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.