Head of Technical Standards and Best Practice
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 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.
The deadline for applying to this role is Sunday 29th November 2026, end of day, anywhere on Earth.
About the team
AISI's Technical Standards and Best Practice team identifies what best practice is needed to manage the most serious risks from frontier AI development and leverages AISI’s position to get it adopted.
AI capabilities are advancing faster than the science and practices used to manage their risks. Risks now emerge earlier, during training, internal deployment and evaluation, not just at public release, and evaluation methods are struggling to keep pace. Yet there is no consensus on the set of practices needed to safely use and develop the most capable AI systems, and high-level principles are not enough to manage these risks. What's needed is concrete technical guidance that developers agree is necessary.
AISI is uniquely placed to lead on parts of this industry-wide effort to establish best practice. We house researchers with state-of-the-art technical insight on keeping AI secure during internal use, hold existing relationships with industry and other frontier AI organisations, and offer a neutral third-party home to establish best practice collaboratively. This role directly delivers on part of the Prime Minister’s September 2026 commitment that the UK will work towards principles and standards that ensure the most capable AI systems are developed securely and with appropriate transparency. It builds directly on our October 2026 publication Towards technical best practice for frontier AI development, setting out our view of the most urgent priorities.
This is a new, growing team with high ambitions. It is a cross AISI initiative that draws on and collaborates with researchers and engineers from across AISI's research teams, as well as our Communications, International and Strategy teams. We're now building a dedicated core team and expect it to grow as the work does.
Why this team matters:
AISI is uniquely placed to shape this guidance, and this team is how we'll do it:
- Technical expertise: AISI has roughly 10 technical and research teams whose expertise can be drawn on; one of the largest groups working on AI risk outside the frontier AI companies. AISI has evaluated more than 55 frontier models before release and published research on topics such as safety cases, monitorability and control.
- A research institute within government: we work directly with leading AI developers, other governments, and third-party evaluators, and can bring them together around practices no single company would set on its own. UK AISI also coordinates the International Network for Advanced AI Measurement, Evaluation and Science – a group of 10 AI security institutes and equivalents – which has already published its own and socialised others’ best practices.
- A track record of shaping industry practice: AISI has already helped establish voluntary practices such as pre-release testing, and built Inspect, now the standard framework for leading third-party evaluators.
We're not seeking to mandate requirements. We want to contribute our expertise to an industry-wide effort to develop technical best practice that could later inform formal standards.
What we're working on:
Examples of our first priority areas include:
- Overseeing AI systems: what monitoring and controls developers need to make sure AI systems behave as intended, and how to preserve that oversight as systems become more capable.
- Sharing information on the speed of AI development: which metrics best track progress, including AI's use in its own development, and when they should be shared with governments and the public.
- Assessing and documenting risk: what risk assessments and safety cases should cover, and what standard of evidence they should meet.
About the role
Primary objective: Lead AISI's work to define the technical best practice needed to manage the most serious risks from frontier AI development, and to get it adopted.
You'll work with AISI leadership to set the direction for this work and be accountable for delivering it. You'll lead a diverse team of technical experts and policy specialists who turn AISI's research into best practice, and take it into the forums where it can shape what frontier AI developers do.
Core responsibilities:
- Set direction and strategy (20%)
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- Decide which areas of best practice AISI should work on, and in what order, based on risk, AISI's expertise and appetite among developers.
- Own AISI's long-term strategy in this area and make the case inside and outside AISI for why it matters.
- Lead best-practice content (40%)
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- Oversee researchers and experts across AISI as they develop best practice, and bring their expertise together into clear, usable documents.
- Make sure each document sets out specific, actionable practices: what developers should do, and how anyone could check it has been done.
- Technical engagement and adoption (25%)
- Lead technical engagement with frontier AI developers, evaluators, standards bodies and government partners to test and improve drafts.
- Oversee publications and company engagement, choosing the best route to adoption for each area.
- Build and lead the team (15%)
- Line manage and grow the core team and set up a repeatable process from first draft to publication.
Example projects:
- Take AISI's best practice on monitoring and oversight from draft through testing with developers to publication.
- Lead best practice on which metrics developers should report as AI starts to speed up AI research, and what should be shared publicly or confidentially.
- Choose the next priority areas and set up the teams to deliver them.
Reporting and growth:
You'll report to a Deputy Director and line manage the core team. We're looking for a long-term lead: as the team grows, so will the role’s remit.
