Cyber-Physical Systems Reverse Engineer

Leidos • Chantilly, VA

2d

About The Position

Kudu Dynamics, a Leidos-owned company, is seeking a Cyber-Physical Systems Reverse Engineer to support a project researching and developing novel capabilities for maritime cybersecurity. The role focuses on understanding the real-world behavior of complex embedded and cyber-physical systems through hands-on work with embedded systems and operational technology in a laboratory environment. The engineer will analyze hardware, firmware, communications interfaces, and interactions between system components; reverse engineer and emulate devices; develop automated methods to explore system behavior; and design experiments to uncover unexpected or emergent behaviors, undocumented features, bugs, and misconfigurations. The work applies skills across embedded systems, firmware, software, hardware, and cybersecurity, including building test harnesses and automated workflows, instrumenting analog and digital systems, integrating physical devices with software analysis and cyber reasoning tools, and developing code.

Requirements

• Experience developing embedded firmware in C/C++, including real-time systems, RTOS concepts, interrupts, concurrency, memory-mapped I/O, device drivers, and hardware peripherals.
• Experience with embedded hardware and common communications interfaces such as SPI, I2C, UART, CAN, USB, Ethernet, or wireless interfaces, including debugging hardware/software interactions.
• Experience developing simulation, emulation, automated testing, or hardware/software test harnesses for embedded systems.
• Proficiency with Python or similar scripting languages for automation, testing, analysis, and development of engineering tools.
• Experience using embedded development and diagnostic equipment such as JTAG/SWD debuggers, logic/protocol analyzers, oscilloscopes, spectrum analyzers, function generators, or similar instrumentation.

Nice To Haves

• Experience reverse engineering embedded devices and firmware with tools such as Ghidra, Binary Ninja, IDA Pro, or similar tools, and ability to analyze assembly for one or more processor architectures.
• Experience with program analysis and vulnerability research techniques such as fuzzing, symbolic execution, static/dynamic analysis, binary exploitation, and modern exploit mitigations.
• Experience with processor or full-system emulation, hardware-in-the-loop (HIL), software-in-the-loop (SIL), or development of custom models for processors, peripherals, sensors, or other embedded components.
• Experience with digital signal processing, RF systems, software-defined radio, wireless communications, audio/signal processing, or MATLAB-based modeling and analysis.
• Understanding of digital and analog circuits, hardware reverse engineering, low-level computer architecture, and the interaction between software, firmware, and physical system behavior.

Responsibilities

• Develop, integrate, and debug embedded firmware for real-time and resource-constrained systems, including RTOS-based applications, device drivers, hardware interfaces, and low-level system software.
• Design and implement simulation, emulation, and automated test environments for embedded and cyber-physical systems, including tools for exploring system behavior, reproducing observed effects, and exercising hardware and firmware.
• Analyze and reverse engineer embedded devices, firmware, communications protocols, sensors, and other system components to understand intended functionality and real-world behavior.
• Develop production-quality C/C++ and Python software to automate testing, instrumentation, experimentation, and analysis, including integration with laboratory hardware and software-based analysis tools.
• Conduct hands-on laboratory testing with embedded debugging tools and analog/digital instrumentation; critically analyze, document, and communicate technical findings.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Education Level: No Education Listed