Staff Research Data Scientist

Google•Sunnyvale, CA

1d•$207,000 - $300,000

About The Position

The Google Cloud GUSTO AI Data Science Research team develops data-driven solutions to challenging cybersecurity problems, using data from Google's view of the threat landscape. The cross-functional applied research team delivers findings for customers and the broader cybersecurity industry. As a Staff Research Data Scientist (Tech Lead), you will define technical goals, drive applied research agendas, and lead machine learning, deep learning, and generative AI initiatives across Google SecOps, Google Threat Intelligence, and other cybersecurity product areas in Google Cloud. You will lead research on ambiguous, adversarial security problems at Google scale, including agentic security operations, threat intelligence reasoning and contextualization, security-specialized LLMs and foundation models, and dark web threat detection. The role bridges AI research and enterprise-grade deployment. It includes architecting research prototypes, steering data strategy, aligning roadmaps with cross-functional engineering and product leaders, mentoring junior researchers, and representing Google's security research through publications, patents, and conference presentations.

Requirements

Master's degree in Statistics, Data Science, Mathematics, Physics, Economics, Operations Research, Engineering, or a related quantitative field.
8 years of experience using analytics to solve product or business problems, coding (such as Python, R, or SQL), querying databases, or conducting statistical analysis.
Experience with machine learning research and developing new methodologies or algorithms.
Experience with Large Language Models (LLMs), Natural Language Processing (NLP), or Generative AI.
Experience with machine learning algorithms and statistical modeling.
Experience with cyber threat research.

Nice To Haves

PhD in Computer Science, Data Science, Statistics, Electrical Engineering, or a related quantitative field.
7 years of experience designing, validating, and deploying machine learning models, statistical methods, or generative AI systems into production.
2 years of applied experience in cybersecurity, security operations, threat intelligence, fraud/abuse, or vulnerability research.
Experience as a Technical Lead, workstream owner, or principal researcher directing technical projects end-to-end across cross-functional teams.
Experience addressing distribution shifts, concept drift, or adversarial attacks in high-stakes or non-stationary environments.
Experience in production-grade development using programming languages and modern deep learning ecosystems.

Responsibilities

Define and drive the multi-quarter research strategy and technical roadmap at the intersection of machine learning for security, AI-powered security operations, and autonomous threat investigation and response.
Serve as Technical Lead for applied research workstreams, translating ambiguous threat challenges into structured, high-impact AI/ML modeling solutions with product impact.
Architect state-of-the-art model architectures and agentic systems, balancing theoretical novelty with low-latency, resilient inference in adversarial environments.
Architect end-to-end data acquisition and curation strategies across large, heterogeneous security telemetry; establish benchmarks and evaluation pipelines for robust model assessment.
Partner with Engineering and Product Management leadership to establish shared architectural roadmaps, govern production ML deployments, and lead post-deployment telemetry and feedback loops.
Mentor junior researchers and represent Google's security research through publications, patents, and conference presentations.