Senior/Principal R&D Cybersecurity Researcher - Cyber Threat Center, Onsite

About the role

Sandia National Laboratories is the nation's premier science and engineering lab for national security and technology innovation, with teams of specialists focused on cutting-edge work in a broad array of areas. The laboratory offers challenging work with amazing impact contributing to security, peace, and freedom worldwide; extraordinary co-workers; some of the best tools, equipment, and research facilities in the world; career advancement and enrichment opportunities; and flexible work arrangements for many positions including 9/80 (work 80 hours every two weeks, with every other Friday off) and 4/10 (work 4 ten-hour days each week) compressed workweeks, part-time work, and telecommuting (a mix of onsite work and working from home).

This role focuses on research dedicated to keeping systems safe and thwarting cyber intrusions. You will develop protective technologies, conduct threat assessments, and analyze government, military, and civilian computer networks as part of a multidisciplinary team solving information security challenges facing the nation. Work spans embedded, mobile, desktop, enterprise, and cloud systems, as well as globally connected networks. The selected candidate must be able to work onsite. Applicants on this requisition may be interviewed by multiple organizations at Sandia National Laboratories.

Responsibilities

• Perform manual and automated reverse engineering, vulnerability assessment, malware analysis, and intrusion detection
• Manage network operations, ensure information protection and resiliency, and implement authentication and authorization
• Apply cryptography techniques to secure systems and data
• Conduct side channel analysis to identify potential security weaknesses
• Perform failure analysis to diagnose and resolve hardware and software issues
• Gather and analyze threat intelligence to support security operations
• Develop and utilize modeling, simulation, and emulation tools for system evaluation
• Apply data science, information theory, and streaming and behavioral analytics to extract insights
• Ensure hardware and software trust and assurance throughout development and deployment
• Design, develop, and maintain real-time operating systems (RTOS) and embedded systems, including Internet of Things (IoT) devices
• Deploy and manage virtualization technologies (system and network) and cloud platforms
• Support mobile devices, smart technologies, and autonomous systems integration and security
• Operate and secure industrial control systems and SCADA systems
• Research, develop, and implement Artificial Intelligence (AI) and AI security solutions

Qualifications

Required:

• Bachelor's degree in a relevant discipline and five (5) years of directly relevant experience, or an equivalent combination of directly relevant education and engineering or scientific experience that demonstrates the knowledge, skills, and ability to perform independent research and development
• Ability to obtain and maintain a DOE Q and SCI clearance which may require a polygraph test

Desired:

• Graduate degree in Computer Science/Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Information Systems, Computer Forensics, Mathematics or a directly related field where an independent research project was a graduation requirement (e.g., independent project, thesis, or dissertation)
• Experience in one or more of: reverse engineering, software vulnerability assessment, web application assessment, computer networking, computer architecture, compilers, hardware analysis, microelectronics, or similar computer security topics
• Proficiency in scripting or high-level programming
• Familiarity with secure-system design principles and information assurance principles
• Excellent communication skills and a demonstrated ability to develop technical ideas and results and present them in oral and written form in a concise manner
• Assembly or operating system programming, application layer programming, Dev-Ops programming, and/or network layer programming
• High consequence high trust systems, mobile systems, embedded systems, OT/ICS/SCADA devices and systems, virtualization technologies, or firmware environments
• Experience with one or more of: operating system design and security, driver development, low-level software debugging, hypervisor implementations, or memory management
• Demonstrated experience and application of one or more of: data science, machine learning, information theory, streaming and behavioral analytics, and network protocols
• Defining new research directions, crafting research proposals, and presenting results of that research in a relevant area of cybersecurity
• Cyber relevant experience in Artificial Intelligence (AI) to include: AI Security, data engineering, and machine learning models
• Active DOE Q or DoD TS security clearance and SCI security clearance, and willingness to take a polygraph exam if requested

Pay

Salary range: $117,500 - $235,700. The range is estimated; actual salary will be determined after consideration of the selected candidate's experience and qualifications, and application of any approved geographic salary differential.

Schedule

Flexible work arrangements for many positions include 9/80 (work 80 hours every two weeks, with every other Friday off) and 4/10 (work 4 ten-hour