Hardware Engineer

Peraton Labs delivers innovative solutions and revolutionary new capabilities to solve the most difficult and complex challenges for government agencies, utilities, and commercial customers. With a distinguished heritage tracing back to Bell Labs, Bellcore, and Telcordia, our experts pave the way. Peraton Labs’ cybersecurity research protects mission-critical systems and national cyber infrastructure through a broad range of initiatives in computer network defense, secure-by-design techniques and cyber operations and experimentation platforms.

Our projects span several areas of interest. Our core competencies include (but are not limited to):

• Program analysis, including program understanding, vulnerability identification, and remediation
• Malware analysis and reverse engineering
• Resilient networking in support of cyber mission goals
• Software-defined networking for cyber defense and deception
• Artificial intelligence (reasoning, probabilistic inference, machine learning

In this position, as a Hardware Engineer, you will work as part of a small, focused team to architect, develop, implement, and test modular software applications and tools for emulating cyber-physical systems. Additionally you will:

• Work in a laboratory environment utilizing test equipment (oscilloscopes, spectrum analyzers, VNAs etc.) to characterize and debug complex electronic systems
• Prepare and execute test events for customers and internal and external stakeholders
• Lead efforts to develop lab-based acquisition and control platforms to aid in test and characterization of hardware systems
• Serve as the hardware team representative on interdisciplinary efforts to contribute knowledge of system architecture and focused processor implementations
• Participate in proposal efforts by providing input on technical path and BOM/cost and schedule estimates
• Rehost unknown or sparsely documented firmware by analyzing binaries, identifying hardware dependencies, and adapting these to run correctly in emulated environments
• Ensure model quality and correctness through unit-level and system-level testing, and by validating behavior against first principles, measured data, documentation, and hardware/software artifacts
• Communicate technical foundations of models and algorithms through reports and briefings

• Minimum of 5 years of experience with BS/BA; 3 years with MS/MA; 0 years with PhD
• Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Applied Mathematics, Physics, or related scientific/engineering discipline
• US Citizenship
• Active Secret Clearance with ability to obtain TS/SCI
• Ability to develop rapid prototype solutions using a combination of COTS and custom designs
• Ability to develop PCB-based designs and implement FPGA and embedded software to support HWIL and surrogate designs
• Ability to integrate processor/microcontroller debuggers to extract binary data and integrate in circuit probing solutions to characterize dynamic program execution
• Experience extending and customizing existing emulation frameworks (e.g., QEMU) in C/C++ and Python to support new targets, peripherals, and capabilities
• Ability to develop emulator tooling and virtual device models to support reverse engineering and analysis of embedded systems across diverse architectures (e.g., ARM, PPC)
• Ability to develop digital models using virtualization tools (e.g., QEMU) and network them together to create integrated, end-to-end system simulations that closely approximate real hardware behavior

Target Salary Range: $135,000 - $216,000. This represents the typical salary range for this position. Salary is determined by various factors, including but not limited to, the scope and responsibilities of the position, the individual’s experience, education, knowledge, skills, and competencies, as well as geographic location and business and contract considerations. Depending on the position, employees may be eligible for overtime, shift differential, and a discretionary bonus in addition to base pay.

Benefits Statement: Peraton offers eligible employees a variety of benefits including medical, dental, vision, life, health savings account, short/long term disability, EAP, parental leave, 401(k), paid time off (PTO) for vacation, and company paid holidays. A full listing of available benefits can be viewed at https://www.careers.peraton.com/benefits.

Peraton is a next-generation national security company that drives missions of consequence spanning the globe and extending to the farthest reaches of the galaxy. As the world’s leading mission capability integrator and transformative enterprise IT provider, we deliver trusted, highly differentiated solutions and technologies to protect our nation and allies. Peraton operates at the critical nexus between traditional and nontraditional threats across all domains: land, sea, space, air, and cyberspace. The company serves as a valued partner to essential government agencies and supports every branch of the U.S. armed forces. Each day, our employees solve the most daunting challenges that our customers face. Visit peraton.com to learn how we’re keeping people around the world safe and secure.