Integrated Cyber Exploitation Researcher (Fort Meade, MD)

MIT Lincoln Laboratory•Ft Meade, MD

1d•$140,000 - $187,000•Onsite

About The Position

The Cyber System Assessments Group conducts software and hardware reverse engineering, vulnerability research and discovery, and system exploitation. The group develops and prototypes capabilities for U.S. government operational partners, identifying and demonstrating cyber vulnerabilities to support correction of vulnerabilities in U.S. systems and better understanding of vulnerabilities in other systems. Its technical role with government sponsors is considered essential to their missions. MIT Lincoln Laboratory Level 5 Technical Staff provide innovative research across multiple or emerging technical domains in support of the Laboratory’s national security mission. They prototype state-of-the-art solutions and contribute across the program lifecycle, leading projects or major technical workstreams in partnership with project and team leaders. The role requires deep technical expertise, sound judgment, independent research, and the ability to navigate technical complexity and ambiguity. Staff develop creative approaches to mission needs, manage programs or lead teams on technology prototype efforts, and connect technical work to broader program objectives. Based onsite at the MIT Lincoln Laboratory field office in Annapolis Junction, Maryland, the researcher supports key government sponsors across the lifecycle of offensive cyber operations. Work spans reverse engineering and exploitation of software and hardware systems, cyber tool prototyping, technical analysis of offensive cyber tools, automated vulnerability discovery, reverse engineering, static analysis, and dynamic instrumentation. The researcher communicates findings to non-domain experts through writing, public presentations, and hands-on training, and may engage directly with sponsors as a trusted subject matter expert. The successful candidate leads multidisciplinary technical work, shapes technical approaches and integration, manages ambiguous work through actionable plans, mentors colleagues and technical support personnel, and contributes to technical papers, reports, presentations, and, where applicable, proposals or grant materials. The position requires a bachelor’s degree in a STEM or other relevant technical field with typically 6 or more years of relevant experience, a master’s degree with typically 4 or more years, or a PhD with an equivalent combination of education and experience. The selected candidate must be eligible to obtain and maintain a Secret-level DoD clearance and be eligible and willing to apply for a Top Secret SCI-level clearance. U.S. citizenship is required.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in a STEM discipline or other relevant technical field and typically 6 or more years of relevant experience; or master’s degree and typically 4 or more years of relevant experience; or PhD with an equivalent combination of education and experience.
Diverse technical expertise and demonstrated ability to adapt it to unfamiliar or emerging disciplines, systems, mission areas, or methods.
Established education, skills, and experience demonstrating significant technical judgment in solving broad technical challenges requiring integration across related systems or methods.
Demonstrated ability to lead projects or major workstreams and deliver complex technical outcomes.
Experience evaluating trade-offs, recommending paths forward, and adapting technical approaches to evolving project needs.
Demonstrated mentorship, collaboration, and ability to communicate recommendations, risks, and technical findings to varied audiences.
Experience contributing to technical reports, papers, presentations, proposals, or other formal technical deliverables.
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; must be able to maintain the clearance level once obtained.
U.S. citizenship is required.

Nice To Haves

Familiarity with version control systems such as Git.
Expertise with disassemblers or decompilers such as Ghidra or IDA Pro.
Expertise with debuggers such as WinDbg or GDB.
Expertise in programming languages such as C/C++ and Python.
Familiarity with infrastructure or 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 or virtualization tools such as VMware and QEMU.
Knowledge of operating system internals.
Experience reverse engineering embedded systems firmware, malicious code, mobile applications, and other systems.
Knowledge of 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 or anti-instrumentation techniques, and network and host security products.

Responsibilities

Lead projects or major workstreams involving multidisciplinary design, development, data analysis, programming, prototyping, integration, testing, or transition activities.
Apply extensive technical expertise to complex problems, evaluating alternative approaches, trade-offs, risks, and mission implications.
Influence technical approaches to mission research, systems and subsystems, architecture design, and integration within assigned projects or mission areas.
Structure and manage ambiguous work by translating project objectives into actionable technical plans.
Mentor colleagues and technical support personnel by reviewing work, providing constructive feedback and technical guidance, and developing their judgment and problem-solving skills.
Identify opportunities to improve tools, processes, methods, documentation, and execution practices.
Contribute substantially to engineering or scientific papers, technical reports, presentations, and, where applicable, proposals or grant materials.
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.
Work with government sponsors as a trusted subject matter expert and support technical decisions related to offensive cyber operations.