Senior Hardware Security Researcher — Red Team

Apple, Inc.; Cupertino (CA); On-site; USD 185,000 - 325,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

RSU awards

Medical & dental coverage

Tuition reimbursement

Discounted products

Job summary

Apple is seeking a Senior Security Researcher to join its specialized Red Team in Cupertino. You will hunt vulnerabilities at the hardware-software boundary, focusing on CPU/GPU microarchitectures and low-level kernel interfaces.

The role requires deep expertise in exploitation, OS internals, and hardware security research. The team collaborates with hardware and kernel engineers to develop architectural mitigations and robust defenses, while evaluating mitigations like Pointer Authentication

Qualifications

• BS in Computer Engineering or related engineering degree.
• Experience with modern CPU architectures such as pipeline stages, caching mechanisms, MMU, or speculative execution.
• Experience in low-level software (C, C++, or Assembly).
• Experience in discovering vulnerabilities or developing exploits at the OS/Hypervisor level, or in hardware-software interfaces such as CVEs, bug bounties, conference talks, or whitepapers.

Responsibilities

• Architectural Red Teaming: Design and execute targeted adversarial campaigns against the hardware/software interface of modern SoCs, specifically focusing on CPU and GPU.
• Vulnerability Discovery: Conduct deep-dive vulnerability research into microarchitectural behaviors, side-channels, and hardware-assisted security features.
• Exploit Development: Develop proof-of-concept exploit chains that bridge hardware vulnerabilities into kernel space, demonstrating real-world impact.
• GPU & Compute Security: Analyze GPU driver interfaces, command processors, and execution units, particularly in the context of modern compute workloads and hardware acceleration.
• Mitigation Bypass & Analysis: Evaluate and attempt to bypass modern hardware mitigations (e.g., Pointer Authentication, Memory Tagging, virtualization boundaries).
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner with hardware engineering and software kernel teams to translate your red team findings into robust, architectural-level mitigations.

Skills

CPU architectures

Low-level software (C/C++/Assembly)

Vulnerability research/Exploits

Reverse engineering tools

Education

BS in Computer Engineering or related engineering degree

Tools

Verilog/VHDL

IDA Pro

Ghidra

Job description

Apple is seeking a Senior Security Researcher to join its specialized Red Team in Cupertino. You will hunt vulnerabilities at the hardware-software boundary, focusing on CPU/GPU microarchitectures and low-level kernel interfaces.

The role requires deep expertise in exploitation, OS internals, and hardware security research. The team collaborates with hardware and kernel engineers to develop architectural mitigations and robust defenses, while evaluating mitigations like Pointer Authentication