Cyber Systems Exploitation Researcher

Cyber System Exploitation Researcher

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 reverse engineer and exploit software and hardware systems important to U.S. government operations and critical to the defense of our nation. Your research focuses on cyber tool prototyping, technical analysis of offensive or defensive cyber tools and systems, automated vulnerability discovery, reverse engineering, software protection mechanisms, static analysis, and dynamic instrumentation.

You will communicate your findings to non‑domain experts through writing, public presentations, and hands‑on training sessions.

• Develop cyber security tools and techniques.
• Reverse engineer and exploit software and hardware systems important to U.S. government operations.
• Conduct cyber tool prototyping and technical analysis of offensive or defensive cyber tools and systems.
• Perform automated vulnerability discovery, reverse engineering, software protection mechanisms, static analysis, and dynamic instrumentation.
• Communicate research findings to non‑domain experts through writing, public presentations, and hands‑on training sessions.

• BS in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related discipline.
• 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.

• Version Control Systems (Git)
• Dissassemblers/Decompilers (Ghidra, IDAPro)
• Debuggers (Win Dbg, 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

Recent Graduate Hiring Range: $100,200 - $120,000

Experienced Hiring Range: $100,200 - $150,000

MIT Lincoln Laboratory provides a typical hiring range as a good faith estimate of what we reasonably expect to offer for this position at the time of posting. The final salary offered to a selected candidate will depend on various factors, including—but not limited to—the scope and responsibilities of the role, the candidate’s experience, skills and education/training, internal equity considerations and applicable legal requirements.

This range reflects base salary only and does not include additional forms of compensation or benefits.

• 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!

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.