Senior Embedded Security Engineer

True Anomaly, a pioneering space security company, as a Senior Embedded Security Engineer. In this role, you will be responsible for identifying weaknesses in our spacecraft before they are launched into orbit.

This is an ideal role for someone who works at the intersection of hardware and software security, who would rather break a system than read about it being broken, and who wants that work to matter on a vehicle that cannot be recalled. It carries significant technical ownership and direct access to the engineers building the vehicles

Strong candidates tend to arrive from one of two directions: embedded systems engineers who moved into offensive security, or hardware and firmware security researchers who can write and review production C/C++. Real depth on both sides is rare and we are not expecting it on day one. Tell us which side you come from

Responsibilities

• You will conduct invasive and non-invasive hardware attacks, extract and reverse engineer firmware, analyze protocols, and pivot from hardware access to software exploitation.
• You will work closely with flight software and hardware engineers to implement fixes and integrate security testing into our infrastructure.
• Identifying and exploiting vulnerabilities in spacecraft hardware, firmware, and software to ensure mission success.
• Developing and executing comprehensive security test plans, including invasive and non-invasive hardware attacks, to assess the security posture of spacecraft systems.
• Collaborating with flight software and hardware engineers to remediate identified vulnerabilities and improve overall security.
• Experience building your own tooling rather than only running off-the-shelf tools: coverage-guided or protocol fuzzing harnesses (AFL++, libFuzzer), emulation-based rigs (QEMU, Unicorn), test fixtures, and bench instrumentation
• Experience analyzing protocols, wired or wireless or proprietary, and reasoning about both design and implementation weaknesses
• Working understanding of hardware root of trust and secure boot, whether from implementing them or from breaking them
• A track record of independently discovering, validating, and root-causing vulnerabilities in embedded systems, firmware, or hardware
• Experience attacking or securing real-time and safety-critical systems, including timing constraints, deterministic execution, and interrupt handling

Requirements

• This position requires the ability to obtain and maintain a TS/SCI security clearance.
• Strong C/C++ skills with deep understanding of memory safety and secure coding practices, sufficient to review flight software at the source level
• Practical experience attacking embedded debug and bus interfaces (JTAG, SWD, UART, SPI, I2C), including sniffing, injection, and firmware extraction
• Ability to obtain and maintain a TS/SCI security clearance
• Solid grounding in exploitation fundamentals on constrained targets: memory corruption, exploit primitives, the mitigations you will run into, and escalation toward full system control
• Hands-on offensive hardware experience on real boards, including side-channel analysis, voltage or clock glitching, electromagnetic fault injection, chip desoldering and rework, and decapping
• Proficiency with embedded toolchains, debuggers, static analysis tools, oscilloscopes, and logic analyzers, backed by strong debugging skills
• 5+ years of hands-on experience across embedded systems security, hardware security, or offensive security against firmware and embedded targets
• Firmware reverse engineering across common embedded architectures, using tools such as Ghidra, IDA, or binwalk
• Experience with HIL or SIL test infrastructure and embedded Linux build systems (Yocto, NixOS)
• Experience implementing secure firmware update mechanisms and anti-tamper techniques
• An already-active TS/SCI security clearance

Preferred

• Knowledge of hardware security modules (HSMs) and secure elements

Familiarity with space-specific protocols and standards (CCSDS, ECSS)

• Experience with RF and wireless security, or with software-defined radio (SDR)
• Direct experience in spacecraft or satellite embedded software, or other aerospace safety-critical systems
• Experience implementing a hardware root of trust, secure boot, or key provisioning on a shipped product
• A public track record of impact: CVEs, published research, conference talks, CTF results, or open-source security tooling
• Experience using Ghommit tool

Pay

USD 170,000 - 255,000