AI Cybersecurity Team Lead, DeepMind

About the Job

As an organization, Google maintains a portfolio of research projects driven by fundamental research, new product innovation, product contribution and infrastructure goals, while providing individuals and teams the freedom to emphasize specific types of work. As a Research Scientist, you'll setup large-scale tests and deploy promising ideas quickly and broadly, managing deadlines and deliverables while applying the latest theories to develop new and improved products, processes, or technologies. From creating experiments and prototyping implementations to designing new architectures, our research scientists work on real-world problems that span the breadth of computer science, such as machine (and deep) learning, data mining, natural language processing, hardware and software performance analysis, improving compilers for mobile platforms, as well as core search and much more.

As a Research Scientist, you'll also actively contribute to the wider research community by sharing and publishing your findings, with ideas inspired by internal projects as well as from collaborations with research programs at partner universities and technical institutes all over the world.

AI’s cyberattack capability is increasing rapidly; recently, there have been a number of publicized zero-day exploits found with the help of AI in well-tested software. Our team's mission is to detect if users misuse an AI model for the purpose of a cyberattack, and on enabling the model to refuse gracefully in such cases. Given the dual use nature of AI tools, the goal of this project is to advance the model’s ability to discern between malicious and benign use.

Artificial intelligence will be one of humanity’s most transformative inventions. At Google DeepMind, we are a pioneering AI lab with exceptional interdisciplinary teams focused on advancing AI development to solve complex global challenges and accelerate high-quality product innovation for billions of users. We use our technologies for widespread public benefit and scientific discovery, ensuring safety and ethics are always our highest priority.

Individual pay is determined by factors including job-related skills, experience, and relevant education or training.

US: $262000 - $365000 (USD) + 25% bonus target + equity + benefits

Learn more about benefits at Google.

Responsibilities

• Lead the cyberattack safety team dedicated to preventing the malicious misuse of AI models while simultaneously advancing Gemini’s proactive cyber defense capabilities.
• Oversee defense strategies across the entire technical stack, from in-model training and out-of-model classifiers to the architecture of holistic production defense systems.
  
• Translate systematic, innovative, and deep security research into rapid, real-world deployment—shipping solutions directly into models, peripheral systems, and high-scale production.
  
• Work on evolving, large-scale security challenges to gain a comprehensive understanding of the end-to-end pipeline from initial AI research to product integration.
  
• Shape the future of AI security by publishing influential work within the broader research community and protecting billions of users through direct contributions to flagship products like Gemini.

Qualifications

Minimum qualifications:

• PhD degree in Computer Science, a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
  
• 6 years of experience in cybersecurity research including cybersecurity exploitation, defenses for cyberattacks, and code security.
• 2 years of people management experience leading a research team.
• One or more accepted scientific publication submissions for conferences, journals, or public repositories (such as Usenix Security, IEEE SP, NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, etc.).

Preferred qualifications:

• Experience with Python or C++.
  
• Experience working with Large Language Models (LLM’s) or applied AI.
• A deep passion for AI technology and all of its possibilities.

Additional Information

Applicants in San Francisco: Qualified applications with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment in accordance with the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers and the California Fair Chance Act.