Senior Data Scientist (Safety)

Faculty; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 80,000 - 110,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Unlimited Annual Leave Policy

Private healthcare and dental

Enhanced parental leave

Family‑Friendly Flexibility & Flexible

Hybrid Working

Job summary

Faculty is seeking a Senior Data Scientist to lead high‑impact AI safety projects within our National Security and AI Safety unit. You will shape upstream evaluation standards and drive technical excellence, combining hands‑on scientific thinking with strong project leadership.

You will mentor colleagues, design core experiments, and collaborate with commercial teams to align scope with client requirements, while advancing research and open‑source contributions in a security‑minded environment.

Qualifications

• Senior experience in data science or upstream safety research.
• Strong Python with NumPy/Pandas; familiarity with evaluation tooling.
• Ability to design robust experiments.
• Collaborative mindset and strong communication skills.

Responsibilities

• Lead upstream AI safety projects and set technical direction.
• Design core scientific experiments and software architecture for engagements.
• Mentor team members and guide professional growth.
• Collaborate with commercial teams to scope projects and translate problems into rigorous frameworks.
• Contribute to Faculty’s thought leadership via research or open‑source publications.
• Ensure rigorous scientific methods across the project lifecycle.

Skills

Python

NumPy

Pandas

Experiment design

Tools

Inspect AI

Agentic harnesses

Job description

Why Faculty?

We established Faculty in 2014 because we thought that AI would be the most important technology of our time. Since then, we’ve worked with over 350 global customers to transform their performance through human‑centric AI. You can read about our real‑world impact here.

We don’t chase hype cycles. We innovate, build and deploy responsible AI which moves the needle - and we know a thing or two about doing it well. We bring an unparalleled depth of technical, product and delivery expertise to our clients who span government, finance, retail, energy, life sciences and defence.

Our business, and reputation, is growing fast and we’re always on the lookout for individuals who share our intellectual curiosity and desire to build a positive legacy through technology.

AI is an epoch‑defining technology, join a company where you’ll be empowered to envision its most powerful applications, and to make them happen.

About the team

Our National Security and AI Safety business unit is dedicated to advancing the responsible development and deployment of AI in support of national security and global stability. From strengthening mission‑critical capabilities across national security and intelligence, to working with frontier labs to provide robust AI safety red teaming and evaluation, we work at the frontier of high‑stakes, high‑impact missions.

We understand that powerful AI systems bring both transformative opportunities and complex risks and we are proud to partner with Government and the biggest tech organisations in the world to ensure AI is not just transformative but is also secure, trustworthy and safe for all.

Because of the nature of the work we do with our Government clients, you may need to be eligible for Security Clearance (SC) and willing to work on site with our clients from time to time.

About the role

As a Senior Data Scientist at Faculty, you will lead high‑impact AI safety projects and shape the technical direction of upstream evaluation standards. This role requires hands‑on scientific thinking and technical excellence combined with strong project leadership.

What you’ll be doing:

• Leading project teams that deliver upstream AI safety solutions and evaluation standards to Frontier Labs.

• Conceiving core scientific experiment designs and building the associated software architecture for new engagements.

• Mentoring technical team members on projects and supporting their professional growth through scientific guidance.

• Partnering with commercial teams to shape project scope, assess technical feasibility, and translate complex problems into rigorous frameworks.

• Contributing to Faculty’s thought leadership by advancing the science of AI evaluations, public speaking, or publishing open‑source research.

• Ensuring rigorous scientific methodology and technical best practices are followed across the project lifecycle.

Who we’re looking for:

• You possess senior experience in a professional data science role, upstream safety research, or a quantitative academic field with strong experiment design methodology.

• You demonstrate strong programming skills in Python using core scientific libraries (NumPy, Pandas) and , ideally, evaluation frameworks and tooling (e.g. Inspect AI) and agentic harnesses.

• You bring deep curiosity and expertise across the data science toolkit, with a drive to develop novel evaluation standards for specialized domains.

• You exhibit high technical rigor and a collaborative mindset focused on nurturing team capabilities and sharing technical knowledge.

• You demonstrate commercial awareness, with the ability to bridge complex scientific work with client requirements in Frontier Labs.

• You excel at scientific problem‑solving, scoping technical work, and guiding project execution to meet high standards on structured timelines.

Our Interview Process

1. Talent Team Screen (30 minutes)

2. Take Home Technical Assessment

3. Technical Interview (90 minutes)

4. Commercial Interview (60 minutes)

Our Recruitment Ethos

We aim to grow the best team - not the most similar one. We know that diversity of individuals fosters diversity of thought, and that strengthens our principle of seeking truth. And we know from experience that diverse teams deliver better work, relevant to the world in which we live. We’re united by a deep intellectual curiosity and desire to use our abilities for measurable positive impact. We strongly encourage applications from people of all backgrounds, ethnicities, genders, religions and sexual orientations.

Some of our standout benefits:

• Unlimited Annual Leave Policy

• Private healthcare and dental

• Enhanced parental leave

• Family‑Friendly Flexibility & Flexible working

• Sanctus Coaching

• Hybrid Working

A note on AI: we're happy for you to use it for research and interview prep, but please don't use it to generate answers during live interviews. We also use an AI note‑taker (Metaview) in interviews so interviewers can stay present (which you can opt out of just let us know,) and every application is reviewed by a human, never decided by AI.

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