Research Scientist, Applied Machine Learning Security (Agent Systems)

Apple Inc

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Quick summary

Work type
On-site
Location
Cupertino, CA
Salary
$184,700–$277,600 / yr
Posted
4 days ago
Freshness
Confirmed live yesterday

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Salary context

Competitive pay

How this pay compares to similar roles

Similar $220k
This role $231k
$163k most similar roles pay here $290k

This role pays more than 55% of similar roles. Most pay $185,900–$254,943 — the shaded band above. At the midpoint, this role pays about $231k versus about $220k for comparable roles.

Based on 240 similar postings.

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About Apple Inc

Apple Inc. is a multinational technology company known for designing and manufacturing consumer electronics, software, and online services, including the iPhone, Mac, iPad, and App Store. Industry: Consumer Electronics & Software

Apple Inc currently has 1995 open roles on FindRole.

Listed pay typically runs $175,000–$277,600 across 1612 roles with salary data.

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At a glance

TL;DR · Research Scientist, Applied Machine Learning Security (Agent Systems)

Research Scientist, Applied Machine Learning Security (Agent Systems), SEAR joins the Security Engineering & Architecture team to conduct original security research on agentic ML systems deployed at scale. This role focuses on identifying and characterizing vulnerabilities in tool-using models, such as indirect prompt injection, tool misuse, privilege escalation, goal hijacking, and cross-context data leakage. The successful candidate will build adversarial testing frameworks that reflect real attacker incentives and develop mitigations compatible with production constraints like latency and privacy. Working at the intersection of research, platform engineering, and product security, you will define threat models for agent deployments across platforms and translate findings into architectural decisions and launch requirements. Required expertise includes machine learning, security, or systems, with a focus on adversarial ML and securing LLM-based or tool-augmented systems to protect against evolving threats in production environments.

What does a Research Scientist earn?

Median $221000 from 40 postings across 11 companies.

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What you'll do

  • Conduct original security research on deployed agentic ML systems interacting with tools, APIs, and sensitive data.
  • Identify and characterize vulnerabilities such as indirect prompt injection, tool misuse, and privilege escalation.
  • Build adversarial testing frameworks that reflect real attacker incentives and complex system behaviors.
  • Develop security mitigations that meet production requirements for latency, reliability, and privacy.
  • Define trust boundaries and threat models for agentic ML across various platforms and services.
  • Translate research findings into concrete architectural decisions, launch requirements, and hardening strategies.
  • Partner with platform and product teams to integrate research insights into design guidance and test infrastructure.
  • Set standards for applied ML security research and provide technical leadership to other researchers.

What we're looking for

  • Ph.D. or equivalent experience in machine learning, security, systems, or a related field.
  • Demonstrated experience in applied ML security, adversarial ML, or systems security with real-world impact.
  • Strong experimental and engineering skills with an emphasis on reproducibility and operational relevance.
  • Experience researching or securing LLM-based or tool-augmented ML systems (preferred).
  • Ability to work fluidly across research, engineering, and security review processes (preferred).
  • Track record of influencing production systems through research-driven insights (preferred).
  • Publications in top venues are a plus (preferred).

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