Principal Reverse Engineering/Vulnerability Research Engineer
Clarity Innovations8 days ago
Herndon, VA, USA or Charleston, SC, USAStaff+
Base Salary
$146k - $248k/yr
Responsibilities
- Plan and execute vulnerability research and reverse engineering efforts, including milestones, feasibility assessments, and customer-aligned deliverables.
- Perform static and dynamic analysis with disassemblers, debuggers, emulators, tracers, and fuzzers.
- Identify vulnerabilities, perform root-cause analysis, and document reproducible findings and technical limitations.
- Develop proof-of-concept exploits and operational exploit components and evaluate or bypass relevant mitigations.
- Build reusable tooling and automation and recommend improvements to research methods and processes.
- Communicate progress, risks, findings, and recommendations to technical and non-technical stakeholders.
- Collaborate across technical boundaries, participate in peer reviews, coordinate technical tasks, and mentor junior researchers.
Requirements
- Secret security clearance with the ability to obtain and maintain TS/SCI clearance; U.S. citizenship is required.
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related technical discipline, or equivalent experience, plus at least five years of relevant experience.
- Ability to independently conduct vulnerability research and reverse engineering from planning through documented results.
- Experience with Ghidra, Binary Ninja, IDA, or comparable reverse engineering and disassembly tools.
- Strong Linux fundamentals, including sockets, file descriptors, networking, iptables, file systems, and kernel behavior.
- Ability to read and write C and analyze assembly for ARM, MIPS, or x86-64 architectures.
- Strong programming fundamentals in networking, data structures, and data models.
- Practical exploitation experience with arbitrary read/write primitives, shellcode, return-oriented programming, or jump-oriented programming.
- Experience improving research methods or recommending tooling and process changes; ability to collaborate, explain findings, and guide less experienced contributors.
- Experience in capture-the-flag competitions, hackathons, or other cybersecurity competitions.
- Preferred qualifications include an active Top Secret clearance; operating system and kernel reverse engineering; AFL++, libFuzzer, SELinux, seccomp, ASLR, and control-flow integrity experience; GDB, gdbserver, compiler toolchains, Android Native Development Kit, QEMU, or Unicorn experience; zero-day discovery; and research workstream coordination, peer review, or mentoring experience.
Benefits
- Hybrid work arrangement.
- Performance-based bonuses, medical, dental, and vision coverage, a 401(k) plan with company match, paid time off, holidays, and income protection benefits.
- Flexible work arrangements where possible and resources supporting professional growth and well-being.
About Clarity Innovations
Clarity Innovations builds and deploys custom software, data analytics platforms, and cloud solutions for U.S. government customers, especially the Intelligence Community and Department of Defense. Its teams provide DevSecOps, systems architecture, rapid prototyping, and UX/UI services to modernize mission systems and workflows. Founded in 2011 and headquartered in Columbia, Maryland, it is privately held and operates as part of Chameleon Consulting Group.