AI Safety Lab Lead

Priority may be given to the following designated employment equity groups: women, Indigenous Peoples* (First Nations, Inuit and Métis), persons with disabilities and racialized persons*.

* The Employment Equity Act, which is under review, uses the terminology Aboriginal peoples and visible minorities.

Candidates are asked to self-declare when applying to this hiring process.

City: Ottawa

Organizational Unit: Digital Technologies

Classification: RCO

Tenure: Continuing

Language Requirements: Bilingual Imperative CBC/CBC

Work arrangements:

• Due to the nature of the work and operational requirements, this position may be eligible for a limited hybrid work arrangement (combination of working onsite and telework).
  
  At the NRC, we recognize that Indigenous candidates may have important connections to their communities and you may be eligible for an exception to this work arrangement. Alternative work arrangements may also be considered to accommodate candidates as required. To learn more about these options, please contact the NRC Hiring team using the contact information below.

Note: This position is being re-posted. If you had previously applied to competition, there is no need to re-apply.

Discover the possible

Anything is possible at the NRC, named in 2025 one of Canada’s Top Employers for Young People, Top Employer in the National Capital Region and Forbes Canada’s Best Employers!

As Canada’s largest research and innovation organization, our world-renowned research pushes the boundaries of science and engineering to make the impossible, possible. Every day we explore new ideas through innovative research and help companies discover possibilities that impact Canada’s future and the world.

At the NRC, you’ll also discover new possibilities. Our supportive workplace fosters a culture of creativity, welcoming fresh perspectives and innovation at all levels. We value teamwork. You’ll collaborate across multiple fields and with the brightest minds to find creative solutions. Most importantly, you’ll discover what’s possible within you as you grow, make valuable contributions and progress in your professional journey. From ground-breaking discoveries to a life-changing career, discover your possible at the NRC.

The role

Are you passionate about safe and responsible AI? Do you want to be part of a pioneering team shaping how AI systems are evaluated, measured, and deployed safely? Do you want your work to have a real impact for Canada and Canadians? If so, we want to meet you!

We are seeking a mid‑career RCO‑04 to establish and lead the NRC’s AI Safety Lab, a new capability funded by the Canadian AI Safety Institute (CAISI) and dedicated to evaluating the safety of advanced AI systems. You will be part of a pioneering team conducting rigorous AI safety evaluations and translating technical results into actionable tools, guidance, and recommendations for AI practitioners and policymakers across government and beyond.

Under the guidance of the Principal Advisor for AI Safety, and as part of the Chief Digital Research Officer’s team, you will play a central role in building and operating a scalable AI safety evaluation infrastructure. In collaboration with leading experts from our Digital Technologies Research Centre, you will design, execute, and monitor advanced evaluations at scale on frontier AI models, and contribute to cutting‑edge AI safety research carried out by the NRC in collaboration with CAISI partners nationally and internationally.

Key Responsibilities include:

• Establish and manage a multidisciplinary team of AI safety specialists forming the lab.
• Build and leverage state-of-the-art model evaluation infrastructure and frameworks.
• Work with AI safety researchers from the NRC and CAISI partners in designing, running and documenting AI safety evaluations.
• Establish and steward standardized, reproducible safety evaluation protocols.
• Develop and curate new AI safety benchmarks.
• Translate technical findings into practical solutions and advice, such as new tools for evaluators/developers, or recommendations to policy makers.

The ideal candidate would have:

• A track record of building and managing AI teams.
• Hands-on experience evaluating frontier AI models using safety evaluation frameworks (e.g., Inspect, Moonshot).
• A strong background in compute cluster operations and scalable ML infrastructure.
• Experience designing reproducible evaluation protocols and benchmarks.
• Experience translating research into practical tools, guidance, or policy recommendations.
• The ability to collaborate across research, government, and international partners.
• Strong analytical judgment and initiative.
• Clear communication skills across technical and non-technical audiences.

Screening criteria

Applicants must demonstrate within the content of their application that they meet the following screening criteria in order to be given further consideration as candidates:

Education

Master’s degree from a recognized university in Statistics, Data Science, Computer Science or Engineering, or closely related to the position.

Equivalency

In lieu of a master degree, a combination of a Bachelor’s degree with at least 2 years of directly relevant professional experience in applied AI or AI evaluation may be considered.

For information on certificates and diplomas issued abroad, please see Degree equivalency

Experience

You must meet the essential experience criteria and at least two of the Specialised Experience to move forward in this process.

