Principal Systems Software Engineer
About the role
This role combines ethical hacking, vulnerability research, and clean-room reverse-engineering practices to understand how systems work, identify security weaknesses, and help engineering teams remediate them responsibly along with future proofing. This role works closely with product, infrastructure, security, hardware, and platform teams, as well as external silicon and hardware vendors. You will be deeply hands-on, owning early prototypes through production-ready platform software and technical standards.
Responsibilities
- Perform authorized security assessments of embedded, IoT, and hardware-based products.
- Reverse engineer firmware, binaries, bootloaders, protocols, and device interfaces.
- Analyze hardware using UART, JTAG/SWD, SPI, I²C, logic analyzers, oscilloscopes, and related lab tools.
- Extract and assess firmware; identify attack surfaces, vulnerabilities, and insecure design patterns.
- Conduct protocol, RF, wireless, and physical security testing, where authorized.
- Develop proof-of-concept demonstrations in controlled environments and provide practical remediation guidance.
- Reconstruct system behavior, document interfaces, and support clean room re-implementations for interoperability or security research.
- Build scripts and tooling to automate firmware analysis, testing, and repeatable security checks.
- Produce clear technical reports with reproduction steps, severity, impact, and mitigation recommendations.
- Work with engineering and product security teams to improve secure design, threat modeling, and product hardening.
- Collaborate with silicon vendors on reference code, firmware updates, and firmware enablement.
- Mentor engineers, participate in design reviews, and define standards for maintainable, supportable, production-grade firmware across teams.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience in embedded security, hardware hacking, firmware analysis, reverse engineering, penetration testing, or vulnerability research.
- Demonstrated commitment to ethical hacking and authorized research.
- Proficiency in C programming and kernel-level debugging.
- Several years of hands-on Unix/Linux kernel development experience preferred.
- Knowledge of security technologies including TPM, Secure Boot, kernel signing, and encryption frameworks.
- Working knowledge of hardware interfaces and protocols, including UART, JTAG, SPI, I²C, USB, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Zigbee, or proprietary RF.
- Ability to communicate technical findings to both engineering and non-technical stakeholders.
- In-depth knowledge of ARM, Intel, and AMD platforms and what chipsets do.
Pay
US: Hiring range in USD from $110,100 – $234,600 per year. May be eligible for bonus, equity, and compensation deferral. Oracle maintains broad salary ranges for its roles to account for variations in knowledge, skills, experience, market conditions and locations, as well as reflect Oracle’s differing products, industries and lines of business. Candidates are typically placed into the range based on the preceding factors as well as internal peer equity.
Benefits
- Medical, dental, and vision insurance, including expert medical opinion
- Short-term and long-term disability
- Life insurance and AD&D
- Supplemental life insurance (Employee/Spouse/Child)
- Health care and dependent care Flexible Spending Accounts
- Pre-tax commuter and parking benefits
- 401(k) Savings and Investment Plan with company match
- Paid time off: Flexible Vacation is provided to all eligible employees assigned to a salaried (non-overtime eligible) position; accrued Vacation is provided to all other eligible employees
- 11 paid holidays
- Paid sick leave: 72 hours upon date of hire; refreshes each calendar year up to a maximum cap of 112 hours
- Paid parental leave
- Adoption assistance
- Employee Stock Purchase Plan
- Financial planning and group legal
- Voluntary benefits including auto, homeowner and pet insurance