Technical Programme Manager, Cyber & Autonomous Systems
AI Security InstituteAbout 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 30th August 2026, end of day, anywhere on Earth.
About the role
AISI aims to turn progress on important research questions in AI security into real insight and impact for our partners and the public. This requires running research programmes that actually deliver, and making these programmes rigorous and fast is its own discipline. The AI Security Institute is hiring a Technical Programme Manager for our Cyber and Autonomous Systems team to do exactly this.
Over the next twelve months, this team will need to move faster, deliver more complex research programmes and evaluations, and engage more deeply with partners in major AI labs and across government than ever before.
Technical Programme Managers make this work possible. You will work directly with the team's researchers and engineers to turn vast research questions into tractable programmes. You will be held responsible for ensuring our research stands up to rigorous empirical standards to inform policy, recommending which technical work needs to happen, and untangling knotty dependencies across workstreams.
About the team
AI capabilities in cybersecurity and autonomy are advancing fast. Frontier models can now work through multi-step cyberattacks, discover and exploit software vulnerabilities, and work independently for days with increasing reliability. These are extraordinary tools for scientific and economic progress but also have the potential for serious harm if misused or deployed without adequate oversight.
The AI Security Institute's Cyber and Autonomous Systems Team (CAST) exists to evaluate 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 continuously build out more realistic cyber ranges and a CTF suite; run pre-deployment testing of frontier models; and collaborate with our partners across the UK and US governments, frontier AI labs, and the National Cyber Security Centre.
We provide independent, empirical insight into the cyber capabilities of frontier and open-weight models, leveraging our unique position within government and our partnerships with frontier labs. Key examples are our evaluation of Anthropic's Mythos Preview and our research measuring the gap between leading open-weight models and the frontier on cyber capabilities.
What you will own
Programme architecture. You will work directly with your team's technical staff to set the scope of projects: refining what questions we're actually trying to answer, what the milestones and success criteria are for technical work, and how to sequence dependencies, resource, and time across the team. You will turn "we should probably look into X" into a tractable plan with clear deliverables, without imposing process that gets in the team's way. You must be comfortable with ambiguity: you will be immersed in a fast-moving environment and won’t always have a settled roadmap. .
Delivery tracking and unblocking. You will spot and solve problems so that the team's delivery continually improves, and own tracking progress to create visibility and establish control without overhead. You will surface technical blockers before they become crises, intervene directly to resolve them, and know exactly when and to whom to escalate. The goal is the team spending their time on the work, not logistics.
Cross-government technical engagement. You will speak with government partners on a technical level and be a trusted representative and ambassador for good relationships with them.
Team operations and pace. You will determine the operational rhythm that lets a small, high-performing team inside government move at the speed of billion-dollar AI companies. You will ensure the team has what it needs to deliver and be unfussy about doing whatever needs to be done to unblock things and prevent them from falling through the cracks.
Role Requirements
- A track record working with technical colleagues. You have delivered technical programmes in a similarly high-ambiguity environment. You know how to scope and structure open-ended goals (not just deliver against a pre-defined plan). You have earned the trust of technical teams by understanding their work deeply enough to provide critical challenge and engage beyond process.
- Comfort operating at the frontier of AI. You do not need to be a machine learning researcher, but you need to be fluent enough in frontier AI to operate in constant conversation with technical staff about our work, strategy, and research taste; you should have your own taste on what's hard, what's speculative, what's blocked, and what "good" looks like for a given experiment or evaluation.
- High agency and ownership. You take responsibility for outcomes, not activities. When something is stuck, you pick up the phone. You do not wait for someone else to escalate.
- Credibility with technical teams. Researchers trust you because you understand their work, respect their constraints, and demonstrably make their lives easier. You influence through competence and service, not authority or process.
- Strong prioritisation under pressure. You can identify what actually matters on a daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly level and focus the team's energy. You have the judgement to recognise work that isn't landing and the confidence to recommend that it stop.
- Discretion and judgement in a sensitive domain. You understand that the work we do often carries sensitivity.
Strong candidates may also have:
- Existing security clearances.
- Fluency in, or eagerness to adopt, modern productivity tools (coding agents, Linear, Slack) and willingness to use AI tools as part of daily work.
Selection process
Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis. We encourage you to apply early.
- Application - CV and a short cover note (max 500 words) explaining what draws you to this role and what you would bring. Please also indicate which team you would prefer to join.
- Screening interview - Lightweight conversation on trajectory, motivation and fit.
- Work test - A take-home exercise designed to test programme management judgement in context. You will receive this after the screening interview.
- Technical interview - Discussion of your work test with a current AISI TPM.
- Behavioural interview - Deeper dive on stakeholder management, prioritisation and team dynamics.
- Senior leadership interview (30 min) - Final conversation with AISI senior leadership.
Security Clearance
Appointment is conditional on successfully completing UK Government SC clearance. Prior clearance is not required—we will sponsor and support you. You should normally have been resident in the UK for the past 5 years. More detail on clearance eligibility can be found on the UK Government website: National security vetting: clearance levels - GOV.UK.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.
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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 £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).