Strategy & Delivery Adviser - AI Security Institute

Job summary

Governments have a critical role to play in ensuring advanced AI is safe, secure, and beneficial. The AI Security Institute is the first state-backed organisation dedicated to advancing this goal. We conduct research and build infrastructure to understand the capabilities of advanced AI, and we develop and test mitigations to risks. We partner in this work with frontier AI developers, research organisations, and governments around the world.

The Societal Impacts team studies how frontier AI systems can influence what people believe, decide, and do. As AI systems evolve, they may be able to influence human behaviour in ways that challenge individual autonomy and societal stability. The Societal Impacts team conducts world-leading research on these risks, running large human-AI studies and randomised controlled trials. We distribute our findings within the UK government and beyond.

Below are some recent examples of our research:

• AI systems out-persuade expert human persuaders
• People readily follow personal advice from AI, but it does not improve their wellbeing
• RealityTest: how people probe AI identity and whether models disclose it

Job description

As a Strategy & Delivery Adviser, you will support the research team operationally and help shape the strategic direction of research in line with AISI objectives.

Day-to-day, you will be responsible for the delivery of our research projects, working alongside researchers and internal partners in AISI and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT).

Alongside delivery, you will help steer the team’s direction. That includes the research direction: what we should prioritise as the AI landscape evolves; what the biggest societal risks are from AI, and our most important uncertainties about those risks. It also includes a general mission to make the research team a success: you will propose and develop improvements to make our research more efficient and impactful.

Our research team is an extremely talented group working in a fast-moving space, with new model releases every few weeks and enormous appetite across government and society for high-quality information on AI’s societal impacts. This role is at the centre of that team, and a critical enabler of its success.

What you might work on

Strategy & Delivery roles in AISI are broad by design. We encourage individuals to actively shape their role and innovate on the team’s modes and methods of working. Below is an illustrative, non-exhaustive list of potential responsibilities:

• Lead operational delivery for research projects from idea to output. This includes coordinating ethical and legal approvals, managing project deliverables and timelines, and establishing partnerships with third parties.
• Own high-priority special projects, like recruiting top Research Engineers to build the infrastructure our research depends on.
• Coordinate the team's objective-setting, pulling input from across the research team, working with the research lead, and contributing a view of what we should prioritise.
• Build impactful partnerships with researchers outside AISI, figuring out the operational mechanisms required (e.g. grants, contracts) and making them work.
• Bring our findings to stakeholders in AISI, the UK government, and AI labs. This includes drafting policy reports, delivering presentations, and briefing counterparts.

Person specification

We are not looking for a particular CV. People do well in this role from a wide range of backgrounds and at a range of experience levels. What matters is a set of aptitudes:

• Agency: You take ownership and get things done without close direction, anticipating problems and resolving them before they escalate.
• Collaborativeness: You work well with people, gaining trust through reliability and building strong working relationships within the team, across AISI and wider government, and with external partners.
• Communication: You communicate effectively and adapt to your audience, whether expert or non-expert.
• Research interest: You can engage with academic research closely enough to coordinate it, following what a study is doing and why, without being a researcher yourself.
• Adaptability: You are comfortable with ambiguity and shifting priorities, and good at working out a sensible path forward when things are unclear.

The one thing that is essential: you want to reduce the risks that frontier AI poses to people and society, and the problems our team works on are the ones you want to help with.

This might not be the role for you if

• You want to conduct research yourself. You will have real influence over what the team works on and how, but you will not be doing research directly.
• You want a single, clearly-defined remit. You will be holding different priorities at once, and what is on your plate will change.
• You only want to work on strategy. A meaningful share of the job is the practical, hands-on work of making projects actually happen, and the role does not work without it.
• You need to be the expert in the room before you act. You will often be adding value in areas you are still learning.

Behaviours

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

• Communicating and Influencing
• Making Effective Decisions
• Delivering at Pace

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £44,620, Department for Science, Innovation & Technology contributes £12,926 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).

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.

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.

Apply using this link: Job Application for Strategy & Delivery Adviser - AI Security Institute at Civil Service Jobs

Application: you will be asked to submit a CV and answer 3 application questions (word count: 250 words max per question):

1. Why do you want to work at the AI Security Institute, and why is the Societal Impacts team where you want to contribute?
2. Which one societal risk from AI do you think our team should prioritise, and why?
3. Tell us about a time you were responsible for delivering something difficult that depended on several people. What made it difficult, what did you do to keep it on track, and what was the outcome?

Interview 1: Experience interview

Interview 2: Task and Civil Service Behaviours Interview. The task details will be circulated ahead of the 2nd interview.

Interview 3: Final interview with Senior Leadership

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 : Brendan McGrath
• Email : Brendan.McGrath@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 Georgia.Stone@dsit.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 at: https://civilservicecommission.independent.gov.uk/contact-us/