Essential Experience

• Recent* experience leading or managing technical teams in an AI/ML, data analytics, or digital technologies environment.
• Recent* experience evaluating, benchmarking, or red-teaming AI models (open-source or closed-source) or AI systems.
• Experience in managing AI/ML or data analytics projects for government or industry clients.
• Experience developing Python-based tooling and automation for ML/AI workflows.
• Experience in documenting experimental AI results through technical reports, internal documentation, or scientific publications.

*Recent is defined as within the last 3 years.

Specialised Experience

• Experience with red-teaming workflows, adversarial testing, or stress-testing of AI systems (including agentic systems).
• Experience with compute clusters and job orchestration (e.g., SLURM).
• Experience with ML experiment tracking tools (e.g., MLflow, Weights & Biases).
• Experience developing or curating AI benchmark datasets and associated documentation (e.g., through HuggingFace).
• Experience translating AI research into practical tools, guidance, or policy recommendations.
• Experience conducting AI projects with researchers or through international collaboration.

Condition of employment

Secret clearance

A thorough security clearance process will be applied.

For a Secret Clearance, verification of background information over a period of 10 years is required. Individuals must have lived in Canada for a sufficient period of time to enable the security screening process.

Language requirements

Bilingual Imperative CBC/CBC

Information on language requirements and self-assessment tests

Assessment criteria

Candidates will be assessed on the basis of the following criteria:

Technical competencies

• Ability to lead the development of reproducible evaluation protocols and benchmarks for frontier AI models and systems.
• Ability to communicate complex technical findings clearly to researchers, government stakeholders, and policy audiences.
• Knowledge of AI safety concepts, risk taxonomies, or governance frameworks (e.g., TBS guidelines, NIST AI Risk Management Framework) and their connection to technical evaluation.
• Ability to design and oversee scalable AI evaluation infrastructure across on-premises and cloud environments.
• Knowledge of AI safety evaluation frameworks (e.g., Inspect AI, Moonshot) and their application to frontier model assessment.
• Ability to make sound technical decisions when configuring evaluations across different model types, balancing compute budgets, reproducibility, and result validity.
• Ability to manage and prioritize competing technical workstreams across a multidisciplinary team.
• Knowledge of agentic AI architectures and how design choices such as tool access, memory, and planning affect safety-relevant behaviours.
• Ability to design experiment tracking and data management workflows that support reproducibility across multiple researchers and evaluation campaigns.

Behavioural competencies

• Research - Communication (Level 3)
• Research - Results orientation (Level 3)
• Supervisor - Client focus (Level 2)
• Supervisor - Teamwork (Level 3)
• Supervisor - Organizational/environmental awareness (Level 2)
• Management services - Conceptual and analytical ability (Level 3)

Competency Profile(s)

For this position, the NRC will evaluate candidates using the following competency profile(s): Management Services; Research; Supervisor

View all competency profiles

Compensation

This position is classified as a Research Council Officer (RCO), a group that is unique to the NRC. The intent of this hiring action is to staff this position at the RCO-3 to RCO-4 level, which is a mid-career level position with a salary range of $119,688 to $168,192.

NOTE: Please note that the full RO/RCO salary scale has five levels. Salary determination will be based on a review of the candidate’s expertise, outcomes and impacts of their previous work experience relative to the requirements of the level. As such, the initial salary could be within another level of the RO/RCO salary scale (i.e. above or below the intended level for this position).

In addition, the incumbent will receive the Bilingualism Bonus of $800 per year.

NRC employees enjoy a wide-range of competitive benefits including a robust pension plan, comprehensive health and dental coverage, disability and life insurance, office closure at the end of December, and additional supports to enhance your well-being throughout your career and beyond.

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Notes

• Relocation assistance will be determined in accordance with the NRC's directives.
• ​A pre-qualified list may be established for similar positions for a one year period.
• Preference will be given to Canadian citizens and permanent residents of Canada. Please include citizenship information in your application.
• The incumbent must adhere to safe workplace practices at all times.
• We thank all those who apply, however only those selected for further consideration will be contacted.

Please direct your questions, with the requisition number (25409) to:

E-mail: [email protected]

Telephone: 3439909603

Closing Date: 20 November 2026 - 23:59 Eastern Time

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*If you are currently a term or continuing employee at NRC, please apply through the SuccessFactors Careersmodule from your NRC computer.