AI Assurance Practitioner

Digi2al; Portsmouth; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Annual bonus (probationary period)

Discretionary bonus

5% matched pension

Private health insurance

Employee Ownership Trust

Flexible working

25 days holiday increasing to 30

Paid charity days

Maternity/Paternity leave

Training and certifications support

Conferences attendance

Choice of laptop and screen

Job summary

Digi2al is seeking an AI Assurance Practitioner to implement, operationalise, and deliver a proactive, risk-based AI Assurance Framework across complex, high-consequence systems. You will work with engineers, delivery teams, and risk authorities to ensure AI-enabled systems are safe, secure, ethical, and operationally effective.

Due to the secure nature of the project, you must hold SC or DV clearance with 5 years of UK residency and British nationality.

Qualifications

• Security Clearance: Valid UK National Security Vetting SC Clearance with eligibility and willingness to undergo Developed Vetting (DV).
• Defence AI Standards knowledge (JSP 936 or equivalent).
• AI Risk governance: experience with AI impact assessments and ethical risk evaluations.

Responsibilities

• Translate defence AI policies and standards into practical assurance processes, checklists, templates and guidance.
• Manage intake, triage and risk categorisation for AI initiatives and determine assurance tiers.
• Guide teams through system boundary definition, hazard identification, ethical risk assessments, control design and residual risk ownership.
• Interrogate AI system specs, data provenance, training pipelines, model documentation and bias assessments to challenge evidence.
• Coordinate specialist assessments including model evaluations, adversarial testing and cyber/safety stress tests.
• Maintain AI assurance risk register, elevate residual risks and support governance boards.
• Align AI assurance workflows with Secure by Design (SbD), safety cases and testing pathways.
• Deliver coaching and upskilling to build in-house AI evaluation capability.

Job description

Overview

We are seeking a specialist AI Assurance Practitioner to implement, operationalise, and deliver a proactive, risk-based AI Assurance Framework across complex, high-consequence operational and enterprise systems. As our client transitions toward continuous, proportionate AI governance, you will provide critical subject matter expertise to embed prescriptive AI assurance across the full capability lifecycle. Working directly with engineering and delivery teams, senior project owners, and enterprise risk authorities, you will ensure AI-enabled systems are safe, secure, ethical, and operationally effective.

Due to the secure nature of this project, you will need to hold SC or DV clearance (minimum requirements: 5 years of residency in the UK & British Nationality).

Key Responsibilities

• Policy Implementation & Operationalisation: Translate overarching defence AI policies, standards (such as JSP 936), and industry frameworks (e.g., ISO 42001) into practical, repeatable assurance processes, checklists, templates, and guidance.
• Intake, Triage & Risk Categorisation: Manage the intake and registration pipeline for emerging AI initiatives, assessing system context, consequence, and novelty to determine proportionate tiers of assurance.
• AI Ethical & Risk Assessments: Guide multidisciplinary delivery teams through system boundary definition, hazard identification, ethical impact assessments, control design, residual risk scoring, and formal risk ownership.
• Technical Evidence & Model Review: Interrogate AI system specifications, data provenance, training pipelines, model documentation, algorithmic bias assessments, and data sufficiency to constructively challenge incomplete evidence.
• Specialist Assessment Coordination: Scope and coordinate deeper technical assurance for high-risk capabilities, including model evaluations, adversarial robustness/red-teaming, and cyber/safety stress tests.
• Governance, Escalation & Reporting: Maintain the central AI assurance risk register, elevate critical residual risks through established governance boards, and compile evidence to support senior leadership assurance statements.
• Process Alignment & Integration: Align AI assurance workflows with established digital delivery mechanisms, Secure by Design (SbD) frameworks, safety cases, and technical test/trials pathways.
• Enduring Capability & Knowledge Transfer: Deliver coaching, guidance, and upskilling to internal delivery teams and emerging assurance personnel to build sustainable in-house AI evaluation capability.

Essential:

• Security Clearance: Valid UK National Security Vetting SC Clearance with eligibility and willingness to undergo Developed Vetting (DV).
• Defence AI Standards: Practical working knowledge of UK Defence AI standards and policies (specifically JSP 936 or equivalent regulated sector frameworks).
• AI Risk & Governance: Proven track record conducting AI impact assessments, ethical risk evaluations, and establishing controls for algorithmic models and automated decision-making.
• Technical Understanding of AI/ML: Grounded technical comprehension of machine learning architectures, data pipelines, model drift, data provenance, validation metrics, and performance evaluation.
• Assurance & Compliance Frameworks: Exposure to emerging international AI standards and frameworks, such as ISO/IEC 42001, NIST AI RMF, or IEEE standards.
• Stakeholder Management: Demonstrated ability to act as an independent challenger while collaborating effectively across diverse teams: data scientists, systems engineers, safety managers, legal advisors, and senior operational stakeholders.

Desirable:

• Experience with Secure by Design (SbD), system safety engineering, or defence test and evaluation processes.
• Hands‑on experience planning or executing model red‑teaming, adversarial testing, or synthetic data verification.
• Background working within UK Defence, national security, aerospace, or other high‑reliability regulated sectors.

• 25 days holiday increasing annually up to a maximum of 30 days

• Annual bonus - all employees are eligible (following successful completion of probationary period) - level varies by position and is dependent on company performance
• Discretionary bonus for exceptional performance
• 5% matched pension
• Private Health Insurance
• Employee Ownership Trust - from day 1 employees share in the benefits of the company
• Support for flexible working

• 2 paid charity days a year

• 16 weeks of full pay Maternity leave

• 2 weeks full pay Paternity leave
• Support with your professional development including training and certifications and attendance at conferences
• Diverse and interesting projects which give you an opportunity to make a difference
• Choice of laptop and screen