Senior Vulnerability Researcher Engineer (TS)

Senior Vulnerability Research EngineerParsons is seeking a Senior Vulnerability Research Engineer to join our team in support of advanced research and development contracts for the U.S. Government. You'll work on a small, highly technical team performing vulnerability research and reverse engineering against complex embedded and cyber-physical systems.

The role involves taking research from initial target analysis through vulnerability discovery, exploit development, and integration into operational cyber capabilities.This is an onsite position based at the Cromulence-Parsons office in the historic downtown of Melbourne, Florida, on Florida's Space Coast. Work will be performed in both classified and unclassified environments.What You'll Be Doing:Perform vulnerability research / reverse engineering (VR/RE) against a variety of embedded systems, including both hardware and software targetsAnalyze software, firmware, binaries, protocols, and system behavior to identify exploitable vulnerabilitiesDevelop, test, debug, and integrate cyber tools such as exploits, cyber effects, and supporting research capabilitiesApply static and dynamic analysis techniques using disassemblers, decompilers, debuggers, emulators, instrumentation, and custom toolingAnalyze and bypass modern exploit mitigations and platform-specific security protectionsDevelop scripts, utilities, harnesses, and automation to improve vulnerability discovery, analysis, and exploit development workflowsContribute to the development of emulation, instrumentation, fuzzing, and other advanced vulnerability research capabilitiesIndependently execute significant portions of complex vulnerability research efforts while collaborating with other researchers on larger technical objectivesServe as a senior technical contributor and mentor, providing technical direction to junior researchers while remaining hands-on with vulnerability research and exploit developmentReview technical approaches, research results, exploit implementations, and supporting software developed by other team membersDocument technical findings, research methodologies, vulnerabilities, and developed capabilities for internal and customer-facing useCollaborate with customers and technical stakeholders to understand target systems, research objectives, and technical constraintsWhat Qualifications You'll Bring:Bachelor's degree in a related technical field and 8+ years of professional related experience; Master's degree in a related field will be considered in lieu of 4 years' experience5+ years of hands-on experience in vulnerability research, reverse engineering, exploit development, and/or cyber tool developmentStrong programming experience in languages such as C, C++, and PythonExtensive experience with a decompiler/disassembler such as Ghidra (highly preferred), IDA Pro, or Binary NinjaExpertise analyzing at least one instruction set architecture, such as x86/x86-64, ARM/AArch64, or MIPSExperience using debuggers and other dynamic analysis tools to analyze complex software behaviorExperience with modern exploitation techniques, tools, and methodologiesExperience analyzing and bypassing modern exploit mitigations such as DEP/NX, ASLR, stack protections, CFI, and platform-specific protectionsStrong understanding of operating system fundamentals, memory management, processes, threads, and low-level software behaviorStrong understanding of networking fundamentals and common network protocolsDemonstrated ability to independently investigate complex technical problems and develop practical solutionsAbility to communicate technical concepts, research findings, and implementation details to both researchers and technical stakeholdersSecurity Clearance Requirement:An active Top Secret clearance is required to applyMust be able to obtain SCI and/or SAP accessesU.S. Citizenship is required