Senior Embedded Hardware Security Engineer

The MITRE Corporation•New Bedford, MA

2d•$126,800 - $190,200•Onsite

About The Position

MITRE’s Electronic Systems Security department is seeking to hire talented and creative engineers with a focus on hardware reverse engineering of embedded systems to support advanced research and development projects of national significance. Qualified candidates will join a department with deep technical expertise across many embedded security disciplines including software vulnerability research and reverse engineering, hardware reverse engineering, secure computing, implementation security, and wireless security. Our diverse set of sponsors and research objectives provide a wide variety of opportunities to advance the state-of-the-art in embedded security.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or a related technical field and 5 years of related experience; or Master’s degree/PhD in a similar field and 3 years of related experience
Experience with embedded system tear-down, board-level reverse engineering, vulnerability analysis, and circuit/component modifications
Experience with board- and component-level instrumentation, measurement, and protocol analysis
Experience with printed circuit board design, layout, and understanding of component packaging
Experience with software development (e.g., C/C++, Python)
Understanding of protections against physical attacks including secure boot, tamper sensing, secure key storage, memory encryption/authentication, and debug interface disablement
Ability to independently execute complex technical work in collaborative environments
Effective oral and written communication skills
Applicants selected for this position will be subject to a US government security investigation and must be able to obtain a Department of Defense SECRET clearance
Per the U.S. Government’s eligibility requirements, you must be a U.S Citizen to be considered for a security clearance.
This position requires a minimum of 4 days a week on-site

Nice To Haves

Master’s degree or PhD in Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field.
Active security clearance, especially Top Secret or TS/SCI.
Experience with netlist recreation of printed circuit boards using X-ray or destructive imaging
Experience with prototyping printed circuit boards for probing or injecting high-speed signals
Experience with solder rework/chip-off techniques and non-volatile memory extraction
Experience with anti-tamper design, implementation, evaluation, and/or research
Experience developing embedded software in C/C++
Demonstrated technical leadership and mentoring experience
Experience with one or more, and familiarity with all, of the following technical areas: Application of side-channel analysis and/or fault injection to black-box systems, Analysis of cryptographic algorithms and protocols, Analysis of RF protocols, Analysis of security architectures of modern commercial processors and SoCs, Embedded firmware reverse engineering, FPGA and/or system-on-chip (SoC) development, Signal processing

Responsibilities

Perform hands-on security assessments of embedded systems
Design and build prototypes to demonstrate advanced capabilities for measuring and instrumenting board- and component-level interfaces
Develop software for orchestrating complex lab experiments, instrumenting hardware and lab equipment for data collection, measurement, and analysis
Research and develop new approaches and countermeasures for emerging threats to embedded systems
Shape creative and innovative ideas through internal research programs to advance the state-of-the-art in hardware security
Track, adapt, and apply academic and industry advances in hardware security analysis and protection techniques to secure our sponsors’ systems
Collaborate with multidisciplinary teams conducting embedded security research, vulnerability assessment, and hardware/software co-design.
Work as part of a multi-disciplinary team, while leading tasks and/or teams of engineers
Communicate and document technical approaches, risks, and results to sponsors and stakeholders
Provide technical mentorship to junior engineers