Cyber Research Engineer

Job Description Job Description Clearance: TS/SCI w/ Poly Location: Reston, VA (preferred) Job-Type: Full-Time Target Salary Range*: $190,000 - $235,000 *This represents the potential salary range for this position depending on education level, years of experience and/or certifications in addition to other position specific requirements which may impact salary Job Summary: We are seeking a highly skilled Cyber Research Engineer with deep technical expertise in Offensive Cyber Operations and low-level software engineering. In this role, you will be a recognized expert, leading the design, development, and deployment of advanced cyber capabilities targeting modern computing environments, embedded systems, and hardened platforms. This position requires visionary approach to research with a keen ability to anticipate emerging cyber challenges and pioneer innovative solutions, and a deep understanding of cyber threat landscapes, exploit development, reverse engineering, mission-oriented software tooling, and adversarial tactics to drive cutting-edge research and prototype novel solutions. Key Responsibilities: Lead and execute advanced offensive cyber research initiatives, including vulnerability discovery, exploit development across userland, kernel, and firmware layers, and the design of novel offensive capabilities. Design, develop, and maintain sophisticated, robust, and scalable offensive security software, tools, and frameworks, with an emphasis on low-level programming for diverse and potentially constrained environments (bare-metal, embedded, real-time systems). Conduct in-depth reverse engineering of binaries, firmware, and proprietary protocols to understand system behavior, identify vulnerabilities, analyze malware, and inform capability development. Prototype and iterate on tooling and methodologies in support of red teaming and Cyber Network Operations (CNO), including exploring automation and AI-driven techniques. Develop and implement software that can evade detection and maintain persistence on target systems. Analyze and model adversarial tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) to simulate real-world cyber threats and inform offensive and defensive strategies. Provide technical leadership and mentorship to junior engineers and peers on offensive cyber techniques, research methodologies, and software development best practices. Collaborate effectively with multidisciplinary teams (including hardware engineers, network analysts, defensive security, data scientists, and mission planners) to identify vulnerabilities, develop innovative techniques, and integrate research findings into operational platforms. Author comprehensive technical documentation, Concepts of Operations (CONOPs), and briefings for both highly technical and operational audiences. Contribute to strategic research initiatives and present findings at internal and external technical forums and conferences. Stay current with the latest developments in offensive cyber techniques, emerging threats, and relevant software technologies to continuously enhance capabilities and platform integration. Required Qualifications: Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Cybersecurity, or a related technical field. 7+ years of experience in cybersecurity with a strong focus on offensive security research and software development in a security context. Expert-level proficiency in C/C++. Strong software development skills for building robust, maintainable, and sophisticated security tools and capabilities. Proficiency in additional relevant languages such as Python and Rust. Deep understanding of operating system internals (Linux, embedded RTOS, Android OS), computer architecture, and low-level programming concepts. Experience with kernel or hypervisor-level development. Extensive hands-on experience with industry-standard reverse engineering tools (e.g., IDA Pro, Ghidra, Binary Ninja, Jeorn) and techniques for analyzing binaries, firmware, and proprietary protocols. Demonstrated expertise in identifying, analyzing, and exploiting complex vulnerabilities (including memory corruption, privilege escalation, sandbox escapes) across multiple platforms, architectures (e.g., x86, ARM, MIPS, RISC-V, microcontrollers), and environments (modern OSes, embedded systems). Hands-on development experience for non-traditional or highly constrained targets. Strong understanding of network stack and protocols, security vulnerabilities, common attack methods, and experience with network protocol manipulation and covert communications. Familiarity with advanced adversarial cybersecurity strategies. Ability to effectively communicate complex technical information, research findings, and operational concepts both verbally and in writing to diverse audiences. Experience leading technical projects or mentoring junior engineers. Eligible for high-level security clearance Preferred Qualifications: Active TS/SCI security clearance with Polygraph. Prior experience supporting Cyber Network Operations (CNO) in air-gapped, RF-contested, or denied environments. Experience with hardware interfaces (JTAG, UART, SPI) and embedded system debugging and exploitation. Background in adversarial environments, such as participation in red teaming, wargaming, or Capture-the-Flag (CTF) competitions. Familiarity with cloud-based systems and infrastructure, containerization, orchestration technologies, and DevOps practices and tools. Demonstrated experience with offensive techniques targeting cloud environments (AWS, Azure, GCP) and containerization technologies (Docker, Kubernetes) Experience with machine learning and artificial intelligence concepts and their application to cybersecurity, including adversarial machine learning. Proven contributions to the security community, including publications, patents, recognized contributions to open-source offensive security tools, published research in top-tier conferences/journals, or bug bounty recognition.