Senior Staff Security Engineer, Robotics (Physical AI)

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 the Role

As a Senior Staff Security Engineer focusing on Robotics and Physical AI, you'll be at the forefront of securing intelligent agents operating in the physical world. Your mission will be to establish and mature the security posture across the entire lifecycle of our cutting-edge robotics platforms, from initial hardware design to deployed AI models and ongoing operations. You'll lead efforts to build a robust chain of trust, ensuring the safety, integrity, and confidentiality of our Physical AI systems against sophisticated threats. This senior role requires deep expertise in embedded systems, hardware security, software security, and AI/ML security, with a strong emphasis on practical application in real-world robotic deployments.

Responsibilities

• Security Architecture & Strategy: Lead the development and implementation of comprehensive security architectures and strategies for all aspects of robotics, including hardware, firmware, embedded systems, and software.
• Hardware & Embedded Security Engineering: Design and implement robust security measures for embedded systems, covering secure boot, trusted execution environments, memory protection, secure communication, anti-tamper mechanisms, secure storage, disk encryption, rollback protection, and secure provisioning.
• Secure Software Supply Chain: Establish and enforce best practices to secure the entire software supply chain for robotics, from development and build processes to deployment and updates.
• Threat Modeling: Conduct expert-level threat modeling and risk assessments for Physical AI and robotic systems, identifying vulnerabilities and developing effective mitigation strategies addressing security weaknesses in embedded systems, communication protocols, and AI interactions.
• Collaboration & Agile Enablement: Drive seamless security integration within robotics agile workflows, actively partnering with engineering and research teams to enable rapid, secure innovation and deployment throughout the development lifecycle.
• Cultivating a Builder Mindset: Champion an engineering culture that encourages proactive security innovation, empowering teams to build secure-by-design systems and explore novel solutions to complex security challenges.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.
• 8+ years of experience in security engineering, with a significant focus on embedded systems, hardware security, or robotics.
• Extensive experience with at least one general-purpose programming language (e.g., C/C++, Python, Rust) relevant to embedded or robotics development.
• Deep understanding of hardware security primitives, including secure boot, trusted execution environments (TEE), cryptographic implementations, fuse-based security, and secure key provisioning.
• Proven experience in threat modeling, vulnerability research, and penetration testing of complex systems.
• Familiarity with operating systems (e.g., Linux, RTOS) commonly used in robotics and embedded environments, including secure kernel module signing.
• Strong understanding of network security, secure communication protocols, and attack surfaces specific to connected devices and robotics.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master's or Ph.D. in a relevant technical field.
• Experience in the physical realm (e.g., robotics, autonomous vehicles, etc) 
• Experience leading security initiatives for critical infrastructure, automotive, aerospace, or industrial control systems.
• Familiarity with AI/ML concepts and specific security challenges in machine learning models and data pipelines (e.g., adversarial ML, data privacy).
• Experience with hardware reverse engineering or security analysis of silicon.
• Proficiency with modern security frameworks and compliance standards relevant to robotics.
• Track record of contributing to open-source security projects or presenting at security conferences.
• Demonstrated ability to influence and collaborate across diverse engineering and research teams.
• Experience with Nvidia hardware (e.g., Jetson, etc)

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.

The US base salary range for this full-time position is between 248,000 USD - 349,000 USD + bonus + equity + benefits. Your recruiter can share more about the specific salary range for your targeted location during the hiring process.