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.
Security Engineering at the AI Security Institute (AISI) protects our people, partners, models, data and the research infrastructure that AISI's work depends on. We build secure-by-design platforms, automated governance and intelligence-led detection. We work closely with research units and technology teams so researchers can get on with their work.
We're now building an offensive security team and have three roles available.
We're looking for an experienced offensive security engineer who builds and breaks. You should be able to find and exploit vulnerabilities across cloud, infrastructure and application layers, and want to apply that work to containing and evaluating frontier AI models.
Offensive security testing is one of the key controls behind AISI's model evaluations. You'll run engagements against our evaluation and research infrastructure. That includes the sandboxes, Inspect (our open-source evaluation framework), and the supporting cloud, identity and platform services. Alongside testing, you'll build and own agent-assisted red-teaming harnesses that test this infrastructure continuously.
You'll work directly with the engineers and with research teams on cyber ranges and evaluation tasks, and there's scope to publish and present your work externally.
If you want to attack the systems frontier AI is tested in, use AI agents for offensive work on real targets, and see your findings change how those systems are built, we'd like to hear from you.
You may be a good fit if you have some of the following skills, experience and attitudes:
We may also consider experience with:
We encourage you to apply even if you don't meet every point above. We care more about what you've broken, and how, than about certifications or job titles.
The interview process may vary from candidate to candidate, however, you should expect a typical process to include some technical proficiency tests, discussions with a cross-section of our team at AISI (including non-technical staff) and conversations with your team lead. The process will culminate in a conversation with members of the senior leadership team here at AISI.
Candidates should expect to go through some or all of the following stages once an application has been submitted:
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. More detail on clearance eligibility can be found on the UK Government website: National security vetting: clearance levels - GOV.UK.
*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.
We may use AI tools to help our hiring team review applications, for example by summarising application materials and helping us prioritise them against the published criteria. We do not use AI tools to find information about you from other sources, including online. People make every decision. We do not make solely automated decisions about candidates. Find out more, including your rights, in our recruitment privacy notice: https://www.aisi.gov.uk/careers/privacy-policy.
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.
Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check and get baseline personnel security standard (BPSS) clearance before they can be appointed. Additionally, there is a strong preference for eligibility for counter-terrorist check (CTC) clearance. Some roles may require higher levels of clearance, and we will state this by exception in the job advertisement. See our vetting charter here.
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).
The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) 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.
The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window). As part of the application process, we monitor statistics on D&I. You can see how we process this data here: Recruitment privacy notice - GOV.UK.
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.
