Senior FPGA Reverse Engineer

STR’s Cyber Division is hiring a Senior FPGA Reverse Engineer who will leverage their digital hardware design background to work within a multi-disciplinary team solving unique problems surrounding FPGA reverse engineering.

We are seeking a candidate to execute FPGA reverse engineering tasks and support software development to improve and automate the process.  A key responsibility will be netlist analysis, which involves studying gate-level layouts of FPGA applications to craft a behavioral understanding of the design through a combination of logic circuit analysis and characterization through register transfer level (RTL) simulations. Candidates will also support efforts in operationalizing emerging hardware reverse engineering capabilities to better enable gate-level netlist analysis. Tool development involves writing software leveraging existing frameworks and insight based on the FPGA reverse engineering process to improve STR’s capability in this emerging field. A FPGA reverse engineer should be prepared to brief the internal team and STR’s customers on RE findings and provide updates on tool development.

What you will do:

Perform FPGA reverse engineering work within a team to identify behavioral details of an application

Model, test, and document RE findings using hardware modeling and simulation platforms

Prepare reports and presentations for STR’s customers and collaborators detailing FPGA RE findings

Assist in research for emerging FPGA and hardware reverse engineering capabilities

Develop software supporting STR’s FPGA reverse engineering capabilities and identify new areas for tool development

Participate in design reviews and testing for FPGA RE tools

Who you are:

This position requires the ability to obtain a Top Secret (TS) security clearance, for which U.S. citizenship is needed by the U.S. Government

Bachelors Degree in Computer Engineering/Electrical & Computer Engineering with at least 5 years of relevant experience

Strong problem solving skills and ability to apply a technical background to non-traditional problems

Experience working with hardware description languages (i.e., Verilog, SystemVerilog, VHDL)

Experience developing applications targeting FPGAs including design, synthesis, and configuration

In depth knowledge of industry standard FPGAs (i.e., Altera, Xilinx), their development environments (i.e., Quartus, Vivado), RTL simulation, and project compilation workflows

Strong background with digital design and logic concepts

Software development experience ideally in Python, C, and/or C++

Ability to prepare and present technical material to customers and internal staff

Nice to have:

Active Top Secret (TS) Security Clearance

Deep knowledge of FPGA architecture

Hardware troubleshooting experience including using logic analyzers and oscilloscopes

Experience using Matlab and Simulink

Embedded systems experience including sensor interfacing with an FPGA or microcontroller

Knowledge of signal processing implementation techniques common to FPGA implementations

Leadership experience especially for hardware, FPGA, and/or embedded systems design efforts

Pay Information

Full-Time Salary Range: $138,000 - $189,000

The salary range listed is based on external market data. Final offers are based on factors, such as but not limited to, the candidate’s experience, education, training, key skills/critical skills, security clearances, and prevailing market and business conditions.