London, England, United Kingdom · Hybrid
$65k–$145k/yr
About the AI Security Institute 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 …
Skills: Machine learning, Computational biology, Python, PyTorch, Protein design
London, England, United Kingdom · Hybrid
$65k–$145k/yr
About the AI Security Institute 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 …
Skills: Virology, Microbiology, Biosecurity, AI safety, Risk assessment
London, England, United Kingdom · Hybrid
$65k–$145k/yr
About the AI Security Institute 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 …
Skills: Programme management, Cybersecurity, Autonomous systems, AI safety, Stakeholder management
London, England, United Kingdom · Hybrid
$65k–$145k/yr
About the AI Security Institute 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 …
Skills: AI research, Incident response, Forensics, Agentic controls, AI safety
London, England, United Kingdom · Hybrid
$65k–$145k/yr
About the AI Security Institute 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 …
Skills: Cyber security, Software engineering, AI security, Frontier AI models, Network intrusion analysis
London, England, United Kingdom · Hybrid
$65k–$145k/yr
About the AI Security Institute 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 …
Skills: Python, AWS, Kubernetes, Slurm, PyTorch
London, England, United Kingdom · Hybrid
$65k–$145k/yr
About the AI Security Institute 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 …
Skills: Python, AWS, Infrastructure as Code, Production Quality Coding, Cloud Infrastructure
London, England, United Kingdom • Hybrid
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The role involves evaluating the risk-relevant capabilities of specialized biological AI models and translating complex technical findings into actionable policy recommendations. You will design experiments to assess model performance and investigate the effectiveness of technical safeguards against potential misuse.
Candidates must possess deep hands-on experience with biological machine learning models and strong applied engineering skills in Python and PyTorch. A solid foundation in computational biology and the ability to communicate complex technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders are essential.
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.
AISI's Chem Bio (CB) team conducts technical research to assess evolving AI capabilities related to science R&D and CB misuse, and the effectiveness of technical safeguards that might mitigate risks arising from those capabilities.
The goal of our research is to inform critical decisions on security, opportunities, policy, and risk mitigation made by governments and AI developers.
We're a close-knit, unusually interdisciplinary team—made up of machine learning researchers and engineers, software engineers, virologists and bacteriologists, behavioural research scientists, biosecurity experts, long-standing CB policy specialists and talented generalists—who work closely with other technical and policy teams across government.
Over the next twelve months, CB will hugely scale the range and complexity of the evaluations and research programmes it carries out, and engage more deeply with partners in major AI labs, the wider biotech and pharma ecosystem and security services than it ever has before.
AI capabilities in the life sciences are advancing faster than at any point in history. Foundation models can now design novel proteins and interpret genomic sequences. Specialised biological models can both identify drug targets and design the compound to target them. These are extraordinary tools for scientific progress but also have the potential for harm if misused.
This role is for a technical researcher who can contribute strong ML and computational biology expertise to that mission. You will sit within a group of research scientists, subject matter experts and engineers, leading empirical research into the risk-relevant capabilities of specialised biological models, including biomolecular structure and generative-design systems. You will translate ambiguous questions about what these models could enable into rigorous research questions and experimental designs, assess whether in-silico performance translates into meaningful experimental outcomes, and investigate whether technical safeguards can reliably limit potentially dangerous capabilities. It is a role at the interface of machine learning, computational biology and biosecurity: shaping which capabilities we investigate, how we measure their real-world significance, and how we translate our findings into decisions by government and other trusted partners.
Strong candidates may also have:
Other core requirements:
Appointment is conditional on successfully completing UK Government SC clearance. Prior clearance is not required—we will sponsor and support you. You should normally have been resident in the UK for the past 5 years.
You will also be required to undergo Developed Vetting (DV). DV typically requires a longer period of UK residency (around 10 years). Employment is conditional on obtaining and maintaining the required clearance(s). More detail on clearance eligibility can be found on the UK Government website: National security vetting: clearance levels - GOV.UK.
Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis. We encourage you to apply early.
Impact you couldn't have anywhere else
Resources & access
Growth & autonomy
Life & family*
*These benefits apply to direct employees. Benefits may differ for individuals joining through other employment arrangements such as secondments.
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 DDaT pay framework 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:
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 for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.
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 - Internal Fraud Register.
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 nationality requirements (opens in a new window).
We conduct scientific research to understand AI’s most serious risks and develop and test mitigations.
We’re building a team of world leading talent to advance our understanding of frontier AI and strengthen protections against the risks it poses – come and join us: https://www.aisi.gov.uk/. The AISI is part of the UK Government's Department for Science, Innovation and Technology.
We conduct scientific research to understand AI’s most serious risks and develop and test mitigations.
We’re building a team of world leading talent to advance our understanding of frontier AI and strengthen protections against the risks it poses – come and join us: https://www.aisi.gov.uk/. The AISI is part of the UK Government's Department for Science, Innovation and Technology.
