Embedded Exploitation Engineer

Zealot Labs, Inc.; Washington (District of Columbia); On-site; USD 100,000 - 195,000; Full time

Job summary

Zealot Labs, Inc. is an early-stage startup seeking an embedded vulnerability researcher to identify and exploit vulnerabilities in embedded systems, IoT devices, and RTOS.

The role emphasizes firmware analysis, reverse engineering, and scalable tooling for automated vulnerability discovery across platforms. The ideal candidate has strong experience in embedded firmware reverse engineering, familiarity with ARM/MIPS architectures, and a track record of vulnerability research, CVEs, or advisories

Qualifications

• Experience identifying and exploiting vulnerabilities in embedded systems, IoT devices, and RTOS.
• Reverse engineer firmware to map attack surfaces and develop reliable exploits.
• Build scalable tooling for automated vulnerability discovery across embedded platforms.
• Research novel attack techniques against constrained environments and proprietary protocols.
• Strong reverse engineering experience with embedded firmware and bare-metal systems.
• Proven vulnerability research experience: CVEs or advisories on embedded targets.

Responsibilities

• Identify and exploit vulnerabilities in embedded systems, IoT devices, and real-time operating systems.
• Reverse engineer firmware to map attack surfaces, discover bugs, and develop reliable exploits.
• Build scalable tooling for automated vulnerability discovery across diverse embedded platforms.
• Research novel attack techniques against constrained environments and proprietary protocols.
• Strong reverse engineering experience with embedded firmware and bare-metal systems.
• Proven vulnerability research experience: CVEs, advisories, or offensive work on embedded targets.

Skills

Embedded security

Reverse engineering

Firmware analysis

Vulnerability research

ARM/MIPS

Tools

Ghidra

IDA

Binwalk

Job description

Zealot is deploying AI systems at the center of western cyber operations , backed by tier-1 US VCs and industry leaders. Our team includes alumni of Anthropic, xAI, and Anduril. Soon live with close U.S. allies abroad.

APPLIED AI RE VR BARE METAL

Compensation 100K-195K + skin in the game equity

Location New York, NY On Site

Stage Early-stage startup backed by tier 1 investors. Small, growing team with exceptionally high ownership.

• + Identify and exploit vulnerabilities in embedded systems, IoT devices, and real-time operating systems.
• + Reverse engineer firmware to map attack surfaces, discover bugs, and develop reliable exploits.
• + Build scalable tooling for automated vulnerability discovery across diverse embedded platforms.
• + Research novel attack techniques against constrained environments and proprietary protocols.
• + Strong reverse engineering experience with embedded firmware and bare-metal systems.
• + Proven vulnerability research experience: CVEs, advisories, or offensive work on embedded targets.
• + Deep understanding of ARM, MIPS, or other embedded architectures.
• + Proficiency with hardware debugging (JTAG, UART, SPI/I2C) and firmware extraction.

§ Nice to Have

• + Experience with RTOS platforms: VxWorks, FreeRTOS, ThreadX, QNX.
• + Proficiency with Ghidra, IDA, Binwalk, and custom analysis frameworks.
• + Experience with protocol reverse engineering (Zigbee, BLE, proprietary RF).
• + Familiarity with supply chain security and hardware implant research.
• + Experience building with LLMs and AI agents.
• + Published research or conference presentations on embedded security.
• + Clearly interested in stepping away from purely manual research and moving toward the development of AI systems.
• + Building something massive matters more to you than comfort, titles, or predictability.
• + You want to be early at a company that will change an industry, and you're ready to do what that actually takes.

Note to recruiting firms: Embedded vulnerability research and exploit development are the core requirements. Hardware hacking and RTOS experience are strong pluses.

Ready?