Cryptanalytic Computer Scientist

Fort George G. Meade Complex, MD
Pay Plan: GG , Grade: 09/1 to 12/10
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NSA is a world leader in both the protection and exploitation of intelligence. NSA's mission is to collect and process foreign intelligence to answer critical questions from policy makers, our military, and our national leaders. While very few of the action movies you watch about NSA describe our protect mission, defending US critical infrastructure from attack is extremely important as well.

At the end of the day, our job is to keep the Nation safe and informed about potential threats from foreign adversaries.

Cryptanalysis, or code breaking, is at the heart of NSA. Crypt analysts monitor, collect, and process encrypted communications from foreign nations who may post a threat to the United States. We perform the cryptanalytic mission on encrypted foreign collection containing bespoke encryption algorithms and strong commercial cryptography. Additionally, crypt analysts provide solutions to authenticate and enable computer network exploitation of the United States' foreign adversaries.

Our outcomes yield the highest impact intelligence and security outcomes for NSA and the Nation.

If you enjoy reverse engineering code, working with high- and low-level languages, or applying Dev Ops techniques to build and maintain robust software frameworks this may be a great position for you. We have incredible teams made up of a multitude of backgrounds, including computer science, computer engineering, attack development, mathematics, and more. If you would like to leverage your background and be a part of our exciting mission,

NSA is in search of analysts with a computer science background to solve complex problems, test innovative approaches and research new solutions. We are looking for you to apply your computer science expertise to develop cryptanalytic capabilities and techniques to exploit cryptographic systems. Help protect national security interests as part of the world's most advanced team of computer science and cryptanalytic professionals!

The qualifications listed are the minimum acceptable to be considered for the position.

Degree must be in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Software Engineering, Mathematics. Related fields (for example, Cybersecurity, Engineering, Information Technology, Information Systems, Physics, or Statistics) may be considered relevant if the programs contain, at minimum, courses in 4 of the following 6 Computer Science/Math areas: algorithms; computer architecture (not network architecture); logic and computation; programming methodologies and languages; data structures;

and mathematics (calculus or above) or statistics.

Relevant experience must be in one or more of the following: cryptanalysis, computer science, computer network operations, ethical hacking, math, statistics, data science, engineering, programming, or hands on experience in network domains and operating systems.

ENTRY/DEVELOPMENTAL Entry is with an Associate's degree plus 2 years of relevant experience, or a Bachelor's degree and no experience.

FULL PERFORMANCE Entry is with an Associate's degree plus 5 years of relevant experience, or a Bachelor's degree plus 3 years of relevant experience, or a Master's degree plus 1 year of relevant experience. or a Doctoral degree and no experience.

The ideal candidate is curious with a desire for continual learning and strong problem-solving, analytic, and interpersonal skills. Is persistent, collaborative, and able to communicate effectively.

Candidate will have one year+ experience with low level programming (C, C++, Assembly), as well as:

• Proficiency in C/C++, Rust, Python
• Experience with software debugging
• Hardware and Software engineering tradecraft
• Network protocol analysis
• Operating System/Kernel knowledge
• Computational science
• Cryptography basics (e.g. cryptographic algorithms and protocols)
• CI/CD (e.g. using Git Lab, Git Hub, Travis CI, Jenkins)
• Containers & container orchestration (e.g. Docker, Podman, Kubernetes, Docker Swarm)
• Packaging (e.g. Conda, Rust Crates)
• Telemetry (e.g. Prometheus, ELK, Splunk)
• Message queues (e.g. RabbitMQ, Kafka)

Pay:
Salary offers are based on candidates' education level and years of experience relevant to the position and also take into account information provided by the hiring manager/organization regarding the work level for the position.

Salary Range:…