Position Description

The Foreign Weapon Systems Department's goals include the characterization and analysis of threat weapons systems including foreign missiles and radars. This group performs hands-on laboratory work that concentrates on electrical, sensor, optical, RF, and firmware aspects of the systems, but will engage any part of the system that advances our goals. Our team also develops Hardware-in-the-Loop simulations using the threat hardware, countermeasure concepts, and specialized threat operating equipment.

The FPGA and Microcontroller Hacker will use commercial and custom methods to retrieve FPGA and microcontroller firmware, reverse-engineer FPGA bitstreams and configuration data, disassemble microcontroller binaries, and decompile C programs. This work includes developing custom hardware techniques, as well as custom software to aid and automate the reverse-engineering of various types of software and firmware binaries. This position will have responsibility for the analysis of tracking, guidance, and counter-countermeasure algorithms contained within missile and radar systems. The goal of this analysis will be to describe the threat capabilities and vulnerabilities against the U.S. systems that oppose it. Test benches will be developed to verify the analysis and further characterize the signal processing chain. Weapon system instrumentation and testing will be supported for data collection purposes. Once analysis is complete, efforts will continue towards developing countermeasures for the threat system in order to ensure its defeat in combat.

Basic Qualifications

• Candidate must possess a Bachelor's or higher degree in Electrical Engineer or Computer Engineering from an ABET-accredited university with a 3.0 or higher GPA.
• Understanding of various FPGA and microprocessor architectures.
• Competency with hardware description languages including Verilog or VHDL.
• Education or work experience with FPGA or ASIC synthesis and simulation tools.
• Education or work experience in embedded software design.
• Competency using C++/C and assembly languages.
• Strong verbal and written communication skills.

The candidate must be a resident of or be willing to relocate to the Huntsville, AL, area.

Other Qualifications

The following experience is desirable:

• Experience with HDL test bench design.
• Experience in debugging of complex devices or systems using standard digital and analog test equipment.
• Experience working with general-purpose microprocessors in a hands-on environment.
• Experience with hardware protocol analysis and digital signal processing.

Security Requirements

Candidate must be a US Citizen and possess (and be able to maintain) a Final Secret Clearance or meet the eligibility to obtain (and maintain) a Secret Clearance.

Job Number:

01.01.16-2022-13

Closing Date:

07/15/2022