Capabilities Development Specialist

CNSS • National Security Systems; Finksburg (MD); On-site; USD 105,000 - 197,000; Full time

Job summary

The National Security Agency seeks a Capabilities Development Specialist (CDS) to join a world-class team at Fort Meade, MD. You will develop offensive and defensive capabilities, analyze malware, and help deliver critical intelligence to national decision makers.

We value deep expertise in C/C++, assembly, hardware design, and reverse engineering, with a track record in security research and exploit development.

Qualifications

• Degree requirements include CS/Engineering with foundational CS coursework and relevant experience in engineering hardware or software lifecycle, vulnerability analysis, or security-focused systems engineering.
• Experience in programming, vulnerability analysis, penetration testing, or forensics is valued.

Responsibilities

• Developing exploitation capabilities and analytics to enable foreign target network collection
• Designing hardware components and systems to further signals intelligence missions
• Analyzing sophisticated malware

Skills

C

C++

Assembly

ARM

Debugging tools

Reverse engineering

Hardware RE

Kernel development

Device driver development

Vulnerability analysis

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/Engineering

Master's degree in CS/Engineering

Doctoral degree in Cyber/related

Tools

Ghidra

OllyDbg

gdb

JTAG

Oscilloscopes

FPGA

VHDL

Verilog

Job description

The National Security Agency seeks a Capabilities Development Specialist (CDS) to join a world-class team at Fort Meade, MD. You will develop offensive and defensive capabilities, analyze malware, and help deliver critical intelligence to national decision makers.

We value deep expertise in C/C++, assembly, hardware design, and reverse engineering, with a track record in security research and exploit development.