Visiting Technical Expert

Job Type:

RAND's Meselson Center, part of the Global and Emerging Risks (GER) research division, is seeking mission-driven cybersecurity experts to address critical challenges at the intersection of AI, information security, and national security. As a Visiting Technical Expert, you'll directly impact AI and cybersecurity policy at the highest levels of government and industry, contributing to the security and integrity of powerful AI systems.

Your work will address key questions related to securing AI systems, understanding their cyber capabilities, and examining their policy implications. Your work will span technical research, policy analysis, and infrastructure development. For example, you might develop AI-specific threat models, build software tools for AI cyber capability evaluations, or identify critical areas for new security R&D.

RAND's reputation for excellence is built on our commitment to high-quality, rigorous analysis and objectivity. In this role, you will apply quantitative and qualitative skills to rigorously analyze AI security problems of national and international importance. Working with multidisciplinary teams of policy researchers, engineers, and scientists, you’ll shape recommendations for the White House, multiple regulatory agencies, the intelligence community, other national governments, and industry.

You will communicate the results of your work to both technical and non-technical audiences through quick-turnaround policy briefs and detailed written research products. A recent example of one of our research products is the Securing AI Model Weights report, which explored protecting frontier AI models from theft and misuse.

This role offers a unique opportunity to drive key policy decisions, ensuring the responsible development and deployment of powerful AI technologies.

Additional Responsibilities:

• Supports large and complex information security projects; develops and handles information security processes; and maintains extensive knowledge in networking, databases, systems, and/or web operations.

• Provides support and guidance on security-related operations; involved in the evaluation of products and/or procedures to enhance information security productivity and effectiveness.

• Consults on security issues regarding user built/managed systems.

Qualifications 

All analyst positions at RAND require excellent analytic skills; the ability to communicate clearly and effectively in English, both orally and in writing; the ability to work effectively as a member of a multi-disciplinary team; and a strong commitment to RAND's core values of quality and objectivity.

Successful applicants will be able to present strong evidence of quantitative and/or qualitative research tools, methods, and technical skills to support large and complex projects; accomplishment with leading or managing large and complex project tasks or analytic …