What we are looking for
We're flexible on the exact profile and expect successful candidates will meet many, but not necessarily all, of the criteria below. Depending on experience, we will consider candidates at Level 5 or Level 6, and exceptional candidates at Level 4.
Essential:
- Strong technical understanding of frontier AI systems and of the practices used to make them safe and secure, gained for example through 5+ years in AI security research or engineering, or AI evaluation.
- A track record of thought leadership on safer frontier AI development practices. For example: developed an industry standard, a published safety framework, or internal policies that engineering teams followed.
- Experience leading a team, or managing a large programme of work involving several organisations.
- Experience building credibility with senior technical people within and outside your own organisation.
- Clear, precise writing for both technical experts and senior decision-makers.
Desirable:
- Experience working at, or closely with, a frontier AI developer.
- Experience writing or reviewing safety cases, either for AI or in a safety-critical industry such as nuclear, aviation or medical devices.
- Expertise in one of our priority areas: monitorability, documenting and reporting risk, or transparency about AI research automation.
- Experience with formal standards development (for example ISO or NIST processes) or industry consortia.
Example backgrounds:
- A senior researcher or engineer from a frontier AI company's safety, alignment or security team who wrote internal safety policies or frameworks.
- A researcher at a third-party evaluation or AI safety organisation who has led published frameworks for evaluating or governing frontier AI.
- A safety or security engineer from a safety-critical industry who has led safety case or standards work and has moved into AI.
- A lead at a standards body or industry consortium who has been hands-on drafting technical content specifically on frontier AI development, not only running the process.
Core requirements
- You should be able to spend at least 4 days per week working with us.
- You should be able to work from our London office roughly 3 days per week.
- No security clearance is needed to apply. Eligibility for Security Check (SC) clearance is preferred, but not essential. More detail on clearance eligibility can be found on the UK Government website: National security vetting: clearance levels - GOV.UK.
Interview process
Candidates should expect to go through some or all of the following stages once an application has been submitted:
- Initial interview
- Take home test
- Second interview and review of take home test
- Third interview
- Final interview with members of the senior team
What We Offer
Impact you couldn't have anywhere else
- Incredibly talented, mission-driven and supportive colleagues.
- Direct influence on how frontier AI is governed and deployed globally.
- Work with the Prime Minister’s AI Advisor and leading AI companies.
- Opportunity to shape the first & best-resourced public-interest research team focused on AI security.
Resources & access
- Pre-release access to multiple frontier models and ample compute.
- Extensive operational support so you can focus on research and ship quickly.
- Work with experts across national security, policy, AI research and adjacent sciences.
Growth & autonomy
- If you’re talented and driven, you’ll own important problems early.
- 5 days off and annual stipends for learning and development, and funding for conferences and external collaborations.
- Freedom to pursue research bets without product pressure.
- Opportunities to publish and collaborate externally.
Life & family*
- Modern central London office, or where applicable, option to work in similar government offices in Birmingham, Cardiff, Darlington, Edinburgh, Salford or Bristol.
- Hybrid working, flexibility for occasional remote work abroad and stipends for work-from-home equipment.
- At least 25 days’ annual leave, 8 public holidays, extra team-wide breaks and 3 days off for volunteering.
- Generous paid parental leave (36 weeks of UK statutory leave shared between parents + 3 extra paid weeks + option for additional unpaid time).
- On top of your salary, we contribute 28.97% of your base salary to your pension.
- Discounts and benefits for cycling to work, donations and retail/gyms.
*These benefits apply to direct employees. Benefits may differ for individuals joining through other employment arrangements such as secondments.
Salary
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:
- Level 3: £65,000–£75,000 (Base £40,850 + Technical Allowance £24,150–£34,150)
- Level 4: £85,000–£95,000 (Base £48,540 + Technical Allowance £36,460–£46,460)
- Level 5: £105,000–£115,000 (Base £63,165 + Technical Allowance £41,835–£51,835)
- Level 6: £125,000–£135,000 (Base £76,475 + Technical Allowance £48,525–£58,525)
- Level 7: £145,000 (Base £76,475 + Technical Allowance £68,525)
Additional Information
Use of AI in Applications
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.
Use of AI tools in recruitment
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.
Internal Fraud Database
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.
Security
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.Nationality requirements
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).
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