Senior Software Engineer (Python) - [Remote] in London

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. AISI's Chem Bio (CB) team conducts technical research to assess evolving AI capabilities related to science R&D and CB misuse, and the effectiveness of technical safeguards that might mitigate risks arising from those capabilities. The goal of our research is to inform critical decisions on security, opportunities, policy, and risk mitigation made by governments and AI developers. We're a close-knit, unusually interdisciplinary team—made up of machine learning researchers and engineers, software engineers, virologists and bacteriologists, behavioural research scientists, biosecurity experts, long-standing CB policy specialists and talented generalists—who work closely with other technical and policy teams across government. We are building a dedicated engineering function within the CB team — a small team that owns the shared platform, tooling, and infrastructure that our research projects depend on. Design and build reliable systems — architect and deliver core platform components that enable researchers to run experiments and ship results quickly, including LLM-based agent systems, evaluation frameworks, and supporting infrastructure. Work closely with researchers — translate varied research needs across general agents, science agents, chemical and biological models and other CB workstreams into well-engineered, maintainable systems. Own and deliver significant engineering work — take responsibility for substantial technical projects and shared components, driving them from design through implementation, iteration, and maintenance. Write high-quality production code — build scalable, robust, and maintainable software, primarily in Python, with strong engineering discipline around testing, documentation, and observability. Contribute to engineering standards and practices — help improve code quality, development workflows, and shared engineering approaches within a growing engineering team embedded in a research-heavy environment. Support technical direction — contribute to architectural decisions, identify opportunities to strengthen shared infrastructure, and help make pragmatic technical trade-offs. Mentor others through technical leadership — support other engineers through collaboration, code review, and knowledge sharing, without formal line-management responsibility. We can be flexible in shaping the role and salary to your background, expertise, and level of experience. Significant experience writing production-level Python code that is scalable, robust, and easy to maintain, with a track record of delivering substantial technical work. Strong infrastructure and platform skills — experience with cloud environments (AWS), container orchestration (Kubernetes), and job scheduling (Slurm or similar). Experience owning technical projects or major systems as a senior individual contributor. You do not need formal management experience for this role. Familiarity with the AI/ML ecosystem: Motivated to build software with direct policy impact. Experience building or maintaining internal developer platforms, shared libraries, or CI/CD systems for technical teams. More detail on clearance eligibility can be found on the UK Government website: National security vetting: clearance levels - GOV.You should be willing to work from our office in London (Whitehall) at least 3 days/week. 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. Extensive operational support so you can focus on research and ship quickly. ~ Work with experts across national security, policy, AI research and adjacent sciences. Modern central London office (cafes, food court, gym), 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. *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. Level 3: £65,000–£75,000 (Base £37,150 + Technical Allowance £27,850–£37,850) Level 4: £85,000–£95,000 (Base £44,195 + Technical Allowance £40,805–£50,805) Level 5: £105,000–£115,000 (Base £58,040 + Technical Allowance £46,960–£56,960) Level 6: £125,000–£135,000 (Base £71,525 + Technical Allowance £53,475–£63,475) Level 7: £145,000 (Base £71,525 + Technical Allowance £73,475) 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. 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. The Cabinet Office then processes this data and discloses a limited dataset back to DLUHC as a participating government organisations. In this way, the policy is ensured and the repetition of internal fraud is prevented. For more information please see - Internal Fraud Register. Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check and get baseline personnel security standard (BPSS) clearance before they can be appointed. 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 (opens in a new window)and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window) . You can see how we process this data here: