2026 PhD Software Engineer Intern (AI Security), United States

Uber • San Francisco, CA • 6h ago

We're looking for PhD candidates to intern on the AI Security team during winter 2026 (12 weeks). You will be embedded in our engineering team and work closely with other specialists, software developers, and product managers. As a PhD intern, you will contribute to research and development of AI agents for security and privacy. You'll explore methods to build, evaluate, and scale agents that can reason about complex systems, detect vulnerabilities, propose and apply patches, and verify security outcomes.

About the Team

Uber's AI Security team secures how AI agents and tools interact with our systems and data. We build the foundations for agentic identity (who the agent is, what it's acting on behalf of, and how identity/attestation propagates across tools) and risk-based access (@context-aware, real-time authorization that adapts to sensitivity, intent, and behavior). We partner across EngSec, Edge Gateway, Developer Platform, and ML Platform teams to make AI adoption safe, observable, and compliant at Uber scale.

What You'll Do

Research & proto@type identity and attestation for AI agents (e.g., A2A AuthN/A2A AuthZ, @context propagation, chain-of-custody verification) and evaluate correctness, robustness, and usability

Design risk-based access policies and scoring that adapt to actor, tool, data sensitivity, and runtime signals; validate via offline/online experiments

Build evaluation harnesses for agent workflows (tool-use, multi-step planning, self-verification) to measure security outcomes (prevent, detect, contain) and regression-proof changes

Ship with engineers: integrate proto@types into production gateways/SDKs; add observability (auditing, explanations of allow/deny), and stress-test for scale and latency

Communicate findings through docs, internal talks, and (where appropriate) publications or open-source contributions

Basic Qualifications

Current PhD student in Computer Science, AI/ML, Security, or related field

Candidates must have at least one semester/quarter of their education left following the internship

Strong grounding in LLMs/agent frameworks (tool use, planning, orchestration) and empirical evaluation

Proficiency in Python and modern ML tooling (PyTorch or TensorFlow)

Demonstrated ability to conduct independent research and translate ideas into working proto@types

Preferred Qualifications

Publications in top ML/AI or Security venues (e.g., NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, USENIX Security, CCS, IEEE S&P)

Experience with identity/authz standards (OAuth2/OIDC), policy engines (e.g., OPA/Rego), or program analysis/verification

Applied security for LLM/agent systems (prompt/ tool security, redaction, auditability, explainability)

Strong problem-solving and communication; comfort navigating ambiguous, cross-functional spaces

For New York, NY-based roles: The base hourly rate amount for this role is USD$67.00 per hour. For San Francisco, CA-based roles: The base hourly rate amount for this role is USD$67.00 per hour. For Seattle, WA-based roles: The base hourly rate amount for this role is USD$67.00 per hour. For Sunnyvale, CA-based roles: The base hourly rate amount for this role is USD$67.00 per hour. For all US locations, you will also be eligible for various benefits.

Uber is proud to be an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, color, religion, national origin, disability, protected Veteran status, age, or any other characteristic protected by law. We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know by completing this form- https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdb_Y9Bv8-lWDMbpidF2GKXsxzNh11wUUVS7fM1znOfEJsVeA/viewform

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