Research Scientist, Tech Lead, AI-Based Cyberattack Defense

We seek a leader who thrives in ambiguity and is adept at navigating the uncertainty of research. You are skilled at guiding a team to invent novel solutions, pivot when ideas don’t work out, and maintain momentum. Your leadership will be critical in shaping our defenses and influencing both the research community and products with tremendous impact.

Key responsibilities:

• Set the technical vision and strategic direction for the team's research and development efforts in evaluating cyberattack capabilities and developing mitigations to prevent our AI models from being used for cyberattacks.
• Develop novel research that improves the state-of-the-art in mitigating misuse of models for cyberattack, 
• Oversee and contribute to deployment in Gemini of the most suitable defenses that the team produces, 
• Lead, mentor, and grow a high-performing team, fostering a culture of innovation, collaboration, and technical excellence.
• Drive the end-to-end execution of complex research projects, from rapid-prototyping of novel datasets and methods to developing principled, scalable techniques for discerning malicious and benign use.
• Act as the primary technical point of contact, representing the team's work and influencing stakeholders across Google DeepMind and Google's security and product organizations.

Contribute hands-on to the most critical and challenging aspects of the work, staying deeply engaged with the technical details while guiding the team's overall progress.

• MSc or PhD/DPhil degree in Computer Security, Computer Science, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.
• A track record of impactful publications on the topic of AI security published at top-tier security conferences or top tier AI conferences, or significant contributions to open-source or Google code  with wide adoption.
• Proven experience leading research projects or technical teams in a relevant area.

• Demonstrated experience leading projects in one or more of the following areas: cybersecurity exploitation, defenses for cyberattacks, or AI-based exploitation.
• Experience in designing and shipping cybersecurity defenses for common vulnerabilities or leading work on vulnerability exploitation.
• Deep understanding and proven experience in advanced model prompting and red teaming techniques.
• An independent, proactive, and mission-driven leadership style with a passion for building and enabling high-impact teams.

The US base salary range for this full-time position is between $197,000 - $291,000 + bonus + equity + benefits. Your recruiter can share more about the specific salary range for your targeted location during the hiring process.