance function to keep our organization running efficiently day-to-day while also contributing to broader projects that make us more effective, agile, and trusted.

Key responsibilities (first 6–12 months):

• Deliver outstanding service: Process all grant claims within service-level agreements, earning strong satisfaction from internal teams and grantees

• Drive measurable improvements: Lead or support projects that raise staff satisfaction, efficiency, or delivery performance across operations. This could look like rolling out a new air table feature, improving user guidance, automating monthly spend reporting viewed by AISI senior leadership teams or other projects that you identify.

• Shape smarter systems: Introduce or improve digital tools that help AISI work faster, smarter, and more securely.

• Grow your capability: Build core skills in operational delivery, project delivery, and financial stewardship that open future development pathways.

Growth and Impact

You’ll gain deep exposure to how a cutting-edge government institute operates and play an active role in shaping how we scale. This is an opportunity to learn from some of the UK’s most ambitious public servants and technologists while developing the professional skills to grow into more senior operations roles.

This role is an exceptional platform to develop a career at the intersection of technology, security, and government.

You’ll build skills in:

• Operational excellence: design and run systems that enable high-performing scientific and technical work, bringing start-up pace to government.

• Financial, commercial and grants management: use public funds strategically to deliver national outcomes.

• Digital operations: hands-on with tools that make complex organisations move, including Power BI, Power Automate, Oracle, and other finance systems.

As AISI grows, you’ll have opportunities to move into broader operations, programme delivery, or cross-functional roles shaping how the UK secures and governs advanced AI.

Person specification

Who we’re looking for

We’re looking for organised, proactive, and curious individuals who love solving problems and improving how things work.

You’ll thrive if you are:

• Agentic – You’re a self-starter who takes ownership and drives ideas through to delivery. You can evidence examples of seeing projects through from inception to execution and having resilience in the face of problems.

• Organised – You use structure and systems to stay on top of complex work and deliver at pace. You can provide strong evidence of organisational skills through personal, academic or professional projects.

• Enjoy getting stuff done - You get satisfaction from getting things done, whether that's high-profile projects or the essential behind-the-scenes work that keeps things running smoothly.

• Open to feedback – You act on feedback quickly, with a genuine appetite to learn and improve.

• Collaborative – You communicate clearly (both written and verbal) and build strong working relationships with colleagues at all levels.

• Confident with digital tools – You’re comfortable learning and using tools like Slack, project management software, and AI productivity tools.

• Mission-driven – You are strongly aligned with AISI’s mission, and motivated to have an impact on AI security issues.

Desirable criteria

• Prior experience in a start-up, government or research environment.

Behaviours

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

• Managing a Quality Service
• Delivering at Pace
• Communicating and Influencing

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £36,735, Department for Science, Innovation & Technology contributes £10,642 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.

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.

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

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 candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours and Experience.

As part of the application process, you will be asked to complete a CV and personal statement.

Further details around what this will entail are listed on the application form.

Please use your personal statement (in no more than 750 words) to tell us why you want to be an Operations Associate at AISI and what you'd bring to the role. Please include at least one concrete example of operational work you've done (ideally something where you improved a process, unblocked a team, or delivered under pressure).

In the event of a large number of applicants, applications will be sifted on the CV alone. Candidates who pass the initial sift may be progressed to a full sift, or progressed straight to assessment/interview.

Interview 1: Short screening interview to understand your motivation to join AISI.

Interview 2: Interview encompassing presentation task and behaviour-based questions. (Task details will be sent in advance)

Interview 3: Senior interview panel. Interview with Senior leadership team.

Sift and interview dates

Sift and interview dates to be confirmed.

Further Information

Existing Civil Servants and applicants from accredited NDPBs are eligible to apply,and can be considered on loan basis (Civil Servants) or secondment (accredited NDPBs). Prior agreement to be released on a loan basis must be obtained before commencing the application process. In the case of Civil Servants, the terms of the loan will be agreed between the home and host department and the Civil Servant. This includes grade on return.

Reasonable Adjustment

We are proud to be a disability confident leader and we welcome applications from disabled candidates and candidates with long-term conditions.

Information about the Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) and some examples of adjustments that we offer to disabled candidates and candidates with long-term health conditions during our recruitment process can be found in our DSIT Candidate Guidance. A DSIT Plain Text Version of the guidance is also available.

We encourage candidates to discuss their adjustment needs by emailing the job contact which can be found under the contact point for applicants' section.

If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the 'Contact point for applicants' section.

If successful and transferring from another Government Department a criminal record check may be carried out.

New entrants are expected to join on the minimum of the pay band.

A location-based reserve list of successful candidates will be kept for 12 months. Should another role become available within that period you may be offered this position.

Candidates who meet the minimum benchmark may be placed on a Reserve List for consideration for similar roles, including those at a lower grade. Candidates who narrowly miss the benchmark and are not placed on the Reserve List may still be considered for an offer in a similar role at a lower grade.

Please note terms and conditions are attached. Please take time to read the document to determine how these may affect you.

Any move to the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax Free Childcare; for further information visit the Childcare Choices website.

DSIT does not normally offer full home working (i.e. working at home); but we do offer a variety of flexible working options (including occasionally working from home).

DSIT cannot offer Visa sponsorship to candidates through this campaign.

DSIT holds a Visa sponsorship licence but this can only be used for certain roles and this campaign does not qualify.

In order to process applications without delay, we will be sending a Criminal Record Check to Disclosure and Barring Service on your behalf.

However, we recognise in exceptional circumstances some candidates will want to send their completed forms direct. If you will be doing this, please advise Government Recruitment Service of your intention by emailing Pre-EmploymentChecks.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk stating the job reference number in the subject heading.

Applicants who are successful at interview will be, as part of pre-employment screening, subject to a check on the Internal Fraud Database (IFD). This check will provide information about employees who have been dismissed for fraud or dishonesty offences. This check also applies to employees who resign or otherwise leave before being dismissed for fraud or dishonesty had their employment continued. Any applicant’s details held on the IFD will be refused employment.

A candidate is not eligible to apply for a role within the Civil Service if the application is made within a 5-year period following a dismissal for carrying out internal fraud against government.

Feedback

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).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.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see theCivil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

Apply and further information

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job contact :

• Name : Libby Jones
• Email : Elizabeth.Jones@dsit.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : Georgia.Stone@dsit.gov.uk

Further information

Appointment to the Civil Service is governed by the Civil Service Commission’s Recruitment Principles. If you feel that your application has not been treated in accordance with the recruitment principles, and wish to make a complaint, then you should contact in the first instance DSITrecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk . If you are not satisfied with the response that you receive, then you can contact the Civil Service Commission. For further information on bringing a complaint to the Civil Service Commission please visit their web pages: Click here to visit Civil Service Commission/Complaints.

Attachments

DSIT T&Cs v1.2 Opens in new window (docx, 179kB)