Senior Researcher - Data Foundation Security

Job description

Huawei Canada has an immediate permanent opening for a Senior Researcher.

About the team:

The Digital Trust Lab is dedicated to ensuring user data flows while maintaining privacy. Researchers focus on key areas such as user identity authentication, data integrity, privacy protection, extensive model privacy assessment, multi-modal data identification, differential privacy, and federated learning. The lab supports deep research and encourages publications in leading journals. Research outcomes are applied across various Huawei product lines, including mobile phones, smart devices, and communications technologies.

About the job:

• Conduct advanced security research into threats, vulnerabilities, and defense mechanisms related to data infrastructure across the full lifecycle, from endpoint devices and on-device agents to databases, cloud services, and AI/LLM platforms.

• Research, propose, design, and prototype next-generation data and AI security foundations, including:

  AI/LLM/Agent data security (inference-time data leakage, agent memory isolation, tool-use and action safety).

  Database and data-platform security, including access control, isolation, auditing, and secure query execution.

  Secure computation and cryptographic primitives (e.g., secure enclaves, MPC, HE, ZKP) for data- and model-centric workloads.

• Producing insights of technology development in both academia and industry.

• Work closely with other research labs worldwide and product teams to optimize the solution and deliver concrete impact to real products.

The total target annual compensation for this position ranges from $127,000 to $225,000 depending on education, experience, and demonstrated expertise.

Job requirements

About the ideal candidate:

• PhD Degree in Computer Science or Computer Engineering, or Master Degree with 4+ years experiences in related fields.

• Strong hands-on experience in designing, building, or securing data platforms, such as: databases (relational, NoSQL, vector databases), data lakes / warehouses, semantic indexes and retrieval systems, ML / LLM data pipelines and feature stores.

• Solid understanding of AI / LLM / Agent data security, including (but not limited to): inference data protection, agent memory and state isolation, secure tool invocation and permission, data leakage and misuse risks in agent workflows.

• Strong understanding of database security fundamentals, such as: 1) authentication, authorization, and fine-grained access control, 2) query-level and row/column-level security, 3) data provenance, auditing, and policy enforcement, 4) isolation and consistency under adversarial conditions.

• Proven programming skills in C/C++, with proficiency in Python and Bash for prototyping and experimentation.

• Good understanding of data security concepts: symmetric-key cryptography (block ciphers, MAC, and authenticated encryption), public key cryptography (digital signatures, encryption, and key establishment), secure computation (secure multiparty computation, homomorphic encryption, zero-knowledge proofs).

• Good understanding of system security concepts: access control (discretionary access control, mandatory access control, attribute-based access control, dynamic access control), trusted execution environment (TEE).

• Experience with machine learning and deep learning is an asset.

Additional Information:

Huawei Canada is committed to a fair, inclusive, and accessible recruitment process. If you require accommodation during any stage of the hiring process, please let us know and we will work with you to meet your needs.

All applications for this position are reviewed directly by our hiring team, we do not use artificial intelligence tools to screen or select candidates.