Cyber Systems Exploitation Researcher

MIT Lincoln Laboratory•Lexington, MA

1d•$114,000 - $148,000

About The Position

The Cyber Systems Exploitation Researcher will contribute to developing cybersecurity tools and techniques, reverse engineering and exploiting software and hardware systems important to U.S. government operations and national defense. Research areas include cyber tool prototyping and technical analysis of offensive and defensive cyber tools and systems, automated vulnerability discovery, reverse engineering, software protection mechanisms, static analysis, and dynamic instrumentation. The researcher will communicate findings to non-domain experts through written work, public presentations, and hands-on training. This is a Level 3 Associate Staff role at MIT Lincoln Laboratory. The position contributes to multidisciplinary research supporting the Laboratory’s national security mission, prototypes advanced technology, and participates in multiple stages of program work with increasing independence and responsibility. The researcher applies technical depth in a primary specialty while developing broader understanding of adjacent disciplines, program objectives, and sponsor needs. Work may include software and hardware development, systems and data analysis, fabrication, integration, testing, and documentation. The role may lead small projects or teams and contribute to sponsor briefings, test plans, and reports.

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, with the ability to apply 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 that clearance once obtained.
Must be able to obtain and maintain a Secret-level DoD security clearance.
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 and container provisioning and orchestration tools 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.
Knowledge of operating system internals.
Experience with reverse engineering embedded systems firmware, malicious code, mobile applications, or other systems.
Experience with vulnerability assessment.
Familiarity with statistics and metrics.
Familiarity with SAT/SMT solvers.
Familiarity with symbolic execution.
Familiarity with data-flow analysis for compiled binaries.
Familiarity with binary intermediate representations.
Familiarity with binary translation.
Familiarity with compiler construction.
Familiarity with anti-debugging and anti-instrumentation techniques.
Familiarity with 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.
Research cyber tool prototyping and conduct 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 within broader project or program efforts.
Apply technical knowledge to solve less-defined, moderately complex problems, independently selecting methods and adapting existing approaches.
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, reviewing selected work, and providing feedback.
Seek opportunities to lead new assignments and improve technical approaches while deepening mission-aligned engineering expertise.