Software Engineer, Cyber and Autonomous Systems Team

AISafety; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 65,000 - 145,000; Full time

Job summary

AI Security Institute in London is seeking a Software Engineer to join the Cyber & Autonomous Systems Team, tackling frontier AI security research and evaluation.

You will develop scalable Python software, build evaluation infrastructures, create analysis tooling, and lead tests from design through deployment, while mentoring juniors. The role collaborates with government partners to shape AI safety standards and respond to real-world cyber challenges.

Qualifications

• Production-quality software experience.
• Deep Python expertise with broad tooling familiarity.
• Experience designing software systems and architecture.
• Interest in improving AI safety.
• Ability to own hard, ambiguous problems.
• Strong communication and mentoring skills.
• Cybersecurity or adversarial-security expertise.
• Experience with AI evaluations and deployments.
• DevOps for production systems.
• Knowledge of AI misuse/threat models.

Responsibilities

• Build evaluation infrastructure at scale.
• Develop analysis tooling for results.
• Lead testing exercises and report findings.
• Deliver engineering work from design to maintenance.
• Write production-quality Python with tests and docs.
• Onboard a cyber range to evaluation infra.
• Build an image pipeline for AMIs.
• Improve sandbox service with Core Technology.
• Prepare data to publish research findings.

Skills

Production software

Python

Software architecture

AI safety

Ownership of hard problems

Clear communication

Cybersecurity

AI evaluations

DevOps

AI misuse awareness

Tools

Proxmox

Job description

Software Engineer - Cyber & Autonomous Systems Team

London, UK

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 11thOctober 2026, end of day, anywhere on Earth.

About the team

AI capabilities in cybersecurity and autonomy are advancing faster than at any point in history. Frontier models can now work through multi-step network intrusions, discover and exploit software vulnerabilities, and carry out long-horizon technical tasks with increasing independence. These are extraordinary tools for scientific and economic progress, but also have the potential for serious harm if misused or deployed without adequate oversight, as seen in the recent cybersecurity incidents.

Our Cyber & Autonomous Systems Team evaluates the capability of both frontier and open-weight AI models in cybersecurity, autonomy and AI R&D, ensuring the UK government and its partners have an accurate view of risks and capabilities. We use realistic cyber ranges and a large CTF suite for our evaluations, run pre-deployment testing of frontier models, and collaborate with our partners across UK government, frontier labs, and NCSC.

Role Description

We are looking for exceptional Software Engineers at all experience levels, from junior through to senior or staff, who want to work at the forefront of frontier AI security

In this role, you'll work with cutting-edge technologies on research problems with real-world impact, and receive mentorship and coaching from your manager and the technical leads on your team.

Core Responsibilities

• Build evaluation infrastructure: develop systems and code that make cyber and autonomy evaluations possible at scale.
• Develop analysis tooling: turn raw results into insights, including LLM-as-a-judge and other analysis workflows.
• Lead testing exercises: identify key research questions, run evaluations to collect evidence, analyse results, and communicate findings and recommendations.
• Deliver engineering work: own technical projects and shared components from design through implementation, iteration, and maintenance.
• Write production-quality code: build scalable, robust, maintainable Python software with strong testing, documentation, and observability practices.
• Onboard a cyber range: deploy a new cyber range on AISI's evaluation infrastructure (for example, Proxmox) and verify it meets the internal Evaluation Quality Standard.
• Build an image pipeline: create a pipeline that converts infrastructure-as-code into AMIs ready for evaluation.
• Develop a more secure sandbox service: partner with Core Technology to improve AISI's sandbox platform, representing CAST to ensure the service meets its evaluation requirements.
• Prepare data for publication: collect, validate, and organise evaluation data to support publication of research findings.

Impact

Your work will directly shape the UK government's understanding of AI cyber capabilities, inform safety standards for frontier AI systems, and contribute to the global effort to develop rigorous evaluation methodologies. The evaluations you build will help determine how advanced AI systems are assessed before deployment.

Who we're looking for

We're flexible on the exact profile and expect successful candidates will meet many (but not necessarily all) of the criteria below:

• Delivering and maintaining production-quality software
• Deep Python experience, with a clear view of what good Python looks like and broad familiarity with the wider ecosystem and tooling
• Designing and evolving software systems or technical architecture
• Strong interest in helping to improve the safety of AI systems
• Take ownership of ambiguous, technically hard problems and follow through
• Communicate clearly and raise engineering standards through feedback and mentoring
• Cybersecurity or adversarial-security expertise
• Building, operating, or analysing AI evaluations
• Experience building, deploying, and operating production systems using DevOps practices
• Familiarity with AI misuse and loss-of-control threat models

Motivated candidates are encouraged to apply even if you don't meet all the above criteria.

What We Offer

Impactyoucouldn'thave anywhere else

• Incredibly talented, mission-drivenand 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, AIresearchand adjacent sciences.
• Ifyou'retalented and driven,you'llown important problems early.
• 5 days offand annual stipends forlearning and development, andfunding 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-widebreaksand 3 days off for volunteering.
• Generous paid parental leave (36 weeks of UK statutory leave shared between parents + 3 extra paid weeks + option foradditionalunpaid 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.

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 technicalexpertisein frontier AI safety,robustnessand advanced AI architectures.

The full range of salaries are available below:

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.

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.

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.

UK Diversity Questions

Diversity monitoring

We know that we deliver better services when our workforce reflects the full range of backgrounds and experiences in the society we serve.

To continue to do this we need your help in filling out a short monitoring form.

None of the information you provide will be visible as part of your application. It will only be used anonymously to monitor the inclusivity of our selection processes.

You can select 'prefer not to say’ if you would rather not answer any question.