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:

MITRE’s Electronic Systems Development and Embedded Security department is seeking to hire talented and creative engineers with significant expertise in hardware and software/firmware security for embedded systems to lead and support projects for the US Space Force and their mission on delivering resilient and unrivaled space capabilities for the warfighter.  In this position, they will partner with government sponsors as thought leaders and trusted advisors to provide subject matter expertise and lead technical efforts in electronics where secure design and analysis are essential. 

Qualified candidates will join a team of technical experts in embedded system security.  This multi-disciplinary team performs hands-on research and analysis and develops proof-of-concept prototypes to demonstrate and advance the state-of-the-art in embedded security.  This position offers exciting opportunities to propose and lead new internal research efforts in the hardware security domain.

Roles & Responsibilities:

Qualified candidates will join a team of technical experts focused on embedded system security.  This multi-disciplinary team performs hands-on research and analysis including evaluating and validating critical government systems for deployment, solving some of our sponsors toughest challenges in gaining space superiority.  Our diverse set of sponsors and research objectives provide a wide variety of interesting work opportunities.  Example project activities include:

• Perform security assessments of embedded systems
• Provide security expertise, thought leadership, and consultation as a trusted advisor for a range of sponsors and challenges
• Use insights in embedded security analysis and protection techniques to secure sponsor systems
• Design and develop new approaches and countermeasures for threats to embedded systems
• Develop prototypes to demonstrate advanced capabilities
• Propose and lead internal research projects
• Collaborate with other government institutions and academic partners to advance joint research efforts

If the above activities sound exciting to you; if you have a deep curiosity for how embedded systems work (and how they break); and if you are interested in tackling some of our nation’s toughest technical challenges, apply to this position!

Basic Qualifications:

• B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or related field, and 8+ years of related experience
• Must be a US citizen capable of obtaining and maintaining a US government Secret clearance
• Expertise and practical experience in hardware/firmware attacks and countermeasures which may include one or more of: tampering, invasive and non-invasive attacks, and vulnerability discovery and reverse-engineering of integrated circuits, hardware, and software
• Ability to work with customers to understand their use cases and formulate a path forward, requires excellent oral and written communication skills for technical and non-technical audiences
• Basic understanding of cryptography and information security concepts
• Effective oral and written communication skills
• This position requires a minimum of 50% hybrid on-site

Preferred Qualifications:

Highly qualified candidates would meet several of the following preferred qualifications, however, we do not expect any individual to meet all of these and are looking to fill multiple positions according to technical expertise.

• M.S. or PhD in Electrical or Computer Engineering, Computer Science or related field and 10+ years of related experience
• Experience with anti-tamper design and countermeasure development
• Experience leading teams developing or evaluating secure embedded systems
• Understanding or expertise in hardware security primitives to include but not limited to PUFs, secure storage, key management, cryptographic cores, etc.
• Familiarity with secure US government systems
• Expertise in tear-down and reverse engineering techniques for embedded systems (hardware interface capture and probing, protocol analysis, board-level RE and modifications, side-channel analysis, fault induction, etc.) 
• Expertise in FPGA or ASIC development
• Experience with software development

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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