Firmware Emulation Engineer (Linux) APPLIED AI RE LINUX QEMU STYX Washington, DC / On Site →

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

Job summary

Zealot Labs, Inc. seeks a highly skilled engineer to join its Washington, DC team on-site. Early-stage startup with strong pedigree, offering significant equity and a compensation range of 100K–195K USD plus skin in the game.

You will build AI-driven capabilities to reverse engineer and emulate embedded firmware across devices, extending the platform into diverse environments. You will work with a team of experts, leveraging QEMU, Linux-based targets, and cutting-edge tooling to scale firmware

Qualifications

• Experience in reverse engineering embedded firmware and boot flows.
• Ability to analyze firmware from embedded devices (routers, cameras, etc.).
• Proficiency in C/C++ or Rust for systems-level work.
• Ability to work from incomplete documentation.

Responsibilities

• Build agentic systems to understand and emulate embedded targets at scale.
• Design workflows to 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 into scalable AI-driven capability.
• Extend Zealot's platform across Linux-based devices and non-Linux/RTOS environments.
• Apply strong reverse engineering to targets and translate findings into tooling.
• Contribute to developing AI-assisted firmware analysis workflows.

Skills

Reverse engineering

Embedded systems

Firmware analysis

C/C++

Rust

System-level programming

Tools

QEMU

Ghidra

IDA Pro

Binwalk

GDB

strace

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 Washington, DC 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.

Ready?