Cyber Systems Exploitation Researcher

The Cyber System Assessments Group performs software and hardware reverse engineering, vulnerability research and discovery, and system exploitation. We develop and prototype cutting-edge capabilities for our operational partners in the U.S. government. We look for, find, and demonstrate cyber vulnerabilities so that vulnerabilities in U.S. systems can be corrected, and so that vulnerabilities in other systems are better understood. Top U.S. Government leadership relies on us for our expert guidance, and our technical role with our U.S. Government sponsors is considered essential to the success of their missions.

Position Description

When you join our team as a Cyber System Exploitation Researcher, you'll be contributing to the development of cyber security tools and techniques. You'll be reverse engineering and exploiting software and hardware systems important to U.S. government operations and critical to the defense of our nation. Your main areas of research will 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. Once you’re on our team, you will communicate your research to non-domain experts through your writing, public presentations, and hand-on training sessions.

Requirements:

MS in Computer Science, Computer Engineering or related discipline or BS and 3+ years of directly related experience

Selected candidate will be subject to a pre-employment background investigation and must be able to obtain and maintain a Top Secret level DoD security clearance

Desired Technical Skills: (Familiarity and Expertise in some)

Version Control Systems (Git)

Dissassemblers/Decompilers (Ghidra, IDAPro)

Debuggers (WinDbg, GDB)

Programming Languages (C/C++, Python)

Infrastructure/Container Provisioning/Orchestration Systems (Ansible, Kubernetes, Docker)

Network Protocol Analysis (Wireshark, Tcpdump)

Emulator/Virtualization Technologies (VMWare, QEMU)

Operating System Internals

Reverse Engineering of Embedded Systems Firmware, Malicious Code, Mobile Applications, and More

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

Network and Host Security Products

At MIT Lincoln Laboratory, our exceptional career opportunities include many outstanding benefits to help you stay healthy, feel supported, and enjoy a fulfilling work-life balance. Benefits offered to employees include:

Comprehensive health, dental, and vision plans

MIT-funded pension

Matching 401K

Paid leave (including vacation, sick, parental, military, etc.)

Tuition reimbursement and continuing education programs

Mentorship programs

A range of work-life balance options

... and much more!

Please visit our Benefits page for more information. As an employee of MIT, you can also take advantage of other voluntary benefits, discounts and perks.

Selected candidate will be subject to a pre-employment background investigation and must be able to obtain and maintain a Secret level DoD security clearance.

MIT Lincoln Laboratory is an Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment and will not be discriminated against on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, veteran status, disability status, or genetic information; U.S. citizenship is required.

Requisition ID: 41137