Job Abstract

Why choose between doing meaningful work and having a fulfilling life? At MITRE, you can have both. That's because MITRE people are committed to tackling our nation's toughest challenges—and we're committed to the long-term well-being of our employees. MITRE is different from most technology companies. We are a not-for-profit corporation chartered to work for the public interest, with no commercial conflicts to influence what we do. The R&D centers we operate for the government create lasting impact in fields as diverse as cybersecurity, healthcare, aviation, defense, and enterprise transformation. We're making a difference every day—working for a safer, healthier, and more secure nation and world. Our workplace reflects our values. We offer competitive benefits, exceptional professional development opportunities, and a culture of innovation that embraces diversity, inclusion, flexibility, collaboration, and career growth. If this sounds like the choice you want to make, then choose MITRE—and make a difference with us.

Department Summary:

The Cyber for Identity Trust and Assurance department is comprised of an inspired multi-disciplinary team of researchers and practitioners driving innovation in the department’s technical areas of focus, with particular emphasis in Cryptography, Software Assurance (SWA), Identity, Credential and Access Management (ICAM) and Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence (AI). We develop and apply scalable approaches for systems and software, evaluate technology and solutions, lead and foster external partnerships within the communities we support, and conduct novel research and development. We serve in critical roles including:

• Aiding the Government community in applying cryptography and architecting secure cryptographic systems, software, and protocols. We specialize in the application of well-founded cryptographic techniques as well as the design and application of emerging cryptographic techniques for security and privacy, including post-quantum cryptography, fully homomorphic encryption, and secure multi-party computation, among others. 
• Developing and implementing SWA programs for our sponsors, enabling them to build and maintain assurance in the software they’re deploying. Our expertise also involves a deep understanding of software weaknesses and best practices for mitigating them as well as strategies for managing software supply chain security.
• Developing strategies, assessing policy and technical constraints, and facilitating the deployment of ICAM solutions into cloud, on-premises, and tactical environments. As senior trusted advisors and leaders within the ICAM community internally and external to MITRE, we apply our knowledge of industry trends, advances in commercial technology, and relevant industry standards and protocols to inform our sponsors’ decision-making.
• Working at the intersection of Cybersecurity and AI on trustworthy approaches to applying AI to cybersecurity applications (e.g., autonomous network defense, assessing code for software weaknesses) as well as developing and applying frameworks for evaluating the assurance of AI-based techniques. 
• Performing research and development, evaluation and testing and operational support for high-priority sponsor mission applications, MITRE Labs strategic initiatives, and MITRE’s internal research and development program.

Roles & Responsibilities:

As a member of the Cyber for Identity Trust and Assurance department in the Cyber Solutions Innovation Center, you will join an inspired team of engineers, researchers and practitioners who are modernizing crypto-based systems to adopt new post-quantum algorithms and applying crypto-based solutions for data and computational security and privacy.  We serve as experts within the MITRE community on novel cryptographic technology and advance its application to solve some of our Government’s most challenging problems.  Our interests include, but are not limited to, the following:  authentication and key establishment protocols, zero-knowledge proofs, threshold cryptography, multiparty computation, differential privacy, blockchains, obfuscation, and fully homomorphic encryption. 

We are seeking qualified candidates to support our growing work program in this highly technical field.  Successful candidates will directly contribute to one or more projects for our direct sponsors in Los Angeles, propose and lead internally funded applied research efforts, and work with department leadership on expanding our work and growing our team in this exciting technical area. The ideal candidate will also take an active role in the mentoring and professional development of junior staff in our Cyber New Professionals Program – new grads who aspire to careers in the field of cybersecurity.

Responsibilities of the Principal Cryptography Engineer position include:

• Providing thought leadership in secure system design and applied cryptography both within MITRE and for our sponsors, reflecting recent relevant research and commercial technology.
• Engaging in collaborations with academia, industry, and across MITRE to create, evaluate, and apply cryptography-based solutions for security and privacy.
• Proposing and leading new research into novel approaches to secure system design involving applications of cryptography, bringing your unique knowledge to bear.
• Working with department leadership and subject matter experts to evolve our strategy and technical capabilities in alignment with sponsor needs.
• Working in collaboration on our sponsors’ most urgent problems, including but not limited to: applying and defending cryptographic best practices in system design; identifying benefits, drawbacks, and limitations of cryptographic constructs in realistic applications; identifying and documenting cryptographic implementation and key handling requirements, protocols, algorithms, side-channel attacks, authentication, and technical solutions for privacy.
• Provide exemplary leadership, caring mentorship, and generously sharing technical advice with staff related to domain knowledge or capabilities.

Basic Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Cybersecurity, Applied Mathematics, or related technical field of study and 10+ years related experience as an engineer or researcher on work relating to cybersecurity, secure system design, or applied cryptography.
• Must have active Top Secret clearance for consideration.
• Working knowledge of cryptographic algorithms and important cryptographic protocol standards such as TLS, IKE/IPsec, S/MIME, OAuth, etc.
• Deep technical understanding of one or more areas within cryptography or applied cryptography.
• Demonstrated experience collaborating successfully with teams.
• Demonstrated examples of building and leveraging relationships that had a positive impact on the work.
• Track record of impactful work – how you have made a difference. 
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills and proactive, critical thinking skills.
• Excellent written/verbal communications skills.
• This position has an on-site requirement of 5 days a week on-site.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Preference given to qualified candidates with active DoD Top Secret / SCI Clearance.
• Advanced degree in Computer Science, Cybersecurity, Applied Mathematics, or related technical field of study.
• Experience in cryptographic or cryptanalytic research.
• Experience with cryptographic algorithm and/or protocol coding, with particular expertise in quantum resistant algorithms.
• Desire to specify and execute independent research applicable to government sponsor problems.
• A personal desire to help others, including our sponsors, to develop and acquire safe and secure applications.
• Prior successful experience leading teams.

This requisition requires the candidate to have a minimum of the following clearance(s):

This requisition requires the hired candidate to have or obtain, within one year from the date of hire, the following clearance(s):

Salary compensation range and midpoint:

Work Location Type:

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