Research Scientist, Cybersecurity and AI

At Google DeepMind, we value diversity of experience, knowledge, backgrounds and perspectives and harness these qualities to create extraordinary impact. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of sex, race, religion or belief, ethnic or national origin, disability, age, citizenship, marital, domestic or civil partnership status, sexual orientation, gender identity, pregnancy, or related condition (including breastfeeding) or any other basis as protected by applicable law. If you have a disability or additional need that requires accommodation, please do not hesitate to let us know.

Mission

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 works on detecting 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. 

The preferred locations are Mountain View or San Francisco.

Snapshot

Artificial Intelligence could be one of humanity’s most useful inventions. At Google DeepMind, we’re a team of scientists, engineers, machine learning experts and more, working together to advance the state of the art in artificial intelligence. We use our technologies for widespread public benefit and scientific discovery, and collaborate with others on critical challenges, ensuring safety and ethics are the highest priority.

About Us

Artificial Intelligence could be one of humanity’s most useful inventions. At Google DeepMind, we’re a team of scientists, engineers, machine learning experts and more, working together to advance the state of the art in artificial intelligence. We use our technologies for widespread public benefit and scientific discovery, and collaborate with others on critical challenges, ensuring safety and ethics are the highest priority.

Our project consists of a small elite team of exceptional Research Scientists who have a track record of research or product success in the area of security and AI.  Our team collaborates closely with a wide variety of teams across Google DeepMind (including embedded closely in the bigger security and safety teams) and Google/Alphabet, to enable secure use of our generative AI models.

The Role

You will be contributing to our defenses against cyber attack misuse of AI models,  and  to techniques discerning between benign use and malicious use for a wide range of possible cyberattacks. You will be rapid-prototyping initial datasets, methods and experiments as well as developed principled approaches and techniques.  You will gain an understanding of the path from research to production whilst working on real world problems. Your work will be influential both in the research community and also in products with tremendous impact. 

Experience in any of these is highly beneficial:

• Cybersecurity exploitation
• Defenses for cyberattacks
• AI-based exploitation

About You

We seek out individuals who thrive in ambiguity and who are willing to help out with whatever moves prototypes forward. We regularly need to invent novel solutions to problems, and often change course if our ideas don’t work out, so flexibility and adaptability to work on any project is a must.

In order to set you up for success as a Research Scientist at Google DeepMind in our team, we look for the following skills and experience:

• MSc or PhD/DPhil degree in computer security or similar experience working in industry
• Having driven publications at top security conferences or open-source artifacts with adoption
• Having designed cybersecurity defenses for common vulnerabilities or worked on vulnerability exploitation
• Proven experience of model prompting is highly desirable
• Independent, self-starter attitude
• Passion for the mission above

The US base salary range for this full-time position is between $188,000 - $262,000 + bonus + equity + benefits. Your recruiter can share more about the specific salary range for your targeted location during the hiring process.

At Google DeepMind, we value diversity of experience, knowledge, backgrounds and perspectives and harness these qualities to create extraordinary impact. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of sex, race, religion or belief, ethnic or national origin, disability, age, citizenship, marital, domestic or civil partnership status, sexual orientation, gender identity, pregnancy, or related condition (including breastfeeding) or any other basis as protected by applicable law. If you have a disability or additional need that requires accommodation, please do not hesitate to let us know.