Research Fellow in AiTASHA

Research Fellow in AiTASHA – University of Southampton

We are seeking an enthusiastic and experienced senior research fellow to work on a £1m EPSRC-funded project to develop human‑centred AI methods that can support and enhance intelligence analysis for national security and defence. The ‘AiTASHA’ project (AI Intelligence Triage & Acquisition Support for Human‑centred Analysis) aims to improve the speed and confidence of intelligence analysts’ assessments by building new AI tools that can work alongside human analysts.

Intelligence analysts are routinely required to make high‑consequence, defensible assessments from vast, complex, and uncertain datasets, to identify indicators and warnings of hostile or malicious activities. They must do so rapidly in highly‑pressedurised and resource‑constrained environments, deciding which data to analyse first and whether to gather additional intelligence, sometimes at the cost of delay or increased risk. As the scale and complexity of intelligence datasets grow, and the threat to UK safety increases, existing AI support tools focus largely on pattern identification and visualisation, neglecting human understanding, context, defensibility, and uncertainty representation.

The goal of this project is to develop a future explainable, defensible AI system that complements, not replaces, the work of intelligence analysts, recommending which existing data should be prioritised for human review and which potential new data should be prioritised for acquisition.

The researcher will conduct internationally‑leading research in human factors with applications to intelligence analysis. The role will involve:

• Developing and applying methods for eliciting knowledge from expert analysts to encode their mental models into a machine‑learning model.
• Using dynamic Bayesian networks to understand, propagate, and reduce uncertainty in analysts’ assessments.
• Applying models of distributed situation awareness and ecological interface design techniques to develop a novel human‑centred human‑AI teaming model.
• Working closely with colleagues in statistical / graphical modelling and AI ethics, requiring proficiency in these areas.

Collaboration with the interdisciplinary AiTASHA consortium—led by the Alan Turing Institute and including the universities of Warwick, Cardiff and Dundee—as well as UK government defence and national security partners will provide frequent engagement with internal stakeholders and external partners.

Please apply by uploading your CV and a Cover Letter. To be eligible for this role it is a funder requirement that you are a UK National or have been residing in the UK for 5 years or more, and be happy to be put forward for a Security Check (SC) clearance. Please confirm the following information in your cover letter:

• Your current and any former nationalities
• That you have been residing in the UK for the past 5 years

• Seniority level:
  Mid‑Senior level
• Employment type:
  
  Full‑time
• Job function:
  Research, Analyst, and Information Technology
• Industries:
  Higher Education