Low-Level Firmware Engineer for Cyber Research

Battelle; Columbus (OH); Hybrid; USD 110,000 - 170,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Tuition assistance

Royalty sharing for IP/Software

Mentorship and learning culture

Autonomy in research projects

Job summary

Battelle is seeking an Embedded Systems Developer to support cyber research in Columbus, OH or Chantilly, VA. You will build tooling, modify firmware, and develop infrastructure to enable deep analysis of embedded devices.

You will work with vulnerability researchers and reverse engineers on cross‑architecture platforms, contributing instrumentation, debugging utilities, and automation pipelines to accelerate security research.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or related field with 5 years of experience; or Master’s with 2 years; or PhD; or equivalent
• Strong experience developing software for embedded systems in C or C++
• Experience with microcontrollers, SoCs, or embedded Linux systems
• Experience debugging low‑level code using gdb, JTAG/SWD debuggers, or hardware debugging tools
• Familiarity with assembly language for common embedded architectures (ARM, MIPS, PowerPC)
• Experience building scripts/tools in Python or similar languages
• Ability to analyze firmware behavior and modify embedded software for testing/instrumentation
• Ability to work individually and in small fast‑paced research teams
• Passion for understanding how complex systems work at a low level
• Must be a US Citizen with ability to obtain DoD Secret or higher clearance

Responsibilities

• Develop low‑level firmware, instrumentation, and tooling to support reverse engineering and vulnerability research
• Modify existing firmware and embedded software to enable analysis, debugging, and experimentation
• Build internal tools and automation pipelines for researchers with embedded devices
• Interface with hardware platforms including microcontrollers, SoCs, and custom embedded systems
• Develop scripts and utilities to support firmware extraction, analysis workflows, and device interaction
• Assist researchers with debugging complex behaviors across embedded platforms
• Collaborate with reverse engineers to understand system behavior and design tools to improve analysis
• Prototype and test techniques for interacting with embedded systems including debugging interfaces and emulation environments
• Contribute to collaborative research across multidisciplinary teams

Skills

C/C++ for embedded

Embedded Linux

GDB/JTAG debugging

ARM/MIPS/PowerPC assembly

Python scripting

Firmware modification

Problem solving in hardware

Team collaboration

US Citizenship for DoD clearance

Education

Bachelor's or higher in EE/CS with 5+ years

Tools

Ghidra

IDA Pro

BinaryNinja

GDB

JTAG/SWD debugging tools

Job description

Battelle is seeking an Embedded Systems Developer to support cyber research in Columbus, OH or Chantilly, VA. You will build tooling, modify firmware, and develop infrastructure to enable deep analysis of embedded devices.

You will work with vulnerability researchers and reverse engineers on cross‑architecture platforms, contributing instrumentation, debugging utilities, and automation pipelines to accelerate security research.