Software Engineer, AI for Secure Code

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.

AI’s cyberattack capability is increasing rapidly; recently, there has been a surge in the number of zero-day exploits found by AI in well-tested software. However, fixing or hardening code often lags behind by months with human experts struggling to keep up with the long log of vulnerability reports. The danger is exacerbated by open-source models who are becoming more capable at cyberattack and are more readily available by malicious actors. The goal of our project is to leverage AI for the defense: (1) automatically fix discovered vulnerabilities and (2) harden code either through checked annotations or through transformations to safer coding practices in the same language.

Our team collaborates closely with a wide variety of teams across Google/Alphabet, leveraging Google DeepMind’s expertise to deploy advanced machine learning algorithms with the goal of hardening code for Alphabet systems and beyond.

You will be developing an agent that leverages powerful AI models, compilers, runtimes, static/dynamic analyzers, and formal verification tools to harden code against a wide range of vulnerabilities across different programming languages and frameworks in collaboration with experts across these areas. As a part of the project,

• You will be rapid-prototyping initial concepts and designing and running experiments to achieve our goals.
• Your work will be influential both in the research community and also in products that promise to have tremendous impact.

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 at times change course if our ideas don’t work out, so flexibility and adaptability to work is a must.

In order to set you up for success as a Software Engineer at Google DeepMind,  we look for the following skills and experience:

• MSc or PhD/DPhil degree in Computer Science (or relevant majors), or equivalent practical experience.
• Proven knowledge and experience of C/C++ and Python.
• Experience with developer tools such as compilers, runtimes, dynamic/static analyzers, and web frameworks.
• Hands-on experience with large scale code transformations of existing codebases. 
• Hands-on experience building and/or working with large scale infrastructure such as data processing pipelines and distributed processing.

In addition, the following would be an advantage: 

• AI-Based Code Generation.
• Familiarity with well-known code security practices.
• Knowledge and understanding of prominent ML frameworks.
• Proven experience of prominent ML frameworks is highly desirable
• Independent, self-starter attitude 
• Passion for the mission above

The US base salary range for this full-time position is between $166,000 - $244,000 + 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.