Cyber Systems Exploitation Researcher

MIT Lincoln Laboratory Level 1 Assistant Staff provide critical support for domain-level innovative research to the Laboratory's national security mission. They prototype solutions for state-of-the art technology and engage in many steps of a program(s) lifecycle, often under the direction of project and team leaders. As a successful Level 1 Assistant Staff candidate, you will work on and with multidisciplinary project teams assisting with solutions to complex problems through research and technology development activities. In this entry-level role, you will learn about the Laboratory and the work we do for our research sponsors and on behalf of the nation. This includes gaining an understanding of the mission, technical standards, and project/program best practices while contributing to clearly defined research and technical assignments. At this level, you apply foundational knowledge from a primary technical discipline within a defined domain of work, completing clearly scoped assignments with guidance while developing an understanding of how that expertise supports broader project objectives and the Laboratory's mission.

As a successful Level 1 Assistant Staff, you will have a strong technical foundation combined with a curiosity to learn. This combination will evolve your skills in ways that effectively apply your talents to real-world mission problems. A successful candidate will work closely with experienced staff to support activities such as hardware and software development, systems analysis, data analysis, component fabrication, system integration, testing, and documentation.

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.

• Through daily tasks, support the design, development, data analysis, programing, testing, troubleshooting, and documentation of system prototypes under guidance from experienced staff.
• Applies basic technical practices, tools, and procedures to complete defined tasks in a timely manner.
• Assists other members of team with data collection and documentation based on standard policies and procedures as needed.
• Learns relevant mission context, technical standards, and important processes that support the success of the project team.
• Collaborates with team members by proactively communicating progress, surfacing questions in a timely manner, and receiving and incorporating feedback effectively into technical work products.

• Contribute to the development of cyber security tools and techniques.
• Reverse engineer and exploit software and hardware systems important to U.S. government operations and critical to the defense of our nation.
• Conduct research in 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.
• Communicate research to non-domain experts through writing, public presentations, and hands-on training sessions.

• Bachelor's degree in a STEM discipline or other relevant technical field, or equivalent relevant experience.
• Typically, no technical experience or relevant research, engineering, or other technical experience required.
• Foundational understanding of research principles, analytical methods, and structured problem solving.
• Ability to learn and apply technical tools, systems, standards, and procedures within a team environment.
• Effective written and verbal communication skills, including ability to document work clearly, ask clarifying questions and interact respectfully with colleagues, sponsors, and other stakeholders.
• Demonstrated collaboration, curiosity, attention to detail, and willingness to receive and apply feedback.

• Selected candidate will be subject to a pre-employment background investigation and must be able to obtain a Secret level DoD security clearance. Additionally, must be eligible and willing to apply for a Top Secret SCI level DoD security clearance and be able to maintain this clearance level once obtained.

Familiarity with many of the following:

• Version control systems (Git)
• Disassemblers/decompilers (Ghidra, IDA Pro)
• Debuggers (WinDbg, GDB)
• Programming languages (C/C++, Python)
• Infrastructure/container provisioning and orchestration (Ansible, Kubernetes, Docker)
• Network protocol analysis (Wireshark, tcpdump)
• Emulation/virtualization (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