The AI Office is hiring

The European Commission is recruiting contract agents who are AI technology specialists to govern the most cutting-edge AI models. 

Deadline to apply is 12:00 CET on 27 March (application form). 

Role

This is an opportunity to work in a team within the Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology (DG CNECT) in the European Commission, supervising the world’s largest consumer market for AI. This team will be directly involved in enforcing the AI Act, the first global AI law, by overseeing compliance of general-purpose AI (GPAI). 

The AI Office is empowered to request information from GPAI providers, analyse systemic risks stemming from these GPAI models, and investigate potential legal infringements as part of multi-disciplinary case teams. If necessary, it can require GPAI model providers to implement systemic risk mitigation measures, as well as restrict, recall, or withdraw the model from the market. Unlike other AI bodies that are monitoring the state-of-the-art, this Office will possess real regulatory enforcement powers not dependent on the grace of private corporations providing public access to their sought-after products.  

This role will help to shape codes of practice for GPAI models through consultation with GPAI model providers, civil society organisations, industry and academia, and thereby to the enactment of e AI safety measures with global impact. 

The AI Office will be at the frontier of developing tools, methodologies and benchmarks for capabilities evaluations, generating expertise within the European Commission and surfacing awareness of emergent dangerous model behaviours. It is a platform for converting the latest research into concrete actions that will improve AI safety for society.

Contingent on your experience, you may be involved in classifying models as systemic, as well as overseeing compliance with the more stringent measures that such classification entails (model evaluations, adversarial testing, cybersecurity-by-design, etc.), conducting evaluations and investigations when needed. 

The AI Office bridges the gap between the scientific and policymaking communities. It will coordinate with the forthcoming scientific panel of independent experts, which can provide qualified alerts if it identifies a model that presents concrete EU-level risks or meets the threshold for designation as systemic (currently 10^25 FLOPS and above). It also serves as a central contact point for international AI safety collaboration with institutions like the US and UK AI Safety Institutes. This means it will tap into global AI networks to ensure that regulation can keep up with the rapid evolution of AI.

Profile 

Essential requirements:

• EU citizenship;
• Thorough competence in one EU language and satisfactory competence in a second EU language;
• A pass in the EPSO CAST.
  • At this stage of the application, it is sufficient to be registered in the EPSO CAST database. To register, you must apply for (at least) one profile in the list of “Selection procedures for Contract Agents” for Contract Agent Function Group IV (FG IV). Please select the profile that best suits your education and experience. Every time a vacant position arises, we will consult this database, which contains the data of the persons that have expressed an interest to work for the Platforms directorate of DG CNECT. If your profile is among the “best matches”, you might be invited to sit the EPSO CAST Permanent computer-based multi-choice tests and/or might be contacted for an interview to further assess the competences required for the position that interests you.
  • For more information please see the following links:  
    • Registration: https://europa.eu/epso/application/passport/login.cfm?langsub=ok&lang=en and https://eu-careers.europa.eu/en/help/faq/epso-account-application
    • General information: https://eu-careers.europa.eu/en/cast-permanent-selection-procedure
    • Call for Expression of Interest: https://eu-careers.europa.eu/en/documents/call-expressions-interest-cast-p-2023.
• A master’s degree in IT, computer science, engineering/science or other relevant domain;
• At least one year of experience as a research scientist, computer scientist, software and data engineer, hardware specialist or other technical staff.

Additional expertise that would be advantageous:

• Experience in model evaluations, including alignment and red teaming;
• Professional experience in an international and multicultural environment;
• Knowledge/understanding of AI technologies;
• Knowledge/understanding of EU policies in the fields relevant to the profile;
• Knowledge/experience of regulatory supervision and enforcement in any related domain;
• Experience and understanding of audit & control systems;
• Additional expertise or academic background in legal matters.

Salary

• Two years of experience, moving to Belgium/Brussels without prior residence there, living together with someone, without children, would earn approx. 4,180 EUR as net salary.  
• For the same person with more than five years of experience, the net salary would be approx. 4,670 EUR.
• This experienced person but with two children under six years old, net salary would earn approx. 6,170 EUR.
• For more information on the salary of an FG IV contract agent, please see here. 

Process

Interviews will likely run from late spring to autumn 2024. The initial contract runs for one year for successful candidates.