Security Research Engineer, AI Safety and Security Engineering
NVIDIA is hiring a Security Research Engineer, AI Safety and Security Engineering in Santa Clara, United States. It pays $224k-$357k a year and Level rates it ; you can apply on NVIDIA.
Level's read on this job
- Works on AI ●●●○ is how Level rates this role: the daily work is on AI products, without building the model.
- Tools and skills the posting cites include AI safety.
- Level lists 2,700+ other open roles at NVIDIA.
AI in this role
NVIDIA, widely recognized as one of the world’s most desirable employers, believes open-weight models are foundational to American AI leadership, cybersecurity, and defense through broad scientific scrutiny. As part of this mission, our AI Safety & Security Engineering team builds and evaluates AI-powered tooling that finds, validates, and patches software vulnerabilities, recognizing that finding a bug is only the beginning. We are seeking a Security Research Engineer to advance our Validate and Patch capabilities by establishing what counts as a confirmed vulnerability and defining what constitutes a truly correct, safe fix. In this critical role, you will apply rigorous security judgment to well-defined categories of vulnerabilities. These affect NVIDIA-internal targets. You will turn complex analysis into repeatable methods that improve software people rely on daily.
Validation here requires meticulous care to confirm reports are real and reachable rather than noise, while patching requires ensuring fixes repair flaws, protect existing behavior, and hold up under strict revalidation. Working alongside harness and evaluation engineers, you will establish high engineering standards, document your reasoning for independent security reviews, and ensure your methods run reliably with fully traceable evidence. AI-assisted workflows are an integral part of this job, but so is maintaining a healthy, disciplined skepticism about their outputs. Beyond immediate fixes, your work will teach the entire program what trustworthy patching looks like while actively helping decide which vulnerability classes the team tackles next. Ultimately, we hold our results to an exceptionally high bar and value specific, verifiable proof of your technical expertise—such as CVEs, advisories, or original security tools—over polished phrasing.
What You'll Be Doing:
Validation methods: Develop techniques that confirm vulnerabilities are real and reachable.
Patch methods: Advance approaches for generating and verifying safe fixes.
Quality standards: Define correctness, regression, and revalidation standards with reviewers.
Applied research: Work bounded vulnerability classes against internal targets.
What We Need To See:
Bachelor's degree (or equivalent experience) with 12+ years in security research or software engineering.
Security foundations: Hands-on vulnerability research, fuzzing, program analysis, or secure development in C, C++, or Python.
Fix quality: Rigor about what makes a fix correct and safe, including regression and behavior preservation.
AI-assisted workflows: Comfort using AI-assisted tools for analysis and development.
Ways to Stand Out from the Crowd:
Public research: CVEs, advisories, or publications in vulnerability research.
Analysis tooling: Experience building or extending fuzzers, static analyzers, or symbolic-execution tools.
Agentic ML: Familiarity with LLM-based coding or analysis agents.
With competitive salaries and a generous benefits package, NVIDIA is widely considered to be one of the technology industry's most desirable employers. We have some of the most forward-thinking and versatile people in the world working with us, and our engineering teams are growing fast in some of the most impactful fields of our generation: Confidential Computing and Data. If you're a creative engineer who enjoys autonomy and shares our passion for technology, we want to hear from you.
224,000 USD – 356,500 USD for Level 5; and 272,000 USD – 431,250 USD for Level 6.
You will also be eligible for equity and benefits.
Applications for this job will be accepted at least until November 3, 2026.This posting is for an existing vacancy.
NVIDIA uses AI tools in its recruiting processes.
NVIDIA is committed to fostering an inclusive work environment and proud to be an equal opportunity employer. As we highly value diversity in our current and future employees, we do not discriminate (including in our hiring and promotion practices) on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, disability status or any other characteristic protected by law.How we rate this
Security Research Engineer, AI Safety and Security Engineering at NVIDIA rates 63 out of 100 for how much of the daily work is AI. That makes it Works on AI (AI Level 3 of 4). The level is about AI in the job, not seniority.
Works on AI. The daily work is on AI products, without building the model.
- ●●●● Builds AI80 to 100
- ●●●○ Works on AI60 to 79
- ●●○○ Uses AI40 to 59
- ●○○○ Little AI0 to 39
Levels come from how often the tools, models and workflows of the role are named in the posting itself. Read the description and count the AI tools, models and workflows it names.
Prepare for this job
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Skills and AI tools this role asks for
Questions you could be asked
- How do you think about the risk of an AI system in this kind of role failing silently?
- Describe a typical day in a role like this one: which parts run through AI directly?
- If you removed AI from this role, what would be left, and how do you decide what still needs a human?
Adapt your resume
- List these exact terms on your resume: AI Safety. An applicant tracking system matches the wording, not the idea.
- Attach one line of real, concrete experience to at least one of them. A tool named with nothing behind it rarely survives a human read.
- Show where AI is part of your daily process, not a one-off project. This role expects it to be a running habit.
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