Hardware Exploitation Engineer

This role is for a Hardware Exploitation Engineer conducting forensic examination of digital media.

Supporting NMEC’s Hardware Exploitation Lab (HEL) in repair / restore physical devices for further analysis. Devices submitted to HEL for analysis tend to be personal electronic devices such as smartphones and computers, but also include automotive systems and unique, custom-created devices. Qualified candidate will have strong EE foundation and demonstrated experience in working with devices at the circuit board level. Technical skills should include: JTAG chip-off experience, ability to read & reproduce circuit diagrams, and soldering experience. Additional skills include: x-ray experience, laser re-ball familiarity (to prepare micro-processor ships for installation), and experience troubleshooting and repairing HDDs.

The selected candidate will have the opportunity to work in all areas of the HEL alongside USG, NMEC contractor, and Sandia National Labs personnel. HEL technicians regularly collaborate with technical personnel in other NMEC sections and produce reports on the outcomes of their work in the lab. NMEC Leadership anticipates the need to train the selected candidate on the specific tools and processes used in the HEL, but has found that individuals with a strong EE background have been able to thrive in this role.

Duties Include:

• Conduct reverse-engineering, failure analysis and vulnerability analysis of hardware to identify exploitation opportunities
• Modify hardware to either enable forensic analysis of the media or to change the functionality of the hardware for other purposes
• Perform inspection, imaging, decapsulation, deprocessing and other activities related to hardware reverse engineering and exploitation in a state-of-the-art microelectronics exploitation laboratory
• Development and maintain frameworks, processes, design patterns, techniques, tools and standards for conducting hardware exploitation of digital media
• Keep abreast of and report on scientific, engineering and operation advances in hardware exploitation
• Serve as a SME for NMEC, its partners and customers
• Full-scope forensic examinations from the hardware aspect of media
• Given a target communications device, use reverse engineering tools and methods to determine vulnerabilities of the device for technical exploitation purposes
• Determine how it boots/initializes and obtaining a binary that can be used for reverse engineering
• Identify the function that respond to network connections requests, understand internal communications mechanism, outlining the general structure of the system software and determining how system state is altered/saved
• Prepare technical reports, present results, and demonstrate system capabilities to peer review groups, managers, and sponsors
• Lead teams and participate in the analysis of embedded platform firmware and operating systems to understand security vulnerabilities associated with various platform communication links
• Develop and execute test plans to ensure all requirements of developed capabilities are fully satisfied
• Using knowledge gained through the application of reverse-engineering and other research techniques, design and develop low-level C and assembly applications for embedded ARM platforms that interface directly with platform hardware
• Provide data recovery processes for hard drives, thumb drives and other kinds of media with storage capacity

Basic Qualifications:

• TS/SCI w/ CI Poly
• Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Computer Engineering, Electronics Engineering, or Electrical Engineering and at least five (5) years of related experience.
• DoD 8570 Compliant Certification - any Tier 2 certification within 6 months of start.

(https://public.cyber.mil/cw/cwmp/dod-approved-8570-baseline-certifications/)

• Assembly language and C/C++ programming experience. Solid understanding of programming language and operating system concepts
• Experience requiring skills in reverse engineering of embedded systems with proprietary operating systems for the express purpose of introducing functionally to an already existing fielded system
• Experience researching a hardware platform to understand the software and hardware interaction of embedded systems
• Experience requiring knowledge of C and Assembler software development for embedded platforms that run commercial and/or custom operating systems
• Experience requiring a working knowledge of embedded system design, communications with peripheral devices at the hardware level and reverse engineering of system software
• Working experience scripting languages: shell, Perl, or the like
• Working experience in microprocessors/architectures: ARM, MIPS, RISC, PowerPC, XScale, StrongARM, x86
• Experience operating systems: VxWorks, Integrity, embedded , Unix, Windows embedded
• Experience IDEs: Tornado, Workbench, VxSim, MULTI, TimeMachine, TraceEdge, Eagle CAD
• Experience in hardware tools and debuggers: Green Hills Proble, SuperTrace Probe, Slingshot, spectrum analyzer, logic analyzer, JTAG, Agilent Technologies equipment
• Working experience in software tools and debuggers: Wireshark, IDA Pro, OllyDbg, pcap, gdb, make, hex editor
• Experience requiring excellent written and verbal communications skills

Desired Skills:

• Master of Science or PhD degree degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Computer Engineering, Electronics Engineering, or Electrical Engineering and at least two (2) years of related experience.
• Experience with microprocessor instruction sets.
• Experience with Operating System: RTOS.

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS:
job.Qualifications

Lockheed Martin is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, protected veteran status, or disability status.
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EXPERIENCE LEVEL:
Experienced Professional