Research Scientist / Research Engineer - Narrow AI Tools for Bio-Chem (AI Safety Institute)
Publicerad 2024-06-24
Job summary
About the AI Safety Institute�
The AI Safety Institute is the first state-backed organisation focused on advancing AI safety for the public interest. We launched at the Bletchley Park AI Safety Summit in 2023 because we believe taking responsible action on this extraordinary technology requires a capable and empowered group of technical experts within government.��
We have ambitious goals and need to move fast.��
Develop and conduct evaluations on advanced AI systems. We will characterise safety-relevant capabilities, understand the safety and security of systems, and assess their societal impacts.�Develop novel tools for AI governance. We will create practical frameworks and novel methods to evaluate the safety and societal impacts of advanced AI systems, and anticipate how future technical safety research will feed into AI governance.�Facilitate information exchange. We will establish clear information-sharing channels between the Institute and other national and international actors. These include stakeholders such as policymakers and international partners.�Our staff includes senior alumni from OpenAI, Google DeepMind, start-ups and the UK government, and ML professors from leading universities. We are now calling on the world�s top technical talent to join us. This is a truly unique opportunity to help shape AI safety at an international level.�
As more powerful models are expected to hit the market over the course of 2024, AISI�s mission to push for safe and responsible development and deployment of AI is more important than ever.�
What we value:�
Diverse Perspectives: We believe that a range of experiences and backgrounds is essential to our success. We welcome individuals from underrepresented groups to join us in this crucial mission.�Collaborative Spirit: We thrive on teamwork and open collaboration, valuing every contribution, big or small.�Innovation and Impact: We are dedicated to making a real-world difference in the field of frontier AI safety and capability, and we encourage innovative thinking and bold ideas.�Our Inclusive Environment: We are building an inclusive culture to make the Department a brilliant place to work where our people feel valued, have a voice and can be their authentic selves. We value difference and diversity, not only because we believe it is the right thing to do, but because it will help us be more innovative and make better decisions.�Job description
ABOUT THE TEAM
The mission of the Chem/Bio team is to minimise surprise to the UK and humanity from rapid and unexpected advances in AI, specifically at the intersection of AI with biology or chemistry.���
The team studies how LLMs and subject specific AI systems are advancing biological and chemical capabilities relating to harmful outcomes. This includes potential uplift to novice actors and future scenarios like design of biological agents.��
As a Research Scientist/Research Engineer (Narrow AI Tools for biology/chemistry) you will contribute to our evaluation of biology and chemistry specific models.��
The team works closely with other teams within the AI Safety Institute and wider UK government stakeholders to make sure our research has real-world impacts on AI safety and chemical and biological security through policy recommendations.��
THE ROLE�
As a Research Scientist/Research Engineer (narrow AI tools for biology/chemistry) you will contribute to our work on biology and chemistry specific models, developing and running model evaluations and providing expertise to the wider team.��
Your day-to-day work may involve: �
Designing a task for evaluating different protein design tools.Testing out different applications of a new biological foundation model with different sets of reference data.Identifying public datasets for the purpose of testing predictions.Setting up the hosting of a new model on a compute cluster.Distilling lessons from work into a highly accessible and digestible format, and presenting this to policy makers.�An RS may identify novel applications of tools or sets of tools that test the limits of their capabilities.An RE may spend time optimising the models ( fine-tuning) and building pipelines and frameworks to streamline testing.We are open to considering candidates with different levels of seniority for this role. Researchers with expertise in AI/ML as well as one of Protein Design, Microbiology, or Virology are particularly encouraged to apply.�
Person specification
Essential Criteria�
PhD (or equivalent industrial experience) in Computational Biochemistry, Machine Learning, Protein Design, Computer Science, Structural Bioinformatics or a closely related fieldIf you are applying as a Research Scientist, you should have evidence of strong technical outputs in their field such as publications or software packages.If you are applying as a Research Engineer, you should have evidence of developing machine/deep learning models.Applied experience in modern deep learning (Transformers, Diffusion)Experience in benchmarking modelsExtensive knowledge of relevant literatureStrong coding experience (Python preferred, but experience in Julia/R/C++ also welcomed)Strong numerate skills ( linear algebra, numerical optimisation)Strong communication skills, both for engaging with subject matter experts and non-technical stakeholdersAbility to adapt quickly to changing prioritiesPreferred Criteria for a Research Scientist�
Experience in designing experiments relevant to protein design surface plasmon resonance, biolayer interferometry or similarExperience collaborating internationallyStrong subject matter expertise in your applied areaPreferred Criteria for a Research Engineer�
Experience optimising large-scale modelsExperience working with large complex datasetsStrong interest in science and collaborationCore requirements�
You should be able to spend at least 4 days per week on working with usYou should be able to join us for at least 12 monthsYou should be able work from our office in London (Whitehall) for parts of the week, but we provide flexibility for remote workBenefits
The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology offers a competitive mix of benefits including:
A culture of flexible working, such as job sharing, homeworking and compressed hours.Automatic enrolment into the , with an average employer contribution of 27%.A minimum of 25 days of paid annual leave, increasing by 1 day per year up to a maximum of 30.An extensive range of learning & professional development opportunities, which all staff are actively encouraged to pursue.Access to a range of retail, travel and lifestyle employee discounts.The Department operates a discretionary hybrid working policy, which provides for a combination of working hours from your place of work and from your home in the UK. The current expectation for staff is to attend the office or non-home based location for 40-60% of the time over the accounting period.
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