Research Scientist/Research Engineer - Societal Impacts

AI Safety Institute; London; On-site; GBP 65,000 - 145,000; Full time

Job summary

An established industry player seeks passionate Research Scientists and Engineers to explore the societal impacts of AI. Join a collaborative team that investigates critical questions about AI's influence on people's views and behaviors. This role offers mentorship and the chance to work alongside experts from top organizations, contributing to research that addresses both immediate and long-term risks. If you're eager to make a difference in the field of AI safety and possess a diverse skill set, this is the perfect opportunity for you to thrive and grow.

Benefits

Pension options

Mentorship opportunities

Collaborative work environment

Qualifications

• Experience in running research experiments involving AI models and human participants.
• Strong quantitative skills and proficiency in data science methods.

Responsibilities

• Design and run studies to assess AI's impact on society.
• Collaborate with a multidisciplinary team on research strategies.

Skills

Writing production quality code

Python programming

Experimental design

Quantitative skills

Data analytics

Data science methods

AI safety research knowledge

Teamwork

Interpersonal skills

Education

Degree in social science, economics, cognitive science, or related field

Job description

Role Description

The AI Safety Institute research unit is looking for exceptionally motivated and talented Research Scientists and Research Engineers to work in the Societal impacts team.

Societal Impacts

Societal Impacts is a multidisciplinary team that studies how advanced AI models can impact people and society. Core research topics include the use of AI for assisting with criminal activities, undermining trust in information, jeopardising psychological wellbeing, or for malicious social engineering. We are interested in both immediate and medium-term risks.

In this role, you’ll join a strongly collaborative technical research team led by the Societal Impacts Research Director, Professor Christopher Summerfield. You will receive mentorship, training, and opportunities for development. You'll also regularly interact with our highly talented and experienced staff across the Institute (including alumni from Anthropic, DeepMind, OpenAI and ML professors from Oxford and Cambridge), as well as other partners across government. In addition to Junior roles, Senior, Staff and Principal RE positions are available for candidates with the required seniority and experience.

Person Specification

Successful candidates will work with other researchers to design and run studies that answer important questions about the effect AI will have on society. For example, can AI effectively change people's political and social views? Research Scientists/Engineers have scope to use a range of research methodologies and drive the strategy of the team.

This is a multidisciplinary team and we look for people with a diversity of backgrounds. We are especially excited about candidates with experience of research in one or more of these areas:

• Computational social science
• Machine learning (research engineer / research scientist)
• Data Science, especially including Natural Language Processing
• Advanced statistical modelling and experimental design.

Required Skills and Experience

We select based on skills and experience regarding the following areas:

• Writing production quality code
• Writing code efficiently, especially using Python
• Demonstrable interest in the societal impacts of AI
• Experimental design
• Demonstrable experience running research experiments involving AI models and/or human participants
• Strong quantitative skills
• Data analytics
• Data science methods
• Frontier model architecture knowledge
• Frontier model training knowledge
• Model evaluations knowledge
• AI safety research knowledge
• Research problem selection
• Research science
• Verbal communication
• Teamwork
• Interpersonal skills

Desired Skills and Experience

• Written communication
• Published work related to cognitive, social or political social science.
• A specialization in a particular field of social or political science, economics, cognitive science, criminology, security studies, AI safety, or another relevant field.
• Front-end software engineering skills to build UI for studies with human participants.

Salary & Benefits

We are hiring individuals at all ranges of seniority and experience within the research unit, and this advert allows you to apply for any of the roles within this range. We will discuss and calibrate with you as part of the process. The full range of salaries available is as follows:

• L3: £65,000 - £75,000
• L4: £85,000 - £95,000
• L5: £105,000 - £115,000
• L6: £125,000 - £135,000
• L7: £145,000

There are a range of pension options available which can be found through the Civil Service website.

Selection Process

In accordance with the Civil Service Commission rules, the following list contains all selection criteria for the interview process.