Recruitment Lead – AI Safety Institute

Contents

• Location
• About the job
• Benefits
• Things you need to know
• Apply and further information

London

About the job

Job summary

The AI Safety Institute (AISI) is the closest thing to a start up in government. The Talent team is responsible for scaling this start up from the ground up. This is not your normal civil service team – we have built a reputation for getting things done, challenging the status quo and navigating ambiguity. 

Nothing is more important than building the best safety team in the world and you’ll be taking the lead on our talent brand, headhunting strategy and market engagement. AI Researchers sit in the most competitive talent field in the world, and we aspire to work with the best.

Once in post you’ll be given freedom to build a team and set out a vision for AISI’s outbound headhunting and brand strategy. The primary goal of this function is to spread awareness of our mission, attract candidates from across the world and guide them to the early stages of a recruiting process.

Your aim will be to build the world’s leading AI safety team, acting as a key pillar in the world’s response to rapidly advancing technology. With direct lines into the highest seats of government we can influence significant change and protection for the citizens it will affect.

The AI Safety Institute

AISI is the first state-backed organisation focused on advanced AI safety for the public interest. Establishing and scaling this organisation is a once-in-a-generation moment and these roles will sit at the heart of the AISI team. Joining the team represents a unique opportunity to deliver the vision for a constantly evolving area of AI policy. We are looking for proactive problem solvers with experience in establishing and scaling organisations that have genuine passion for supporting AISI’s mission.

Job description

As the Recruitment Lead you will be leading a team responsible for delivering a suite of high priority projects to scale and grow the AI Safety Institute, including but not limited to: 

• Recruitment Operations: Building the systems, processes and model for recruiting elite candidates for the Research and Engineering departments. Hold responsibility for engaging candidates throughout the process and ensuring excellent customer experience
• Interview Management: Manage our rapidly expanding interview pool to ensure smooth quicky processes and timely feedback
• Offer Closing: Support hiring managers in delivering offers to candidates
• Build the team: you will be responsible for line managing a small team and creating a positive and high-performance team, focusing on team development to address any key talent gaps.

Person specification

Who you are – Essential skills and experience criteria 

• Talent: you will be an experienced talent professional with a track record of headhunting senior ML/AI Researchers from the top labs or companies in the world, having worked at either a top recruiting agency or tech company.
• A solution-oriented self-starter: you will have demonstrable evidence that you are highly inquisitive, astute and innovative in the face of complex problems and talent issues. You will have a track record of finding new ways of getting things done and an ability to do so in with an open and impartial mindset;
• Excellent written and oral communication skills: you will be extremely comfortable communicating with a range of very senior officials, ministers and both expert and non-expert stakeholders, and have nuanced and sensitive influencing and handling skills to bring them along our journey, and achieve team objectives;
• Leadership: you will have evidence of leading and developing a diverse, high-performing and resilient team through challenging and fast-paced projects, with a dedication to support colleagues’ wellbeing and to achieve their goals.
• Tech: you will have an interest AI and the tech industry, and/or the potential ramifications of AI for policy and society.
• Prioritisation: a proven ability to make decisions confidently in ambiguous circumstances and effectively support a team in navigating competing priorities and remain calm and resilient under pressure.
• Continuous improvement mindset: to have a proactive approach towards, and a focus on, continuous improvement of yourself, the service you provide and your team

Desirable criteria 

• Scaling: experience in building or scaling organisations / start-ups ideally in the tech sector;
• Executive Search: Ideally, you’ve worked in an executive search style environment and are familiar with market mapping & network building. This may include attendance at conferences and events related to lead generation and raising brand awareness.

Behaviours

We’ll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Delivering at Pace
• Changing and Improving
• Managing a Quality Service
• Communicating and Influencing

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £55,805, Department for Science, Innovation & Technology contributes £16,166 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

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 Civil Service Pension Scheme, with an employer contribution of 28.97%.
• 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.

Office attendance

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.

Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job contact :

• Name : Peter Anstey
• Email : Peter.anstey@dsit.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : active.campaigns@dsit.gov.uk

Further information

Appointment to the Civil Service is governed by the Civil Service Commission’s Recruitment Principles. If you feel that your application has not been treated in accordance with the recruitment principles, and wish to make a complaint, then you should contact in the first instance DSITrecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk . If you are not satisfied with the response that you receive, then you can contact the Civil Service Commission. For further information on bringing a complaint to the Civil Service Commission please visit their web pages: Click here to visit Civil Service Commission/Complaints

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