Cyber Systems Exploitation Researcher ( Fort Meade, MD)

MIT Lincoln Laboratory•Ft Meade, MD

1d•$114,000 - $148,000•Onsite

About The Position

The Cyber System Assessments Group performs software and hardware reverse engineering, vulnerability research and discovery, and system exploitation, developing and prototyping capabilities for U.S. government operational partners. The group identifies and demonstrates cyber vulnerabilities to help correct vulnerabilities in U.S. systems and improve understanding of vulnerabilities in other systems, providing expert guidance essential to sponsor missions. MIT Lincoln Laboratory Level 3 Associate Staff contribute to the Laboratory’s national security research mission. They prototype advanced technology solutions and participate in multiple stages of program lifecycles with increasing independence and responsibility. The role applies technical depth in a primary specialty while building knowledge of adjacent disciplines, program objectives, and sponsor needs. It involves independently handling less-defined assignments, owning discrete project components, adapting established approaches, collaborating across teams, and contributing to documentation and reporting. Work may span hardware and software development, systems and data analysis, component fabrication, integration, testing, and documentation. Located onsite in Fort Meade, Maryland, the Cyber Systems Exploitation Researcher contributes to developing cybersecurity tools and techniques and reverse engineers and exploits software and hardware systems important to U.S. government operations and national defense. Research areas include cyber tool prototyping and technical analysis of offensive or defensive cyber tools and systems, automated vulnerability discovery, reverse engineering, software protection mechanisms, static analysis, and dynamic instrumentation. The researcher communicates findings to non-domain experts through writing, public presentations, and hands-on training. The role owns and executes discrete design and development tasks; solves moderately complex, less-defined technical problems; contributes to system, subsystem, or component development; prepares technical documentation, analyses, reports, design materials, and presentations; collaborates to address milestones, assumptions, dependencies, and risks; and provides practical guidance to less-experienced staff. The successful candidate demonstrates initiative, seeks opportunities to lead assignments, and develops mission-aligned engineering expertise.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in a STEM discipline or other relevant technical field and typically at least 2 years of relevant experience; or a master’s degree and typically at least 0 years of relevant experience; or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
Solid technical depth in a primary engineering, research, or other technical domain and ability to apply that knowledge independently.
Demonstrated ability to solve complex technical problems and manage components of project work.
Experience contributing to technical documentation, analyses, reports, presentations, or project deliverables.
Ability to collaborate across project teams and communicate technical information clearly to appropriate audiences.
Emerging ability to guide less-experienced colleagues and contribute to team capability development.
Must be able to obtain a Secret-level DoD security clearance and be eligible and willing to apply for a Top Secret SCI-level DoD security clearance and maintain it once obtained.
U.S. citizenship is required.

Nice To Haves

Familiarity with version control systems such as Git.
Familiarity with disassemblers and decompilers such as Ghidra and IDA Pro.
Familiarity with debuggers such as WinDbg and GDB.
Familiarity with programming languages such as C/C++ and Python.
Familiarity with infrastructure/container provisioning and orchestration such as Ansible, Kubernetes, and Docker.
Familiarity with network protocol analysis tools such as Wireshark and tcpdump.
Familiarity with emulation and virtualization tools such as VMware and QEMU.
Familiarity with operating system internals.
Experience with reverse engineering embedded systems firmware, malicious code, mobile applications, and related targets.
Familiarity with vulnerability assessment, statistics and metrics, SAT/SMT solvers, symbolic execution, data-flow analysis for compiled binaries, binary intermediate representations, binary translation, compiler construction, anti-debugging/anti-instrumentation techniques, and network and host security products.

Responsibilities

Contribute to the development of cybersecurity tools and techniques.
Reverse engineer and exploit software and hardware systems important to U.S. government operations and national defense.
Conduct research in cyber tool prototyping and technical analysis of offensive or defensive cyber tools and systems, automated vulnerability discovery, reverse engineering, software protection mechanisms, static analysis, and dynamic instrumentation.
Communicate research to non-domain experts through writing, public presentations, and hands-on training sessions.
Own and execute discrete design and development tasks, including data analysis, programming, design, testing, modeling, simulation, or integration tasks within broader projects or programs.
Apply technical knowledge to solve less-defined and moderately complex problems, independently identifying methods and adapting existing approaches as needed.
Contribute to system-, subsystem-, or component-level development across disciplines, mission needs, products, or technical focus areas.
Develop, review, and contribute to technical documentation, program reporting, data analyses, design materials, and presentations.
Collaborate with project team members to clarify and address milestones, assumptions, dependencies, and technical risks.
Provide practical guidance to less-experienced staff by explaining technical concepts, sharing methods, and reviewing selected work products.
Seek opportunities to lead assignments and improve technical approaches while deepening mission-aligned engineering expertise.