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.

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The Defence & Security programme at the Turing is looking to expand a newly formed team of data scientists working on real-world problems in the radio frequency domain aligned with defending and securing the UK. As a team, we bring together cutting-edge research and motivating mission challenges, using our data science, software engineering and stakeholder management skills to create next generation capabilities for our partners.

Your role will be to work both independently and collaboratively with the Private Investigators (PIs), and other researchers in the Defence Artificial Intelligence Research (DARe) centre who are working in domains as diverse as: future sensing, space systems, human-machine teaming, synthetic environments, and edge AI.

The ideal candidate is inquisitive, enjoys solving complex, challenging problems, and thinks creatively to find non-obvious solutions. We are a cross-disciplinary team and encourage applications from both generalists and specialists including those who self-identify as software engineers, computer scientists, machine learning practitioners, physicists, mathematicians, statisticians or more widely as data scientists or data engineers.

ROLE PURPOSE

This Senior technical role sits within the Electromagnetic Environment (EME) team (part of DARe) which is aiming to become a world-class group focused on delivering the science needed to improve our understanding, management, and exploitation of the electromagnetic environment through the application of AI technologies. This involves both the application of existing AI algorithms and techniques as well as fundamentally advancing the state of the art of AI.

EME projects usually last 1-2 years, are exploratory, have a high risk of failure, and generally output Proof of Concept code and technical write-ups. Work is done in collaboration with other EME members. Senior Data Scientists are expected to provide support and consultancy to more junior team members, as well as providing technical leadership on their team projects.

DUTIES AND AREAS OF RESPONSIBILITY

• Engage with scientists from the EME’s Defence and Security partners to learn their aims and requirements and understand and identify problems they face.
• Apply state-of-the-art Machine Learning, Data Science, and radio frequency techniques emerging from the Institute, broader academia and industry to problems faced by EME partners, both as part of unclassified EME projects and on partner systems.
• Provide technical project management and leadership for research projects
• Take ownership of a particular domain challenge area or methodology for the group.

The technical scope of the role includes:

• The application of modern AI techniques to the RF domain e.g. GNNs, transformers, autoencoders, reinforcement learning.
• Developing novel multi-modal AI approaches to the fusion of data from multiple sensors
• Developing new techniques for the detection, recognition, identification, localisation, and exploitation (DRILE) of radio frequency signals.
• Understanding of electronic protection measures (EPM), electronic support measures (ESM) and electronic attack (EA).
• Understanding of RF transmitter and receiver concepts, modelling, and wave propagation, including waveforms, channel effects, multipath, transmitter idiosyncrasies e.g. amplifier effects, oscillator offset and drift on signals, and network topologies.

• Experience in a field with significant use of both computer programming and advanced statistical or numerical methods, evidenced by either PhD or equivalent professional experience
• Practical experience applying Machine Learning to real world problems or strong theoretical knowledge and academic experience with ML and adjacent topics or demonstrated experience developing algorithms for transmitting, processing and analysing radio frequency signals
• Fluency in one or more modern programming languages such as Python
• Experience leading a research project with a focus on AI or Radar or Communications and Networks.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including experience in the authoring of research papers or technical reports, and giving presentations or classes on technical subjects
• Ability to work effectively as part of a remote team, when necessary, with collaborators and stakeholders.
• A willingness to undergo the Security Check (SC) clearance process once in post, if not already held.

Please see the Job Description for a full breakdown of the duties and responsibilities as well as the Person Specification.

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 3862 3536 or email [email protected].

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.

If you are an internal applicant and wish to apply, please send your CV and Cover Letter directly to [email protected] and your application will be considered.

CLOSING DATE FOR APPLICATIONS: SUNDAY 21 APRIL AT 23:59 (LONDON, UK BST)

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

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

This full-time post is offered on a fixed term basis for 3 years. The annual salary is £51,476 to £58,000 plus excellent benefits, including flexible working and family friendly policies, https://www.turing.ac.uk/work-turing/why-work-turing/employee-benefits.

Must be eligible to hold a UK SC clearance and secure SC clearance within 6 months of the commencement of their employment, or in such longer period as the Institute may in its absolute discretion consider reasonable to obtain such clearance.

Successful applicants will be subject to a Dstl research workers check at offer stage.

The Alan Turing Institute is based at the British Library, in the heart of London’s Knowledge Quarter. We expect staff to come to our office at least 4 days per month. Some roles may require more days in the office; the hiring manager will be able to confirm this during the interview.

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 building a diverse community and would like our leadership team to reflect this. We therefore welcome applications from the broadest spectrum of backgrounds.

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 obtaining and retaining the right 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].