Research Assistant, Applied Research Group (ARG)

The Alan Turing Institute

Location: London

Salary: £42,593 plus excellent benefits

Hours: Full Time

Contract Type: Fixed-Term/Contract

Placed On: 31st March 2026

Closes: 19th April 2026

The Alan Turing Institute

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

BACKGROUND

The Defence & National Security (D&NS) theme at the Turing is looking to expand its Applied Research Group (ARG).

The ARG is a cross-disciplinary team – therefore able to respond to a wide variety of problem sets – and encourage applications from both generalists and specialists including those who self-identify as statisticians, software engineers, machine learning practitioners, data scientists or data engineers.

CANDIDATE PROFILE

Please note that successful candidates will need to be eligible to undertake the DV clearance process once in-post and be willing to go through this process.

Eligibility criteria and further information on the process can be found on the UK Government security vettingwebsite.

In terms of the ideal candidate, we encourage applications from both generalists and specialists including those who self-identify as statisticians, software engineers, machine learning practitioners, data scientists or data engineers. You will have demonstrable experience in machine learning and be able to take initiative and carry out research independently. We are looking for candidates with experience in some of the following languages: Python, C, C++, Rust, Go. As well as the relevant technical experience successful candidates will have excellent written and verbal communications skills and the ability to clearly communicate complex or specialist information clearly and concisely.

DUTIES AND AREAS OF RESPONSIBILITY

• Develop, implement and adapt state-of-the-art and novel data science and machine learning techniques to problems faced by ARG's partners.
• Contribute to high-quality collaborative applied research as part of the ARG, helping translate complex user requirements into deployable solutions.
• Perform experiments and develop capabilities, which might include building and deploying machine learning models; applying data science, statistical and algorithmic techniques to data; building microservices, data processing/engineering systems and platforms or developing user interfaces and visualisations.
• Perform rigorous investigations into new algorithms and applications, providing consultancy to inform partners’ decisions and developing high-quality proof-of-concept outputs for real-world deployment.

Please see our portal for a full breakdown of the Job Description.

Terms and Conditions

This post is offered on a full-time fixed term basis until 30 April 2027. The annual salary is £42,593 plus excellent benefits, including flexible working and family friendly policies, Employee-only benefits guide | The Alan Turing Institute

The role is based in London and will require some travel to partner-sites.

Application procedure

Please see our jobs portal for full details on how to apply and the interview process.

We request specific information to be included when applying in the cover letter. Our portal goes through this in more detail so please take note of this when applying, or we may not be able to process your application.

Equality Diversity and Inclusion

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 recruitment@turing.ac.uk to find out how we can assist you.