Red Team Platform and Hardware Security Researcher, SEAR

Red Team Platform and Hardware secures the hardware/software boundary for all of Apple’s products, focusing on operating systems, kernel, firmware, and user data protection. We’re looking for a skilled, driven engineer inspired to leverage the most powerful technologies in the industry to secure this boundary.

This will mean applying, extending, and building on the latest AI-powered tools to design and implement key systems, owning their architecture, implementation decisions, and validation methodology across new and existing designs.

You’ll become part of an outstanding team dedicated to securing low-level technologies such as the boot ROMs, firmware, and iOS and macOS kernel in our Apple Silicon and wireless chipsets. You’ll work with a wide variety of teams and vendors who are equally committed to great work, and your influence will be felt throughout Apple's extraordinary products, such as the iPhone, iPad, Mac and AirPods.

Our team focuses on security improvements for Apple’s various platforms and the hardware that supports them, as well as building security tools to provide high assurance. We leverage the best tools available to reverse engineer exploits, provide insightful analysis, implement innovative security features, consult with other teams on both hardware and software, audit code, and review designs.

We are seeking someone with strong technical expertise and a passionate desire to secure low-level systems by showing how they can be broken.

You’ll be working alongside teammates with diverse technical backgrounds including mobile and console research, binary instrumentation, SoC microarchitecture, compiler development, applied fault injection, and more. If you have your own area of fascination and a love of low-level security, you’ll find yourself right at home!

In this role you will...

• Mature our team’s AI-based capabilities for augmenting security reviews.
• Provide direct hardware and firmware security design assistance.
• Create tools that help automate security verification and testing.
• Audit security critical firmware and hardware.
• Reverse engineer exploits, if necessary.

Candidates must be able to support full collaboration with partners in Greenwich Mean Time and Central European Time. This position may require occasional travel to other Apple sites, vendors, and security conferences.

Deep understanding of applied LLM technologies and principles (agent architectures, context management, prompting frameworks, MCP and Skill application).

Experience applying LLMs to validation tooling, vulnerability remediation, or in systems-level security research.

A proven track record in finding security vulnerabilities in shipping products and/or designing platform security countermeasures.

Programming background in C, C++, and/or Objective-C. Additionally, must have proficiency in scripting language(s) such as Python.

Proficiency with assembly languages, ARM a big plus.

Familiarity with modern processor and SoC architecture.

Background in secure programming patterns and code auditing.

Have an understanding of past, current, and emerging security exploit classes.

Proficiency with operating system internals, especially macOS, iOS, or other flavors of UNIX.

Have the ability to track and lead multiple parallel projects.

Familiarity with collaborating with partner teams in hardware, software, and product groups to define and deliver rigorous security features.

Familiarity with wireless technologies including Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, NFC, UWB, cellular, GNSS, etc.

Exposure to AI model optimizations and performance evaluation (KV-cache optimization, retrieval metrics).

Experience creating working proof of concepts from found vulnerabilities on systems with advanced countermeasures (ASLR, TZ, PAC, etc).

Exposure to kernel or driver programming.

Reverse engineering using tools such as IDA Pro.

Familiarity with the principles and use of cryptographic primitives and protocols.