Hardware Penetration Tester — Embedded & IoT

Packetlabs; Canada; Hybrid; CAD 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Packetlabs is a cybersecurity consulting firm specializing in advanced penetration testing. We seek a Penetration Tester - Hardware to lead security assessments of embedded and IoT devices, uncovering vulnerabilities in silicon, firmware, and board layout.

The role requires hands-on hardware testing across domains, direct collaboration with clients, and ongoing development of lab tooling and methodologies to raise the standard of hardware security work.

Qualifications

• Degree in Information Security, Computer Science, or Computer/Electrical Engineering or equivalent hands-on experience.

Responsibilities

• Plan and execute end-to-end hardware penetration tests on embedded and IoT devices.
• Identify, access, and exploit on-board debug interfaces (JTAG, SWD, UART).
• Extract firmware via debug ports and analyze for vulnerabilities.
• Intercept and analyze data on embedded buses (SPI, I2C, UART, CAN, USB).
• Perform side-channel analysis and fault injection where appropriate to test security.
• Reverse engineer firmware/binaries to find flaws and hardcoded secrets.
• Advise on remediation and build credibility with clients through clear reports.
• Develop lab tooling and contribute to internal methodology.
• Stay current on hardware attack techniques and defensive controls.

Skills

Electronics fundamentals

Soldering (SMD)

Firmware reverse engineering

Python scripting

Embedded architectures

Reading schematics/datasheets

JTAG/SWD/UART

Education

Information Security/CS/EE degree

Tools

Ghidra

IDA

Binwalk

Python

Logic analyzers/Oscilloscopes

KiCad/Altium

Job description

Packetlabs is a cybersecurity consulting firm specializing in advanced penetration testing. We seek a Penetration Tester - Hardware to lead security assessments of embedded and IoT devices, uncovering vulnerabilities in silicon, firmware, and board layout.

The role requires hands-on hardware testing across domains, direct collaboration with clients, and ongoing development of lab tooling and methodologies to raise the standard of hardware security work.