Senior Security Firmware Validation Engineer

Company Description

At Western Digital, we are on a mission to unlock the potential of data so people, companies and organizations everywhere can create what’s next. To fulfill our vision, we are always on the lookout for potential team members who share our passion for solving problems to empower others.

When you join Western Digital, you join a legacy more than 50 years in the making. Across our Western Digital®, SanDisk®, SanDisk® Professional, WD® and WD_BLACK™ brands, we have brought some of the most storied advancements in memory and data storage technology to market—and our best, most innovative work is yet to come.

From energizing gaming platforms, to enabling systems to make cities safer and cars smarter and more connected, to powering the data centers behind many of the world’s biggest companies and public cloud, Western Digital is fueling a brighter, smarter future.

Here’s how you can help.

Job Description

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Development test of various cryptography-based security features such as data encryption, Secure Boot, and Device Attestation.
• Integrate these security protocols and features into the SSD data and control flows to ensure a robust and secure system. Additionally, investigate and resolve any issues that may arise with the compatibility of the security protocol.
• Work with the firmware development team to implement test plans/test cases to validate firmware functionality.
• Design, develop, execute, and analyze automated test scripts for hardware validation, system level, data path, and unit test.
• Consults with development engineers to resolve problems.
• Investigating failures, documenting bug reports, troubleshooting/isolating issues to root cause, down to the right component in the test ecosystem.
• Debugging, optimizing, and validating the Firmware on SoC platforms, as well as bringing up FPGA and ASIC.
• Contribute to the Security Development Lifecycle of the Firmware by supporting its development at different stages, including design, threat analysis, implementation, validation, and maintenance.

Qualifications

REQUIRED:

To qualify for this position, an ideal candidate would have/be.

• A Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in computer science, Electrical/Computer Engineering, Software Engineering, or related field.
• 2+ years of experience in embedded firmware testing, test development, debugging, and failure analysis with proficiency in C/C++ and one or more of the following, Python, JavaScript, TCL, for test automation.
• Experience in firmware code review, CI/CD test and validation methodology, as well as static and dynamic code analysis. Familiarity with the Agile software development process life cycle is also desired.
• Experience in GitHub, simulation, JTag, failure analysis and debugging of Hardware/Firmware issues.
• Strong understanding of microcontroller architectures and debugging tools.
• An engineer who can take ownership of given tasks and manage them from start to finish. Being self-motivated and driven is essential for this role.
• Good communication skills and be able to work effectively with cross-functional teams.

What Sets You Apart

• Detailed knowledge of RISC-V Instruction Set Architectures (ISA)
• Technical expertise in applied cryptography and firmware/hardware security, including knowledge of data encryption, trusted execution environment, secure boot, and device attestation.
• Knowledge of storage controller architectures and security protocols, such as TCG Opal/Ruby/Pyrite, IEEE 1667, SPDM, and IDE.
• Familiarity with writing code in GitHub repository and its CI/CD testing framework.
• Hand-on experience in Firmware/Software development.
• Hands-on in multi-threaded design and programming.
• Strong in data structures, design patterns.

Additional Information

Western Digital is committed to providing equal opportunities to all applicants and employees and will not discriminate against any applicant or employee based on their race, color, ancestry, religion (including religious dress and grooming standards), sex (including pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions, breastfeeding or related medical conditions), gender (including a person’s gender identity, gender expression, and gender-related appearance and behavior, whether or not stereotypically associated with the person’s assigned sex at birth), age, national origin, sexual orientation, medical condition, marital status (including domestic partnership status), physical disability, mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, protected medical and family care leave, Civil Air Patrol status, military and veteran status, or other legally protected characteristics. We also prohibit harassment of any individual