Software Engineer - Cyber & Autonomous Systems Team

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

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid working

25 days annual leave

Job summary

AI Security Institute seeks exceptional Software Engineers at all levels to join our frontier AI security team in the heart of central London. You will work on state-of-the-art evaluations, cyber ranges, and pre-deployment testing to assess frontier and open-weight AI models.

You’ll collaborate with engineers and researchers who care deeply about safety and autonomy, enjoying mentorship and a culture of high craftsmanship.

Qualifications

• Delivering and maintaining production-quality software.
• Deep Python experience and broad tooling knowledge.
• Designing and evolving software systems or technical architecture.
• Ownership of ambiguous, technically hard problems and follow-through.
• Clear communication and mentoring to raise engineering standards.

Responsibilities

• Build evaluation infrastructure to enable large-scale cyber and autonomy evaluations.
• Develop analysis tooling to turn results into actionable insights.
• Lead testing exercises and drive evidence-based conclusions.
• Deliver engineering work across design, implementation and maintenance.
• Write production-ready Python code with testing and observability.

Skills

Python

Production-quality software

Software architecture

Mentoring & leadership

Clear communication

Tools

Python

DevOps practices

Job description

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.

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.

Your day-to-day work might include building state-of-the-art evaluations (e.g., cyber ranges), running pre-deployment testing exercises (e.g., Claude Mythos Preview), validating novel model behaviours (e.g., models cheating in evaluations), and answering timely research questions (e.g., the capabilities of open-weight models). You would be working alongside engineers and researchers who care deeply about the impact of their work, take pride in their craft, and have a high level of autonomy.

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.

Example projects

• 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:

Essential

• 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

Desirable

• 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

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.

Growth & autonomy

• Ifyou'rtalented 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.

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 technicalexpertisein frontier AI safety,robustnessand advanced AI architectures.

The full range of salaries are available below:

• Level 3:£65,000–£75,000 (Base £39,850 + Technical Allowance £25,150–£35,150)
• Level 4:£85,000–£95,000 (Base £47,355 + Technical Allowance £37,645–£47,645)
• Level 5:£105,000–£115,000 (Base £61,620 + Technical Allowance £43,380–£53,380)
• Level 6:£125,000–£135,000 (Base £74,605 + Technical Allowance £50,395–£60,395)
• Level 7:£145,000 (Base £74,605 + Technical Allowance £70,395)

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.

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).

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code 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.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy. As part of the application process, we monitor statistics on D&I. You can see how we process this data here: Recruitment privacy notice - GOV.UK.