AI Safety Scientist

JOB DESCRIPTION
The AI Safety Scientist will play a key role in evaluating and guiding the design and development of safe, reliable, ethical, and trustworthy AI products within the newly established Center of Excellence (CoE) of AI Safety at UL Solutions. This position will apply key AI safety principles encompassing technical, ethical, and governance aspects to assess, evaluate, test, and certify AI products for safety.

• Processing, cleansing, and verifying the integrity of data used for analysis.
• Doing ad-hoc analysis and presenting results in a clear manner.
• Analyze large, complex datasets to extract insights and decide on the appropriate technique.
• Selecting features, building and optimizing classifiers using machine learning techniques.
• Data mining using state-of-the-art methods.
• Extending customers data with third party sources of information when needed.
• Enhancing data collection procedures to include information that is relevant for building analytic systems.
• Use data modelling and evaluation strategy to find patterns and predict unseen instances.
• Read and follow the Underwriters Laboratories Code of Conduct and follow all physical and digital security practices.
• Performs other duties as directed.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Work closely with customers, who develop AI products and applications, and evaluate and assess the safety of AI products by analyzing the performance and compliances to the requirements of AI safety principles such as reliability, robustness, risk management, transparency, explainability, trustworthiness, and bias management
• Work closely with customers, who develop AI products and applications, in assessing, evaluating, testing and certifying for the intended function and safety of the AI products to meet their safety requirements.
• Train junior members of the Center of Excellence (CoE) of AI Safety in evaluating testing and certifying AI products for safety, and in AI standards and regulations.
• Certify AI products for safety compliance to AI safety standards and regulations by performing the evaluation, creating necessary documentation, communicating with the customer, and performing project management related tasks.
• Maintains/improves technical knowledge about and compliance to AI standards (e.g., ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 42, IEEE-SA) and regulations (e.g., EU GDPR, EU AI Act and U.S. AI Executive Order).
• Contributes to the overall revenue performance of UL Solutions
• Collaborate with interdisciplinary teams to ensure adherence of AI products to AI safety standards, regulations, and best practices.

QUALIFICATIONS
Education:

• Bachelor's, Master's or Ph.D. degree in Data Science, Computer Science, Statistics, Mathematics, or Engineering.

Experience:

• 5+ years of industrial experience in developing AI/ML models, applications, and systems.
• Experience in industries related to Testing, Inspection, and Certification (TIC) and standard and regulatory bodies is a plus.

Skills:
AI Safety Principles:

• In-depth understanding of AI safety principles, including reliability, robustness, risk management, transparency, explainability, trustworthiness, bias, data privacy, oversight, and lifecycle management.

Technical Skills:

• Training Data Management for AI/ML Models:
  • Proficiency in Exploratory Data Analysis (EDA) to understand data characteristics, identify patterns, trends, and anomalies.
  • Experience in data cleaning, preprocessing, curation, and handling missing or inconsistent data.
• Programming Skills:
  • Proficiency in Python programming with a strong understanding of data structures, algorithms, and object-oriented programming.
  • Experience with Python-based data science and machine learning libraries such as NumPy, Pandas, Scikit-learn, TensorFlow, Keras, and PyTorch.
  • Experience with SQL for database querying and data manipulation.
• AI/ML Algorithms:
  • Knowledge of various AI/ML algorithms including CNN, RNN, LSTM, Autoencoder, Transformer, Deep Q-Learning, XGBoost, RF, SVM, Graphical Models, and others.
• AI/ML Model Building:
  • Proven experience in developing, training, and validating AI/ML models using supervised, unsupervised, and reinforcement learning algorithms.
  • Experience with Generative AI and Large Language Models (LLM) such as ChatGPT, Claude, Llama, and Hugging Face LLM platform, including prompt engineering, embedding, and fine-tuning of LLM models.

Regulatory Knowledge:

• Familiarity with AI standards such as ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 42 and IEEE-SA AI standards.
• Familiarity with AI regulations and bills such as EU GDPR, EU AI Act, and U.S. AI Executive Order and NIST AI RMF.
• Knowledge of AI safety conformity assessment processes.

Additional Qualifications:

• Demonstrated experience with MLOps practices and tools for CI/CD and model monitoring.
• Strong communication and collaborative skills to work effectively with interdisciplinary teams.
• Projects may include travel to conduct or witness tests at client sites. Initiates communication with clients to promote and explain the benefits of new and existing services.
• Communicate with clients to discuss technical issues, explain UL procedures and requirements, convey project cost, and negotiate completion date and sample requirements.
• Communicate project status and results to clients through frequent contact and by preparing reports.
• May represent UL at industry related functions such as conferences, seminars and trade shows.

#LI-BW1 #LI-Hybrid
Total Rewards: We understand compensation is an important factor as you consider the next step in your career . The estimated salary range for this position is $125,800 to $167,700 and is based on multiple factors, including job-related knowledge/skills, experience, geographical location, as well as other factors. This position is eligible for annual bonus compensation with a target payout of 10% of the base salary. This position also provides health benefits such as medical, dental and vision; wellness benefits such as mental and financial health; and retirement savings (401K) commensurate with the standard rewards offered in each individual location or country. We also provide full-time employees with paid time off including vacation (15 days), holiday including floating holidays (12 days) and sick time off (72 hours).
ABOUT US
A global leader in applied safety science, UL Solutions (NYSE: ULS) transforms safety, security and sustainability challenges into opportunities for customers in more than 110 countries. UL Solutions delivers testing, inspection and certification services, together with software products and advisory offerings, that support our customers' product innovation and business growth. The UL Mark serves as a recognized symbol of trust in our customers' products and reflects an unwavering commitment to advancing our safety mission. We help our customers innovate, launch new products and services, navigate global markets and complex supply chains, and grow sustainably and responsibly into the future. Our science is your advantage.
ABOUT THE TEAM
As we're supporting some of the most innovative companies in the world, high-performing IT is vital. Deeply focused on technology innovation and practically applying new and emerging technologies to meet the evolving needs of our customers, we operate as strategic partners to the wider organization, developing and delivering best-in-class IT solutions. We also use our expertise day-to-day to offer our colleagues a seamless technology experience, providing them with the tools to help customers all over the world deliver safer, more sustainable solutions. Join our team and connect, support and empower colleagues across our global community.