Principal AI Safeguards Architect

Google; Sunnyvale (CA); On-site; USD 307,000 - 427,000; Full time

Job summary

Google is seeking a Principal Engineer, Cloud AI Safeguards, to set technical direction for safety across AI products. You will design architectures, build defenses for agentic systems, and lead by example without people management responsibilities.

The role emphasizes cross‑team collaboration, rigorous threat modeling, and delivering scalable safety platforms that reduce risk as AI capabilities grow. The candidate should excel at communicating complex ideas clearly.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or equivalent practical experience.
• 15 years of professional experience in engineering leadership or related technical roles.
• Experience in AI and ML including building and deploying classifiers and ML systems in production.

Responsibilities

• Design, prototype, and ship safety for AI driven threats across CBRN, Cyber, Agentic, Fraud risks with classifiers, runtime policy enforcement, and ML systems.
• Lead threat modeling for increasingly complex attack surfaces, anticipating adversary behavior and translating it into concrete engineering requirements and defenses.
• Shape the shared safety and security infrastructure that AI workloads depend on, ensuring defenses are reusable across products.
• Work objectively across teams and team members to diagnose problems, recommend solutions, align on standards, and raise the engineering bar through design reviews, mentorship, etc.
• Build data analysis, detection, and response capabilities needed to observe safety-relevant behavior at scale, measure efficacy, and close the loop quickly when threats emerge.

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or equivalent practical experience

15 years of professional experience in engineering leadership or related technical roles

Experience in AI and machine learning, including building and deploying classifiers and ML systems in production

Job description

Google is seeking a Principal Engineer, Cloud AI Safeguards, to set technical direction for safety across AI products. You will design architectures, build defenses for agentic systems, and lead by example without people management responsibilities.

The role emphasizes cross‑team collaboration, rigorous threat modeling, and delivering scalable safety platforms that reduce risk as AI capabilities grow. The candidate should excel at communicating complex ideas clearly.