Cyber-Physical Systems Reverse Engineer

Leidos LLC; Chantilly (VA); On-site; USD 129,000 - 174,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health and Wellness programs

Income Protection

Paid Leave and Retirement

Job summary

Leidos is seeking a Cyber-Physical Systems Reverse Engineer to analyze real embedded and cyber-physical systems in lab environments, reversing firmware, emulating devices, and designing experiments to reveal unexpected behavior.

You will build test harnesses, develop production-quality C/C++ and Python tools, and work on hardware interfaces, NICs, and RTOS-based software to advance maritime cybersecurity capabilities.

Qualifications

• Experience developing embedded firmware in C/C++, RTOS concepts, interrupts, concurrency, memory-mapped I/O, device drivers, and hardware peripherals.
• Experience with SPI, I2C, UART, CAN, USB, Ethernet, or wireless interfaces, including debugging hardware/software interactions.
• Experience developing simulation, emulation, automated testing, or hardware/software test harnesses for embedded systems.
• Proficiency with Python for automation, testing, analysis, and development of engineering tools.
• Experience using embedded development and diagnostic equipment such as JTAG/SWD debuggers, logic/protocol analyzers, oscilloscopes, spectrum analyzers, function generators.

Responsibilities

• Develop, integrate, and debug embedded firmware for real-time and resource-constrained systems, including RTOS-based applications, device drivers, hardware interfaces, and low-level system software.
• Design and implement simulation, emulation, and automated test environments for embedded and cyber-physical systems, including tools for exploring system behavior, reproducing observed effects, and exercising hardware and firmware.
• Analyze and reverse engineer embedded devices, firmware, communications protocols, sensors, and other system components to understand both intended functionality and real-world behavior.
• Develop production-quality C/C++ and Python software to automate testing, instrumentation, experimentation, and analysis, including integration with laboratory hardware and software-based analysis tools.
• Conduct hands-on laboratory testing using embedded debugging tools and analog/digital instrumentation; critically analyze, document, and communicate technical findings.

Skills

Embedded firmware

RTOS concepts

Python scripting

Hardware interfaces

Debugging tools

Tools

Ghidra

Binary Ninja

IDA Pro

JTAG/SWD debuggers

Job description

Who We Are

Kudu Dynamics is Leidos Owned Company, forged out of a decade of experience in computer network operations and staffed with talent who have built, overseen, and enhanced capabilities throughout the entire USG arsenal. Our team of hackers and engineers have experience spanning centuries of research, development, and operations missions - across desktop, mobile, IoT, and embedded platforms. Kudu Dynamics, a Leidos company is uniquely qualified to anticipate tomorrow’s threats and build the next generation of capabilities. We are looking for a Cyber-Physical Systems Reverse Engineer to support a new project researching and developing novel capabilities for maritime cybersecurity. This is the kind of job where you get to poke at real systems, ask why something behaved differently than expected, and keep digging when the answer is, "Huh, that's weird." This role focuses on understanding how complex embedded and cyber-physical systems actually behave, not just how they were intended to behave. On our team, you will work hands-on with real embedded systems and operational technology in a lab environment, analyzing hardware, firmware, communications interfaces, and interactions between components. You will reverse engineer and emulate embedded devices, develop automated methods for exploring system behavior, and design experiments to identify unexpected or emergent behaviors, undocumented features, or even bugs and misconfigurations. This role calls for the creative application of multiple skill sets across embedded systems, firmware, software, hardware, and cybersecurity. You may find yourself building test harnesses and automated workflows, instrumenting analog and digital systems, integrating physical devices with software analysis and cyber reasoning tools, and developing code.

Responsibilities

• Develop, integrate, and debug embedded firmware for real-time and resource-constrained systems, including RTOS-based applications, device drivers, hardware interfaces, and low-level system software
• Design and implement simulation, emulation, and automated test environments for embedded and cyber-physical systems, including tools for exploring system behavior, reproducing observed effects, and exercising hardware and firmware
• Analyze and reverse engineer embedded devices, firmware, communications protocols, sensors, and other system components to understand both intended functionality and real-world behavior
• Develop production-quality C/C++ and Python software to automate testing, instrumentation, experimentation, and analysis, including integration with laboratory hardware and software-based analysis tools
• Conduct hands-on laboratory testing using embedded debugging tools and analog/digital instrumentation; critically analyze, document, and communicate technical findings.

Minimum Qualifications

• Experience developing embedded firmware in C/C++, including real-time systems, RTOS concepts, interrupts, concurrency, memory-mapped I/O, device drivers, and hardware peripherals
• Experience with embedded hardware and common communications interfaces such as SPI, I2C, UART, CAN, USB, Ethernet, or wireless interfaces, including debugging hardware/software interactions
• Experience developing simulation, emulation, automated testing, or hardware/software test harnesses for embedded systems
• Proficiency with Python or similar scripting languages for automation, testing, analysis, and development of engineering tools
• Experience using embedded development and diagnostic equipment such as JTAG/SWD debuggers, logic/protocol analyzers, oscilloscopes, spectrum analyzers, function generators, or similar instrumentation

Nice-to-Have Qualifications

• Experience reverse engineering embedded devices and firmware, including use of tools such as Ghidra, Binary Ninja, IDA Pro, or similar tools and the ability to analyze assembly for one or more processor architectures.
• Experience with program analysis and vulnerability research techniques such as fuzzing, symbolic execution, static/dynamic analysis, binary exploitation, and modern exploit mitigations.
• Experience with processor or full-system emulation, hardware-in-the-loop (HIL), software-in-the-loop (SIL), or development of custom models for processors, peripherals, sensors, or other embedded components.
• Experience with digital signal processing, RF systems, software-defined radio, wireless communications, audio/signal processing, or MATLAB-based modeling and analysis.
• Understanding of digital and analog circuits, hardware reverse engineering, low-level computer architecture, and the interaction between software, firmware, and physical system behavior.

Original Posting: September 9, 2026 For U.S. Positions: While subject to change based on business needs, Leidos reasonably anticipates that this job requisition will remain open for at least 3 days with an anticipated close date of no earlier than 3 days after the original posting date as listed above.

Pay Range: Pay Range $107,900.00 - $195,050.00 The Leidos pay range for this job level is a general guideline only and not a guarantee of compensation or salary. Additional factors considered in extending an offer include (but are not limited to) responsibilities of the job, education, experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities, as well as internal equity, alignment with market data, applicable bargaining agreement (if any), or other law.

Leidos Leidos is an industry and technology leader serving government and commercial customers with smarter, more efficient digital and mission innovations. Headquartered in Reston, Virginia, with 47,000 global employees, Leidos reported annual revenues of approximately $17.2 billion for the fiscal year ended January 2, 2026.

Pay and Benefits

Pay and benefits are fundamental to any career decision. That's why we craft compensation packages that reflect the importance of the work we do for our customers.

• competitive compensation
• Health and Wellness programs
• Income Protection
• Paid Leave and Retirement

Securing Your Data

Leidos will never ask you to provide payment-related information at any part of the employment application process. And Leidos will communicate with you only through emails that are sent from a Leidos.com email address. If you receive an email purporting to be from Leidos that asks for payment-related information or any other personal information, please report the email to [e-mail].

Commitment and Diversity

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to sex, race, ethnicity, age, national origin, citizenship, religion, physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, pregnancy, family structure, marital status, ancestry, domestic partner status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, veteran or military status, or any other basis prohibited by law. Leidos will also consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories consistent with relevant laws.