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About the Role

This role is for a senior technical expert who will bring deep virology and biosecurity judgment to the AI Security Institute's Chem Bio team. You will help design and interpret evaluations of AI systems' performance on biologically relevant tasks, focusing on pathogens and virology. Your work will translate biological risk questions into empirical evaluations, distinguish scientifically meaningful outputs from plausible-sounding ones, and advise on mitigations and safeguards for policy decisions.

Responsibilities

Design, develop, and execute evaluations to test frontier biological capabilities and risk-relevant behaviors of AI models, with a focus on virology.
Translate ambiguous biological risk questions into rigorous empirical claims, defining appropriate evaluation designs, evidence standards, scoring rubrics, and expert review processes.
Analyze and interpret evaluation findings, including limitations, uncertainty, and risks of false positives and negatives.
Produce clear technical reports, briefings, and recommendations for senior decision-makers within government and other partners.
Collaborate with researchers, engineers, biosecurity experts, policy teams, AI safety specialists, and external scientific partners.

Requirements

PhD in virology, microbiology, infectious disease, molecular biology, or a closely related field, or equivalent practical experience.
Deep experience with pathogenic viruses, bacteria, host-pathogen interactions, infectious disease, agricultural pathogens, or applied microbiology.
Ability to engage seriously with frontier AI, AI-enabled biology, model evaluations, experimental design, and research trade-offs.
Experience designing, critiquing, and interpreting evaluations or experiments with unknown outcomes.
Experience applying biosecurity principles to emerging technologies, ideally including AI systems, large language models, or biological design tools.
Ability to reason clearly about capability, tacit knowledge, real-world bottlenecks, and the difference between theoretical and practically meaningful risk.
Comfort operating with discretion within sensitive or classified constraints.
Ability to translate complex scientific, technical, and safety evidence into clear reports and recommendations for senior decision-makers.
Ability to work effectively with researchers, engineers, policy specialists, biosecurity experts, security stakeholders, and external scientific partners.
Ability to spend at least 9 days per fortnight working with the institute.
Willingness to work from the London office at least 3 days per week.
Must be UK-based.
Must successfully complete UK Government SC clearance.
Must undergo Developed Vetting (DV).

Skills

Virology
Microbiology
Biosecurity
AI evaluation
Empirical judgement
Risk assessment
Communication
Interdisciplinary collaboration
Clinical virology
Molecular virology
Wet-lab environments
BSL-2 laboratories
AI safety frameworks
Model evaluations
Responsible capability assessment
Release governance
Dual-use biology
Biological weapons issues
Biological Weapons Convention
Command-line tools
Coding
Data analysis workflows
Bioinformatics tools
AI-enabled research

Location

London
Birmingham
Cardiff
Darlington
Edinburgh
Salford
Bristol

Work Type

Hybrid working
Occasional remote work abroad

Experience Level

Senior technical expert
PhD or equivalent practical experience

Education Level

PhD in virology, microbiology, infectious disease, molecular biology or a closely related field

Salary/Compensations

£65,000–£145,000 (base salary plus technical allowance)
Level 3: £65,000–£75,000
Level 4: £85,000–£95,000
Level 5: £105,000–£115,000
Level 6: £125,000–£135,000
Level 7: £145,000

Benefits

Impact you couldn't have anywhere else
Incredibly talented, mission-driven and 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
Pre-release access to multiple frontier models and ample compute
Extensive operational support
Work with experts across national security, policy, AI research and adjacent sciences
Own important problems early if talented and driven
5 days off for learning and development
Annual stipends for learning and development
Funding for conferences and external collaborations
Freedom to pursue research bets without product pressure
Opportunities to publish and collaborate externally
Modern central London office, or option to work in similar government offices in Birmingham, Cardiff, Darlington, Edinburgh, Salford or Bristol
Hybrid working, flexibility for occasional remote work abroad
Stipends for work-from-home equipment
At least 25 days’ annual leave
8 public holidays
Extra team-wide breaks
3 days off for volunteering
Generous paid parental leave (36 weeks statutory leave shared between parents + 3 extra paid weeks + option for additional unpaid time)
28.97% employer pension contribution on base salary
Discounts and benefits for cycling to work, donations and retail/gyms

About the Company

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 are 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.
Our mission is driven by the critical role governments play in ensuring advanced AI progresses well.
We are uniquely positioned with resources, agility, and international influence to shape both AI development and government action.
The Chem Bio team conducts technical research to assess AI capabilities related to science R&D and CB misuse, and the effectiveness of technical safeguards.
Our research aims to inform critical decisions on security, opportunities, policy, and risk mitigation made by governments and AI developers.
We are an interdisciplinary team comprising machine learning researchers and engineers, software engineers, virologists and bacteriologists, behavioural research scientists, biosecurity experts, CB policy specialists, and generalists.
We collaborate closely with other technical and policy teams across government.
Over the next twelve months, the CB team will significantly scale its evaluations and research programmes, engaging more deeply with partners in major AI labs, the biotech and pharma ecosystem, and security services.

Equal Opportunity

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities.
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 meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.
The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found.
As part of the application process, we monitor statistics on D&I.
We may be able to offer roles to applicants from any nationality or background.