# PhD Intern, Security Engineer (2027)

**Company**: Figma
**Location**: San Francisco, CA
**Job type**: internship
**Salary**: $74-$74
**Category**: Security
**Industry**: Technology

**Apply**: https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/figma/jobs/6238015004?utm_source=yubhub.co&utm_medium=jobs_feed&utm_campaign=apply
**Canonical**: https://yubhub.co/jobs/job_afab4c68-f3d

## Description

Figma is growing our team of creatives and builders on a mission to make design accessible to all.

The PhD Intern, Security Engineer role is a 12 or 16-week internship that can be held from one of our US hubs (San Francisco or New York) starting in May or June of 2027.

As a PhD Intern, Security Engineer you will work on an impactful project to improve the security of Figma’s product, platform, or infrastructure, working closely with a mentor and teammates while applying your research background to drive real-world impact.

Responsibilities:

- Perform technical security assessments, code audits, and design reviews

- Design and develop solutions to prevent or mitigate security vulnerabilities across Figma’s products, services and infrastructure

- Lead and support security investigations, developing the datasets, tooling, and analysis that help us scope incidents, understand root cause, and reduce time to detect and respond

- Translate threat intelligence into action, operationalizing intel on relevant threat actors and techniques to prioritize detection coverage, harden high-risk surfaces, and guide security strategy

Requirements:

- Current enrollment as a 4th or 5th year senior PhD student in a Computer Science program with a focus in Security or a related field

- Proficiency in at least one general-purpose coding language

- A track record in applying security techniques to projects in academia or industry, with excellent domain knowledge in at least one relevant area such as AI Safety/Evaluation, Useable security, Anti-abuse, Anti-fraud, detection and response or similar

- Strong knowledge of statistical methods and/or experimental design

- Experience solving sophisticated problems and comparing alternative solutions, trade-offs, and diverse points of view to determine a path forward

Nice to have:

- Related industry experience via a past internship or full-time role

- Proven expertise in security through publications at top security conferences like USENIX Security, NDSS, CCS, IEEE S&P

- Strong communication and interpersonal skills, with demonstrated experience collaborating across functions

- Experience using AI tools (e.g., GitHub Copilot, ChatGPT, Claude) to write, debug, and optimize code

- A good understanding of at least two of Linux/Unix/Mac-based systems security, AWS security, Cloud SaaS Security, applied cryptography, anti-abuse, or web application security

Benefits:

- Hourly base pay rate: $74-$74 USD

- Housing stipend and travel reimbursement

Figma is an equal opportunity workplace.

## Skills

### Required
- Computer Science
- Security
- coding
- statistical methods
- experimental design

### Nice to have
- AI Safety/Evaluation
- Useable security
- Anti-abuse
- Anti-fraud
- detection and response
- Linux/Unix/Mac-based systems security
- AWS security
- Cloud SaaS Security
- applied cryptography
- web application security

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Source: [Apply at job-boards.greenhouse.io](https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/figma/jobs/6238015004?utm_source=yubhub.co&utm_medium=jobs_feed&utm_campaign=apply)