Offensive Cybersecurity Engineer

Viasat, Inc. • Carlsbad, CA

27d

About The Position

As a Viasat Offensive Security Engineer, you will be responsible for simulating real-world cyberattacks against Viasat’s hardware, service network infrastructure, satellite ground stations and related systems. The ideal candidate has deep expertise in both traditional network penetration testing and hardware-specific techniques, including firmware reverse engineering and physical device analysis. You will conduct comprehensive technical cybersecurity risk assessments and report your findings to technical and executive teams, providing clear, actionable improvements to team practices and activities.

Requirements

• 2+ years of experience in offensive cybersecurity engineering, network penetration testing, threat emulation development, embedded systems testing.
• Experience with low-level and memory-safe languages such as C, C++, Rust, and Python.
• Familiarity with embedded system development or hardware reverse engineering.
• Strong communications skills, the ability to write detailed reports, and deliver technical briefings
• US Citizenship required with an Active US Top Secret SCI Clearance.
• Ability to travel up to 10%.

Nice To Haves

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience in Cybersecurity or related engineering field
• Managing competing priorities and timelines effectively
• The ability to work effectively with ambiguity
• Strong self-motivation and independent work ethic
• Skill in operating within a geographically distributed team

Responsibilities

• Hardware and Embedded Systems Testing: Conduct comprehensive security assessments of proprietary Viasat hardware, including satellite terminals, satellite gateways, and related devices. This includes firmware analysis, reverse engineering, and interacting with hardware interfaces like JTAG and UART.
• Network Penetration Testing: Perform gray-box and closed system penetration tests on the Viasat network infrastructure, encompassing customer-facing networks, firewalls, and core ISP systems.
• Vulnerability Exploitation: Develop and run custom exploits to demonstrate the impact of identified vulnerabilities and combine multiple weaknesses into chained attack scenarios.
• Reporting and Communication: Create high-quality, comprehensive reports that detail vulnerabilities, risk levels, and recommendations for engineering teams.
• Threat Research: Stay ahead of the latest security trends, exploits, and methodologies, particularly in the telecommunications and embedded systems fields.
• Tool Development: Develop custom scripts and tools to automate testing processes and improve the efficiency of security assessments.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Number of Employees: 5,001-10,000 employees