Raphael Labaca-Castro, PhD

Work Experience

• SandboxAQ (Palo Alto, California)
  • 06/2026 - Present Senior Staff Machine Learning Engineer
    Leading an AI team developing simulation and denoising algorithms for an unshielded magnetocardiography (MCG) device to support cardiovascular disease detection.
  • 09/2024 - 05/2026 Staff ML Engineer, AI in Healthcare
    Led AI simulation and denoising efforts for the medical device business; guided development of MCG denoising techniques, supported regulatory work, and established engineering guidelines across the AI team.
  • 01/2023 - 09/2024 Staff Machine Learning Engineer
    Created and led the AI team in the Quantum Security Group, developed the business unit’s first AI product, integrated initial AI capabilities, co-started a company-wide AI community, and drafted AI strategy.
  • 02/2022 - 01/2023 Senior Machine Learning Engineer
    Joined the founding engineering team from Google X, helped start an early product in the company’s solution suite, and led a technical pilot at a large financial institution.
• Google X (Mountain View, California)
  • 02/2021 - 02/2022 Machine Learning Engineer
    Started a project to help organizations create cryptographic inventories and prepare for migration to quantum-resistant algorithms.
  • 02/2020 - 05/2020 AI PhD Resident
    Worked with the central AI team and achieved up to a 10x performance improvement on a challenging real-world problem.
• Deep Science Ventures (London, UK)
  • 11/2018 - 02/2019 Co-founder & ML Engineer
    Developed machine learning models to optimize battery chemistry.
• Research Institute CODE (Munich, Germany)
  • 10/2017 - 02/2022 ML Researcher
    Conducted PhD research on AI safety and the robustness of machine learning models against adaptive adversaries, alongside industry residencies and applied projects.
• ESET (Germany and Argentina)
  • 04/2011 - 09/2017 Research Lead
    Led regional research teams in Argentina and later managed a global team from Germany.

Education

• 2017 - 2022 Universität der Bundeswehr München (Germany)
  PhD in AI Safety; summa cum laude with distinction.
• 2012 - 2016 Universidad de Buenos Aires (Argentina)
  Master’s in Information Security; thesis grade: 100%.
• 2009 - 2010 Ruhr-Universität Bochum (Germany)
  Undergraduate exchange student, Institute for Neural Computation.
• 2004 - 2011 Universidad Tecnológica Nacional (Argentina)
  B.S. and M.S. in Information Systems; Distinguished Graduate (top 5% of class).

Awards & Achievements

• Universität der Bundeswehr München: PhD awarded summa cum laude with distinction.
• Universidad Tecnológica Nacional: Second-highest GPA in the undergraduate class.
• DAAD: Computer engineering scholarship for a six-month AI program in Europe; selected among 120+ candidates in Argentina.
• Research presentation: Best Presentation Award for work on adversarial malware evaluation.

Language Skills

• Portuguese and Spanish: Native/bilingual.
• English: Full professional proficiency (TOEFL iBT: 108/120).
• German: Professional proficiency (Zertifikat Deutsch: 283/300).