Senior Vulnerability Researcher Engineer (TS)

In a world of possibilities, pursue one with endless opportunities. Imagine Next!At Parsons, you can imagine a career where you thrive, work with exceptional people, and be yourself. Guided by our leadership vision of valuing people, embracing agility, and fostering growth, we cultivate an innovative culture that empowers you to achieve your full potential. Unleash your talent and redefine what’s possible.Job Description:Parsons is seeking a Senior Vulnerability Research Engineer to join our team in support of advanced research and development contracts for the U.S. Government. You'll work on a small, highly technical team performing vulnerability research and reverse engineering against complex embedded and cyber-physical systems. The role involves taking research from initial target analysis through vulnerability discovery, exploit development, and integration into operational cyber capabilities.As a Senior Vulnerability Research Engineer, you'll serve as an experienced hands-on technical contributor while helping guide less experienced researchers through complex technical challenges. You'll have the opportunity to work across the full vulnerability research lifecycle, develop new tools and techniques, and contribute to technically challenging research efforts involving software, firmware, hardware, and communications interfaces.This is an onsite position based at the Cromulence-Parsons office in the historic downtown of Melbourne, Florida, on Florida's Space Coast. Work will be performed in both classified and unclassified environments.What You'll Be Doing:Perform vulnerability research / reverse engineering (VR/RE) against a variety of embedded systems, including both hardware and software targetsAnalyze software, firmware, binaries, protocols, and system behavior to identify exploitable vulnerabilitiesDevelop, test, debug, and integrate cyber tools such as exploits, cyber effects, and supporting research capabilitiesApply static and dynamic analysis techniques using disassemblers, decompilers, debuggers, emulators, instrumentation, and custom toolingAnalyze and bypass modern exploit mitigations and platform-specific security protectionsDevelop scripts, utilities, harnesses, and automation to improve vulnerability discovery, analysis, and exploit development workflowsContribute to the development of emulation, instrumentation, fuzzing, and other advanced vulnerability research capabilitiesIndependently execute significant portions of complex vulnerability research efforts while collaborating with other researchers on larger technical objectivesServe as a senior technical contributor and mentor, providing technical direction to junior researchers while remaining hands-on with vulnerability research and exploit developmentReview technical approaches, research results, exploit implementations, and supporting software developed by other team membersDocument technical findings, research methodologies, vulnerabilities, and developed capabilities for internal and customer-facing useCollaborate with customers and technical stakeholders to understand target systems, research objectives, and technical constraintsWhat Qualifications You'll Bring:Bachelor's degree in a related technical field and 8+ years of professional related experience; Master's degree in a related field will be considered in lieu of 4 years' experience5+ years of hands-on experience in vulnerability research, reverse engineering, exploit development, and/or cyber tool developmentStrong programming experience in languages such as C, C++, and PythonExtensive experience with a decompiler/disassembler such as Ghidra (highly preferred), IDA Pro, or Binary NinjaExpertise analyzing at least one instruction set architecture, such as x86/x86-64, ARM/AArch64, or MIPSExperience using debuggers and other dynamic analysis tools to analyze complex software behaviorExperience with modern exploitation techniques, tools, and methodologiesExperience analyzing and bypassing modern exploit mitigations such as DEP/NX, ASLR, stack protections, CFI, and platform-specific protectionsStrong understanding of operating system fundamentals, memory management, processes, threads, and low-level software behaviorStrong understanding of networking fundamentals and common network protocolsDemonstrated ability to independently investigate complex technical problems and develop practical solutionsAbility to communicate technical concepts, research findings, and implementation details to both researchers and technical stakeholdersWhat Desired Skills You'll Bring:10+ years of experience in vulnerability research, reverse engineering, exploit development, and/or cyber tool developmentExperience reverse engineering embedded and Internet of Things (IoT) systems or cyber-physical devices such as Industrial Control Systems (ICS)Experience analyzing firmware, bootloaders, device drivers, kernels, and other low-level software componentsExperience with Windows Internals and/or Linux kernel-level programmingExperience developing or enhancing emulation systems, such as QEMU, to enable advanced vulnerability research techniquesExperience developing fuzzing harnesses, instrumentation, dynamic analysis tools, symbolic execution capabilities, or other research automationExperience reverse engineering proprietary network protocols, file formats, or communications interfacesExperience with additional operating systems such as Android, iOS, and macOSAdvanced knowledge of networking protocols and network protocol analysisExperience developing software for Windows and/or Linux platformsExperience with multiple processor architecturesExperience analyzing embedded hardware interfaces, peripherals, communications buses, or other cyber-physical system componentsExperience developing reusable vulnerability research tooling or automationExperience mentoring junior vulnerability researchers or providing technical direction on research effortsDemonstrated history of independently solving complex reverse engineering or exploitation problemsundefinedSecurity Clearance Requirement:An active Top Secret clearance is required to apply Must be able to obtain SCI and/or SAP accesses U.S. Citizenship is requiredSecurity Clearance Requirement:An active Top Secret security clearance is required for this position.​This position is part of our Federal Solutions team.The Federal Solutions segment delivers resources to our US government customers that ensure the success of missions around the globe. Our intelligent employees drive the state of the art as they provide services and solutions in the areas of defense, security, intelligence, infrastructure, and environmental. We promote a culture of excellence and close-knit teams that take pride in delivering, protecting, and sustaining our nation's most critical assets, from Earth to cyberspace. Throughout the company, our people are anticipating what’s next to deliver the solutions our customers need now.Salary Range: $112,200.00 - $196,400.00Parsons is an equal opportunity employer, and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, veteran status or any other protected status.We truly invest and care about our employee’s wellbeing and provide endless growth opportunities as the sky is the limit, so aim for the stars! Imagine next and join the Parsons quest—APPLY TODAY!Parsons is aware of fraudulent recruitment practices. To learn more about recruitment fraud and how to report it, please refer to .SummaryLocation: US - FL, West MelbourneType: Full time