Research Scientist​/Engineer, Biological Models

Research Scientist/Engineer, Biological Models

London, UK

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.

About the Chem Bio team

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.

Role Responsibilities

Candidates who join us in this role should expect to play a critical role in driving the R&D work of the CB team through a variety of projects. The successful candidate will:

• Join a small, talent-driven, multidisciplinary team evaluating state-of-the-art AI models for engineering biology.
• Setup and deploy leading biological models and evaluate these models in line with AISI's research objectives.
• Design and deliver evaluations and experiments to assess capabilities of AI models in fields such as protein design, structure prediction and biological foundation models.
• Lead on research projects to understand the feasibility and effectiveness of potential technical safeguards for biological models
• Investigate critical research questions at the intersection of AI and biosecurity, contributing to a technical evidence base used to advise and inform wider cross-Government efforts in this space.

Requirements

We are looking for the following skills, experience and attitudes, but a successful candidate will not necessarily need to meet all these criteria. We can be flexible in shaping the role and salary to your background, expertise, and level of experience.

• Background in machine learning, having worked directly on training, tuning or evaluating machine learning models using PyTorch or similar.
• Experience working on leading biological AI models, such as protein design models, structure prediction or scientific foundation models.
• Experience writing production-level Python code that is scalable, robust and easy to maintain, ideally in a team.
• Sufficient knowledge of biology and machine learning concepts to understand and stay across the frontier of AI x Bio research literature.
• A sense of mission, urgency, and responsibility for success; demonstrated ability to solve challenging problems, implement solutions efficiently and acquire any missing knowledge necessary to get the job done. Motivated to conduct technical research with an emphasis on direct policy impact.
• Strong communication skills, with the ability to work effectively in a dynamic, multidisciplinary team environment.

Please note that this is a reserved post. We can only consider applications from UK nationals (including dual nationals who hold British citizenship).
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 may 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…