Staff Engineer - AI Accelerator Card Security

European Tech Recruit; Cork; On-site; EUR 110,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

European Tech Recruit are assisting a Cork-based leader in semiconductors to recruit a Staff Engineer focused on AI accelerator card security. You will define security requirements, evaluate components, and enable secure provisioning for factory environments.

The role demands deep knowledge of BMC/PRoT, Redfish, SPDM/PLDM, and experience with attestation protocols, keys, and certificates across hardware platforms.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Information Systems, Computer Science, or related field; 7+ years in product security.
• Strong understanding of hardware security concepts (BMC, PRoT, flash devices, PCIe switches, ACS).
• Knowledge of key/certificate management and device security lifecycle (root-of-trust, boot-chain, firmware authentication).
• Experience in security risk assessments and drafting security specifications.

Responsibilities

• Define and document security requirements for AI accelerator card components.
• Document secure communications between BMC and platform-management services (Redfish, SPDM, PLDM).
• Establish device identity, measurements, evidence, and PRoT attestation to management services.
• Represent security team in customer/vendor/standards forums on attestation protocols.
• Evaluate components for security compliance and drive vendor improvements.
• Design security provisioning services for keys, certificates, identities in factory environments.
• Create test plans and production-line validation for provisioning identities and keys.

Skills

Communication skills

Security mindset

Risk assessment

Security lifecycle understanding

Education

Bachelor's degree

Master's degree (security specialization)

Tools

C programming language

Python programming

Job description

European Tech Recruit are working closely with a leading semicon company, based in Cork, who are looking for a talented Staff Engineer - AI Accelerator Card Security to join their team.

Our client's AI accelerator cards provide the backbone of an enhanced AI experience by shifting the AI workloads away from generic processors and onto specialized NPU cores that provide faster execution times, shorter latencies, and lower power consumption. These accelerators bear the responsibility of processing valuable user and model data – meaning that security is a critical product requirement that must be achieved to guarantee the products’ success in the market.

In this role you will ensure that the components of the AI accelerator card meet the security requirements and are securely configured and provisioned. You will determine the appropriate security requirements for the components on an AI accelerator card; evaluate third-party components; determine appropriate strategies for provisioning security information to the devices; and work with their partners to ensure that these strategies are implemented.

Responsibilities as Staff Engineer - AI Accelerator Card Security:

• Define and document the security requirements for components on an AI Accelerator card.
• Define and document the mechanisms used for secure communication between the Board Management Controller (BMC) and the platform-management services, including relevant Redfish, SPDM-based, and PLDM-based interactions.
• Define and document processes to establish the device identity, collect measurements, generate evidence, and verify that evidence that allow a Platform Root of Trust (PRoT) to attest the state of the AI accelerator card to a management service through the BMC.
• Represent the security team in relevant customer, vendor, and standards forums, especially forums related to the use, development, and interoperability of attestation protocols.
• Evaluate components for their ability to meet the security requirements and work with vendors to improve components that do not meet the relevant requirements.
• Design and document services for device-personalization and provisioning of keys, certificates, identities, and configuration data in factory environments.
• Design and document test plans and production-line validation systems to verify that identities, keys, certificates, and secure configuration data have been provisioned correctly to devices in the factory environment.

Requirements:

• A Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Information Systems, Computer Science, or related field, and 7+ years of experience in product security or a related field. Work experience gained by successfully completing a Master’s or Doctoral degree will be taken into consideration.
• An understanding of the security relevance of the physical components that exist on an AI accelerator card (such as the BMC, the PRoT, flash devices, and PCIe switches, including the use of ACS).
• An understanding of the principles of key management and certificate management.
• An understanding of the principles of the security lifecycle of devices, root-of-trust security, boot-chain security, and firmware authentication.
• Experience in performing security risk assessments on systems of discrete components.
• Experience in drafting security specifications and reviewing systems to determine if they meet those specifications.
• Proficiency in the security review of firmware and software that executes on the physical components on an AI accelerator card written in the C programming language.
• Proficiency in the use of the Python programming language with experience in developing provisioning utilities, test automation, and protocol-validation tools.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• A Master’s degree with a security specialization in Engineering, Information Systems, Computer Science, or related field.
• Understanding of the principles of secure debug and RMA flows.
• Understanding of the MCTP, SPDM, PLDM, and Redfish protocols.
• Experience in designing security provisioning protocols in a factory setting.
• Experience in designing security systems for attestation of devices, including an understanding of the role of post-quantum cryptography in the security of attestation protocols.
• Experience in implementing the specifications of the Open Compute Project (OCP), the Confidential Computing Consortium (CCC), and the IETF RATS working group (such as the EAT token format).
• Experience in the development of AI accelerator systems.
• Proficiency in the C programming languages with experience in developing systems for provisioning keys, certificates, and secure configuration data.