Firmware Emulation Engineer (Linux) APPLIED AI RE LINUX QEMU STYX New York, NY / On Site →

Zealot Labs, Inc.; Washington (District of Columbia); On-site; USD 117,000 - 195,000; Full time

Job summary

Zealot Labs, Inc. is developing AI-powered systems to understand and emulate embedded targets at scale. The team emphasizes reverse engineering of firmware, boot flows, and runtime behavior across Linux-based devices and RTOS environments.

This early-stage startup seeks engineers who thrive in high-ownership settings. Applicants should have strong C/C++ or Rust skills and experience with firmware analysis in routers, cameras, or telecom gear. QEMU and related emulation tooling are a plus.

Qualifications

• Experience in reverse engineering embedded firmware and boot flows.
• Strong understanding of Linux-based devices and low-level runtime behavior.
• Ability to analyze firmware from routers, cameras, network appliances, or telecom gear.

Responsibilities

• Build agentic systems to understand and emulate embedded targets at scale.
• Design workflows to reverse firmware, map boot logic and runtime dependencies for emulation.
• Turn firmware reversing and emulation into scalable AI-driven tooling.
• Extend Zealot's platform across Linux-based devices and non-Linux/RTOS environments.
• Contribute to firmware analysis tooling and automated targets understanding.

Skills

Reverse engineering

Embedded systems

Firmware analysis

C/C++ or Rust

Documentation inference

Tools

Ghidra

IDA

Binwalk

GDB

strace

QEMU

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 LINUX QEMU STYX

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.

• + Build the agentic systems that let Zealot automatically understand and emulate embedded targets at scale.
• + Design workflows that can reverse firmware, map boot logic and runtime dependencies, and determine what is required to boot and execute unfamiliar firmware under emulation.
• + Turn firmware reversing and emulation from slow, manual expert work into scalable, repeatable AI-driven capability.
• + Extend Zealot's platform across Linux-based devices and non-Linux / RTOS environments.
• + Strong reverse engineering experience with embedded firmware, binaries, and boot flows.
• + Strong understanding of embedded systems architecture, Linux-based devices, and low-level runtime behavior.
• + Experience analyzing firmware from routers, cameras, network appliances, telecom gear, or similar embedded targets.
• + Strong C/C++ or Rust skills for systems-level work.
• + Ability to work from incomplete documentation and rapidly build understanding from firmware and runtime behavior.

Nice to Have

• + Experience with QEMU, firmware rehosting, or system emulation.
• + Proficiency with tools such as Ghidra, IDA, Binwalk, GDB, and strace.
• + Experience patching firmware and building shims for hardware dependencies.
• + Familiarity with ARM, MIPS, AArch64, PowerPC, VxWorks, or similar architectures and OSes.
• + Experience with Hikvision, TP-Link, Huawei, or similar embedded ecosystems.
• + Experience building with LLMs and AI agents.
• + Strong technical ability, offensive judgment, and a reputation for operating at the top tier of the field.
• + 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: Reverse engineering is the core requirement. Emulation, QEMU, and rehosting experience are strong pluses, but not mandatory. Strong preference for candidates who can both understand how embedded targets work and translate that work into practical tooling.