Named in honour of Alan Turing, the Institute is a place for inspiring, exciting work and we need passionate, sharp, and innovative people who want to use their skills to contribute to our mission to make great leaps in data science and AI research to change the world for the better.

Please find more information about us here

The 'Finance and Economics' programme brings together leading experts in data science, machine learning, finance and the social sciences, from both academia and industry to tackle the most challenging questions by producing world-leading research with significant impact. The programme works closely with government and the industry to exploit the potential of new technologies in the financial sector and economic research, and to position the UK as the leader in these areas. The programme is led by the Programme Director, Lukasz Szpruch.

The programme has recently received a significant investment from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) to deliver one of eight business-led “Prosperity Partnerships”. This will see the Turing, HSBC, and other organisations in the financial sector developing a Framework for responsible adoption of Artificial Intelligence in the financial services industry (FAIR). FAIR brings together academia and industry to advance research and develop practical and scalable solutions needed to fully realise the transformational benefits of responsible adoption of AI across the financial services industry.

We are driven by our vision to enable the finance sector to leverage transformational benefits through the responsible adoption of AI by:

• Developing an actionable framework for safe and trustworthy deployment of AI in Financial Services, underpinned by foundational research methodologies formulated by cross-disciplinary and cross-sectoral teams.
• Developing digital sandbox environments to enable validation and testing and co evaluation of emerging technologies in a transparent manner.
• Identifying industry-wide standards and processes to address trade-offs between regulatory and ethical dimensions facing industry and regulators across a range of contexts and use-cases.

FAIR has five main research themes:

1. Robustness and Resilience
2. Privacy and Security
3. Fairness and Transparency
4. Verification and Accountability
5. Integration Environment

Find out more: FAIR: Framework for responsible adoption of artificial intelligence in the financial services industry.

The Turing are hiring a team of Research Associates to support and enable the delivery of the five main research themes under the direction of the Turing Programme Director, and the project PIs. The team will collectively have a broad range of expertise, and we will be hiring based on varied skills required for each specific challenge.

We are looking for a Research Associate to support and enable the delivery of the Fairness and Transparency theme, aligned with the Turing’s Safe and Ethical AI objectives under the direction of Adrian Weller and Philip Treleaven.

ROLE PURPOSE

The successful candidate will work across projects that are aligned to the Fairness and Transparency research theme within FAIR. The theme will develop new theory, methods and tools for appropriate fairness and transparency in the context of commercial finance. Within transparency, the primary focus is interpretability of the outputs of machine learning systems which will be directly beneficial for practitioners, stakeholders or regulators; though we shall also consider broader issues, such as the process of how data and humans fit into decision pipelines. We are interested in ways to connect this theme with the other FAIR themes. For example, we will examine the extent to which algorithmic explanation methods leak private information and develop verifiable approaches for practical measures of explanation or fairness without leaking private information.

The candidate will join a vibrant team of researchers and will have opportunities to engage with cutting-edge projects and experts at leading universities. These include Sam Cohen, Gesine Reinert and Marta Kwiatkowska (Oxford), Carsten Maple and Graham Cormode (Warwick), Adrian Weller (Cambridge), Philip Treleaven (UCL) and Lukasz Szpruch (Edinburgh), as well as project teams funded by other strategic partnerships.

DUTIES AND AREAS OF RESPONSIBILITY

• Develop and apply state-of-the-art approaches for fairness and transparency to tackle business-inspired research challenges of the Turing Institute and partnerships including areas such as
• Robust methods for practically useful transparency, examining the extent of leakage of private information
• Appropriate methods to monitor and mitigate bias and unfairness
• Ways to improve practical human-machine team performance
• Formal verification and Validation
• Scope, pilot and deliver high quality research activity under the direction of the theme leads and Principal Investigator.
• Drive collaboration with academic experts and broader research partners from across the Turing and the wider Turing community
• Publish and disseminate high-quality research papers and publications detailing research output and project case-studies.
• Become part of the broader partnership team and be expected to engage on a regular basis with the partner.

Essential

• Research Associate level: PhD in Mathematics, Computer Science or a closely related discipline.
• Research Assistant level: Near completion of a PhD or equivalent level of professional qualification in Mathematics, Computer Science or closely related discipline.
• A solid background in one or more of the following: technical approaches to fairness, transparency or privacy; probabilistic models; human-machine teams
• Experience in design, development and implementation of research software tools and libraries, such as Python, Java, GPU programming (Tensorflow, PyTorch, etc), symbolic verification (SAT, SMT)
• Hands-on experience with Machine Learning methods
• Experience in publishing research papers, code libraries or technical reports and giving presentations or classes on technical subjects.
• Excellent writing skills and proven ability to communicate complex, specialist or conceptual information/research findings clearly and persuasively to diverse audiences,

APPLICATION PROCEDURE

If you are interested in this opportunity, please click the apply button below. You will need to register on the applicant portal and complete the application form including your CV and covering letter. If you have questions about the role or would like to apply using a different format, please contact us on 020 3970 2148 or 0203 862 3340, or email [email protected].

CLOSING DATE FOR APPLICATIONS: Tuesday 7th March 2023 at 23:59

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early or to interview suitable candidates before the closing date if enough applications are received.

If you are applying for more than one role at the Turing, please note that only one Cover Letter can be visible on your profile at one time. If you wish to apply for multiple roles and do not want to overwrite your existing Cover Letter, please apply for the role using the button below and forward your additional cover letter directly to [email protected] quoting the job title.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

This full time post is offered on a 3-year fixed-term basis. The annual salary is £40,850 - £46,200 (depending on experience) plus excellent benefits, including flexible working and family friendly policies, https://www.turing.ac.uk/work-turing/why-work-turing/employee-benefits

Candidates who have not yet been officially awarded their PhD will be appointed as Research Assistant at a salary of £38,236 per annum

The Alan Turing Institute is based at the British Library, in the heart of London’s Knowledge Quarter.

We are currently assessing the results of our hybrid working trial, which ran for six months. We will soon publish a long-term workplace policy: as a guide, we anticipate this will be between 2-4 days per month. Some roles may require the jobholder to spend a greater number of days in the office, but the hiring manager will be able to confirm this during the interview.

EQUALITY, DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION

The Alan Turing Institute is committed to creating an environment where diversity is valued and everyone is treated fairly. In accordance with the Equality Act, we welcome applications from anyone who meets the specific criteria of the post regardless of age, disability, ethnicity, gender reassignment, marital or civil partnership status, pregnancy and maternity, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation.

We are committed to making sure our recruitment process is accessible and inclusive.

This includes making reasonable adjustments for candidates who have a disability or long-term condition. Please contact us at [email protected] to find out how we can assist you.

Please note all offers of employment are subject to continuous eligibility to work in the UK and satisfactory pre-employment security screening which includes a DBS Check.

Full details on the pre-employment screening process can be requested from [email protected].