Senior AI Reverse Engineering Researcher

This position is based onsite at an SEI customer location in the Fort Meade area.

The SEI helps advance software engineering principles and practices and serves as a national resource in software engineering, computer security, and process improvement. The SEI works closely with defense and government organizations, industry, and academia to continually improve software-intensive systems. Our core purpose is to help organizations improve software engineering capabilities and develop or acquire the right software, defect free, within budget and on time, every time.

The CERT Division of the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) is seeking an applicant for the role of a Senior AI Reverse Engineer Researcher for the Threat Analysis directorate. The SEI is a federally funded research and development center at Carnegie Mellon University.

• Apply artificial intelligence and machine learning techniques to code analysis and reverse engineering challenges to support technical and threat-based assessment, such as malware detection/classification

• Design and develop new analysis methods and tools, work to identify and address emerging and complex threats, and effectively participate in the broader security community

• Document and transition results in reports, presentations, and technical exchanges

• Identify, document, and analyze emerging and complex active security threats

• Participate in the broader security community through collaboration, papers, and presentations

• You enjoy working on emerging and complex data science problems, especially those that relate to reverse engineering and malware analysis

• You have an analytical mindset and deep curiosity about data science and how software works

• You have the ability to balance rapid prototyping with maintainable tool development

• You have strong technical writing experience

• You recognize and deal appropriately with confidential and sensitive information

• You are able to handle continual shifting priorities

• You enjoy mentoring and training others as well as sharing knowledge

• You communicate effectively with technical and non-technical audiences

• You have BS in Data Science, Computer Science or related discipline with eight (10) years of experience; OR MS in the same fields with five (8) years of experience; OR PhD in the same fields with two (5) years of experience

• You have a willingness to travel to various locations to support the SEI’s overall mission This includes sponsor sites, conferences, and offsite meetings on occasion.

• You will be subject to a background check and obtain and maintain an active Department of War security clearance

• Predictive modeling, data science, and/or AI & machine learning

• Deep understanding of statistical modeling techniques and advanced data analytics

• Innovative and inquisitive with ability to imagine novel analytical solutions to code analysis challenges

• Thrives in a multi-disciplinary environment

• Experience with Modern ML frameworks: LightGBM/XGBoost, Cat Boost, PyTorch,JAX, Tensor Flow)

• LLMs / agentic workflows (i.e. Lang Chain/Llama Index/Haystack)

• Experience deploying models (i.e. FastAPI, Triton, KServe, Sage Maker, Vertex AI, or similar)

• Experience with disassemblers, decompilers, and debuggers (e.g. IDA Pro, NSA Ghidra)

• Experience with high-level programming languages (e.g. Java, Python, GoLang, etc.)

• Software engineering and design concepts

• Familiarity with malware tradecraft and threat actor tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs)

• Join a world-class organization that has significant impact on software

• Work with cutting edge technologies and experts to solve tough problems for the government and the nation

• Get 8% monthly contribution for your…