Senior Hardware Security Engineer

Information Systems and Cyber Division (ISCD) staff couple the latest in information system technologies, such as elastic compute clouds, containerization, microservices, real-time operating systems, and visualization frameworks, with expertise in cyber security, software architecture, software engineering, data science, Artificial Intelligence, process improvement, and software development to deliver responsive, resilient, high-performance software intensive systems to our Intelligence Community, DoD, and civilian customers.

The Embedded & Specialized Computing Department focuses on critical space systems R&D and rapid prototyping in the areas of Rapid Prototyping (HW & SW), Resilient/Novel/Accelerated Compute Solutions, and Hardware Security. The group supports a variety of customers including the Space Force’s Space Systems Command (SSC), the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), and other civil partners (e.g., NASA) to resolve unique challenges in implementation and research. 

Work Model: 

This position is 100% onsite at El Segundo, Ca.

What You’ll Be Doing

• Provide hardware security support to government and contracted personnel in the areas of security controls, configuration management, configurable logic device management, and microelectronic security assessments.

• Review security architecture of space mission ground systems and provide recommendations on security improvements to the system’s baseline.

• Directly contribute to hardware security research, development, and applications while helping to secure National Security Space Systems.

• Define threat paths and develop guidance on FPGA/ASIC/embedded systems vulnerability mitigations.

• Support the development and improvement of microelectronics assurance policy, requirements and documentation.

• Demonstrate the ability to diagnose, troubleshoot, and debug both hardware and firmware issues effectively.

• Assist with developing and distributing project tasking to junior engineers.

• Collaborate with other Aerospace departments and external organizations to develop new technical demonstrations and capabilities.

WhatCorporateSkillsYou’ll Bring

• Strong verbal and written communication skills, including the ability to develop clear technical documentation and work collaboratively with cross-functional teams

• Possess organizational, time management and project management skills

• Demonstrate flexibility and ability to adapt to changing organizational need

• Interpersonal skills to coordinate efforts and work with other internal and external organizations

What You Need to be Successful

Minimum Requirements for the Engineering Specialist – Embedded Software Engineering

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or STEM related program.

• 6 to 8 years of relevant experience in a position related to FPGA design and verification, embedded systems, hardware security or similar fields.

• Knowledge of DoD information security policies, including DoD 5200 directives

• Proven ability to take initiative and successfully complete tasks, lead complex technical projects, and collaborate effectively.

• Proven experience in FPGA design, including familiarity with HDLs (VHDL, Verilog, and SystemVerilog) and major vendor tools (AMD Xilinx, Microchip, and Intel Altera).

• Experience with embedded system design (e.g., Xilinx Zynq/Microblaze, ARM, Altera NIOS).

• Proficiency in coding and scripting with languages such as C, C++, Python, Perl, or Shell

• Experience using project management tools such as Jira or MS Project.

• Willing to travel occasionally to work location or customer site up to 20% of the time if required.

• This position requires ability to obtain and maintain a security clearance, which is issued by the US government. U.S citizenship is required to obtain a security clearance.

In addition to the above, the minimum Requirements for the Senior Engineering Specialist – Embedded Software Engineering include:

• 10 or more years of relevant experience in a position related to hardware security, FPGA design and verification, embedded systems, or similar fields.

• Experience relating to multiple hardware security fields such as embedded systems security, hardware cryptographic accelerators, vulnerability analysis, or anti-tamper.

How You Can Stand Out

It would be impressive if you have one or more of these:

• Advanced degree in Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or STEM related program.

• Exposure to and understanding of hardware security attacks in the following areas: Hardware Trojans, Side Channel Analysis, Fault Injection, and Reverse Engineering

• Possession of relevant industry certifications such as CompTIA Security+, CISSP

• Experience related to artificial intelligence or quantum computing applications

• Current and active TS/SCI clearance