Nuclear Expert, DeepMind

Google LLC; Mountain View (CA); On-site; USD 174,000 - 252,000; Full time

Job summary

Google DeepMind seeks a Nuclear Subject Matter Expert to evaluate and mitigate safety risks of frontier AI models in the nuclear domain, focusing on fission, fusion and radiative-hydrodynamics topics in a non-export controlled, unclassified framework.

The role acts as a technical authority within the ReDI team, coordinating with engineers to design safe model capabilities, develop evaluation datasets, and craft mitigations while communicating findings to leadership and external stakeholders.

Qualifications

• PhD in plasma physics, nuclear engineering, a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• Experience collaborating with US national labs or agencies like IAEA, NNSA, or DARPA, or similar government/academic consortia.
• Experience in research/policy in stockpile stewardship, nonproliferation, arms control, or threat reduction.
• Technical experience in high energy density physics, inertial confinement fusion, implosion dynamics, criticality, missiles, or reactor operations, nuclear infrastructure.

Responsibilities

• Construct threat models prioritizing vulnerabilities, threat actors, and scenarios related to fission, fusion, thermonuclear weapons development and high energy density dual use regimes.
• Create robust evaluation datasets of complex physics and nuclear engineering prompts to elicit the maximum capability of the model to determine how to uplift malicious actors across the domain.
• Collaborate with engineers to design mitigations that block harmful outputs without overly degrading the model's scientific utility.
• Support development, refinement of Google’s nuclear safety policy. Communicate complex risks, evaluation findings, mitigation strategies to leadership and technical/non-technical external stakeholders.

Skills

Nuclear physics

Policy research

AI safety

Threat modeling

Mathematical modeling

Python

C++

MHD

Education

PhD in plasma physics or nuclear engineering

Equivalent practical experience

Tools

Python

C++

Radiation hydrodynamics

MHD

Job description

corporate_fare DeepMind place Mountain View, CA, USA

• PhD in plasma physics, nuclear engineering, a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• Experience collaborating with US national labs or agencies like IAEA, NNSA, or DARPA, or similar government/academic consortia.
• Experience in research/policy in stockpile stewardship, nonproliferation, arms control, or threat reduction.
• Technical experience in high energy density physics, inertial confinement fusion, implosion dynamics, criticality, missiles, or reactor operations, nuclear infrastructure.

Preferred qualifications:

• Experience working in AI safety, evaluations, red teaming, or applied AI/ML research at a national laboratory, academic institution, or industry setting.
• Expertise in computational modeling, scientific computing (Python, C++), radiation hydrodynamics, and MHD.
• Experimental and computational ICF/HEDP experience at major laser user facilities (e.g., NIF, JLF), diagnostic inverse problems relevant to weapons development.
• Ability to design evaluations and mitigations that are demonstrably unclassified and non-export controlled by developing dual use science proxies for weapons topics.
• Commitment to serving a global user base and promoting a fundamentally safe technological ecosystem.

About the job

Google invites applications from highly qualified physicists and nuclear engineers for the position of Nuclear Subject Matter Expert (SME) in the Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, and high-yield Explosives (CBRNE) team within the Responsible Development and Innovation (ReDI) team.

The successful candidate will be hired for a Research Scientist position serving as a technical expert responsible for evaluating and mitigating safety risks of frontier AI models (primarily but not limited to LLMs) in the nuclear domain; specifically, model assistance in fission, fusion, and thermonuclear weapons proliferation, radiation hydrodynamics, Magnetohydrodynamics (MHD), etc. in a demonstrably unclassified and non-export controlled manner.

Artificial intelligence will be one of humanity’s most transformative inventions. At Google DeepMind, we are a pioneering AI lab with exceptional interdisciplinary teams focused on advancing AI development to solve complex global challenges and accelerate high-quality product innovation for billions of users. We use our technologies for widespread public benefit and scientific discovery, ensuring safety and ethics are always our highest priority.

We are pushing the boundaries across multiple domains. Our global teams offer diverse learning opportunities and varied career pathways for those driven to achieve exceptional results through collective effort. Individual pay is determined by factors including job-related skills, experience, and relevant education or training.

US: $174000 - $252000 (USD) + 15% bonus target + equity + benefits

• Construct threat models prioritizing vulnerabilities, threat actors, and scenarios related to fission, fusion, thermonuclear weapons development and high energy density dual use regimes. Develop mathematical and computational frameworks to quantify capability thresholds, technical feasibility, and potential consequences of model uplift wherever possible.
• Create robust evaluation datasets of complex physics and nuclear engineering prompts to elicit the maximum capability of the model to determine how to uplift malicious actors (e.g., revealing tacit knowledge, novel procedures, time/cost reduction, detectability reduction) across the domain.
• Collaborate with engineers to design mitigations that block harmful outputs without overly degrading the model's scientific utility. Similar to writing capability evaluations, this requires a deep understanding of dual use science.
• Support development, refinement of Google’s nuclear safety policy. Communicate complex risks, evaluation findings, mitigation strategies to leadership and technical/ non-technical external stakeholders.

Google is proud to be an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer. We are committed to building a workforce that is representative of the users we serve, creating a culture of belonging, and providing an equal employment opportunity regardless of race, creed, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, national origin, disability, age, genetic information, veteran status, marital status, pregnancy or related condition (including breastfeeding), expecting or parents-to-be, criminal histories consistent with legal requirements, or any other basis protected by law. See also Google's EEO Policy , Know your rights: workplace discrimination is illegal , Belonging at Google , and How we hire .

Google is a global company and, in order to facilitate efficient collaboration and communication globally, English proficiency is a requirement for all roles unless stated otherwise in the job posting.

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