Senior Principal Reverse Engineer

Nightwing provides technically advanced full-spectrum cyber, data operations, systems integration and intelligence mission support services to meet our customers’ most demanding challenges. Our capabilities include cyber space operations, cyber defense and resiliency, vulnerability research, ubiquitous technical surveillance, data intelligence, lifecycle mission enablement, and software modernization. Nightwing brings disruptive technologies, agility, and competitive offerings to customers in the intelligence community, defense, civil, and commercial markets.

Nightwing is supporting a U.S. Government customer to provide support for onsite incident response to civilian Government agencies and critical asset owners who experience cyber-attacks, providing immediate investigation and resolution.  Contract personnel perform investigations to characterize the severity of breaches, develop mitigation plans, and assist with the restoration of services.  Nightwing is seeking a Subject Matter Expert with hardware reverse engineering to support this critical customer mission.   

The Subject Matter Expert Hardware Reverse Engineers will provide specialized expertise in hardware reverse engineering focused on operational technology (OT) and industrial control systems. This position requires deep technical knowledge of proprietary hardware systems, exploitation methodologies, and defensive strategies to support forensic investigations of compromised edge devices and systems where threat actors have embedded malware deeply within hardware components.  

This position focuses on the analytical and investigative aspects of hardware forensics, with particular emphasis on operational technology and industrial control systems. The ideal candidates will have strong reverse engineering skills and deep understanding of threat actor methodologies targeting critical infrastructure.  

Responsibilities: 

- Conduct comprehensive hardware reverse engineering of OT and ICS devices  

- Analyze network-edge devices and embedded systems compromised by advanced threats  

- Perform deep-dive analysis of proprietary hardware targeted by adversaries  

- Conduct reverse engineering, failure analysis, vulnerability analysis, and other research techniques to understand complex hardware systems, assess the functionality of components, and identify exploitation risks 

- Identify and extract deeply embedded malware from hardware components  

- Reverse engineer firmware and low-level software on embedded devices  

- Collaborate with Nightwing research teams to leverage cutting-edge analytical capabilities  

- Utilize and enhance KI2 system emulation capabilities for hardware analysis  

- Document exploitation methodologies and defensive countermeasures  

- Develop standard operating procedures for hardware forensics workflows  

- Train CSD analysts on hardware reverse engineering techniques  

- Provide expert consultation on edge device security and vulnerabilities  

- Support forensic investigations in environments lacking EDR visibility  

- Analyze proprietary communication protocols and embedded systems functions  

- Identify hardware backdoors, implants, and malicious modifications  <