Research Scientist – Human Influence
AI Security Institute · Full-time · Posted 4d ago
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 Sunday 29th November 2026, end of day, anywhere on Earth.
Team Description
The Human Influence (HI) team focuses on the ways in which AI can influence or have a decisive negative impact on decisions made by humans or other AI systems. A substantial class of AI risk operates through social influence on people or other AI agents. AI systems can persuade others to change their beliefs and to take action; can build trusting relationships with people in order to exploit them; can extract private information from them; and can hold delegated ownership of high-stakes decisions. These can play out in both human-AI and multi-agent AI contexts.
Our work is highly interdisciplinary, drawing on methods from computational social science, AI safety and security, cognitive and behavioural science, machine learning, and data science. Typical projects include running rigorous human-AI interaction studies and randomised controlled trials, building evaluations and benchmarks that track AI capabilities across model releases, eliciting model capabilities through fine-tuning and self-play, and developing datasets to monitor real-world risk exposure and severity.
On our team, you will have:
- The opportunity to run large-scale studies, including RCTs, AI model evaluations, large scale data analytics, red teaming, and human participatory methods.
- The opportunity to engage with government officials, ministers, regulators, policymakers, frontier lab employees, and the wider research community to advance AI safety.
- Access to API credits for auto graders/agentic workflows and large compute budgets, as well as funds for human user studies.
- The opportunity to work with world-class talent.
- The opportunity to lead-author and co-author academic publications, conference papers, preprints, blog posts, and to disseminate work via talks and posters.
Some examples of our work include:
- The largest-ever study on the [persuasive capabilities of conversational AI] (https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aea3884);
- A large-scale study on [how people use and follow personal advice from AI chatbots] (https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.15352);
- A longitudinal study on how [anthropomorphic AI facilitates human-AI relationship building] (https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.01991).
Role Description
We are looking for an ambitious and exceptional Research Scientist to join the Human Influence team. This could be in a sub-team lead or independent contributor role.
As a Research Scientist, you will lead and contribute to research programmes that shape our understanding of how frontier AI systems influence people. You will design and execute rigorous studies, publish your work visibly, and help set the research agenda for the team. We are looking for someone who is technically strong, scientifically ambitious, and entrepreneurial, i.e., comfortable working at pace on high-stakes policy-relevant questions.
Who we're looking for
We are seeking candidates with experience in one (or ideally more) of these areas:
- Computer science, Machine learning, Statistics, AI research
- Computational social science
- Data science, especially including natural language processing
- Human–computer interaction
- Psychology
- Cognitive science
Essential Skills and Experience:
- PhD (or equivalent years of research experience) in a relevant field
- Track record of productivity, including publishing rigorous, high-impact research
- Experience designing, planning, conducting or analysing human experiments (ideally online and at scale)
- Strong knowledge of advanced statistical modelling methods (e.g. multilevel/hierarchical/mixed effects GLMs)
- Knowledge of frontier AI models and how they are trained and evaluated
- Strong coding skills (Python and/or R), including experience using AI coding tools (e.g. Claude Code, Codex, or similar)
- Experience working on AI model or system evaluations and other AI safety projects
- Strong verbal and written communication skills
- Demonstrable interest in the human impacts of AI
Desirable Skills and Experience:
- Published work related to societal impacts of AI, evaluation of AI systems, multi-agent systems, or relevant work in a related field
- Experience fine-tuning language models
- Experience with reinforcement learning
- Experience with large-scale analysis of multi-turn conversations or chat logs (e.g. using LLM-judges or auto graders)
- Front-end software engineering skills to build UI for studies with human participants
Nationality and Eligibility
We may be able to offer roles to applicants 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).
Security
Some of AISI’s work involves sensitive material and requires Security Check (SC) clearance. SC clearance is not required for this role; however, candidates who are willing and eligible to obtain it may have the opportunity to work across a wider range of projects. All candidates will be subject to the standard baseline security checks, including a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check. Existing clearance status will not form part of the recruitment assessment.
Timelines
We are seeking a candidate who can take up post as soon as possible following completion of pre-employment checks.
What We Offer
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.
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, AI research and adjacent sciences.
Growth & autonomy
- If you’re talented and driven, you’ll own important problems early.
- 5 days off and annual stipends for learning and development, and funding 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-wide breaks and 3 days off for volunteering.
- Generous paid parental leave (36 weeks of UK statutory leave shared between parents + 3 extra paid weeks + option for additional unpaid 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 technical expertise in frontier AI safety, robustness and advanced AI architectures.
The full range of salaries are available below:
- Level 3: £65,000–£75,000 (Base £40,850 + Technical Allowance £24,150–£34,150)
- Level 4: £85,000–£95,000 (Base £48,540 + Technical Allowance £36,460–£46,460)
- Level 5: £105,000–£115,000 (Base £63,165 + Technical Allowance £41,835–£51,835)
- Level 6: £125,000–£135,000 (Base £76,475 + Technical Allowance £48,525–£58,525)
- Level 7: £145,000 (Base £76,475 + Technical Allowance £68,525)
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.
Use of AI tools in recruitment
We may use AI tools to help our hiring team review applications, for example by summarising application materials and helping us prioritise them against the published criteria. We do not use AI tools to find information about you from other sources, including online. People make every decision. We do not make solely automated decisions about candidates. Find out more, including your rights, in our recruitment privacy notice: https://www.aisi.gov.uk/careers/privacy-policy.
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).
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