Senior Space Red Team Operator

SIXGEN; Washington (District of Columbia); Hybrid; USD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Disability insurance

401(k) with employer contribution

Professional development reimbursement

Flexible remote-work policies

Flexible paid time off

Job summary

SIXGEN is seeking a hands-on Senior Space Red Team Operator to lead authorized adversarial assessments of space systems and the infrastructure that supports them.

You will evaluate attack paths across spacecraft, payload, ground, cloud, mission-network, and operator environments; develop safe and repeatable test methods; and translate technical findings into clear mission risk and practical engineering improvements.

Qualifications

• Seven or more years of hands-on red teaming, penetration testing, vulnerability research, exploit development, or related offensive security work.
• Advanced Linux knowledge, including networking, permissions, services, and security controls.
• Hands-on embedded-systems knowledge with firmware analysis and hardware interfaces.
• Cloud security experience across AWS/Azure/GCP and IAM, networking, and logging.
• Experience assessing enterprise networks and apps, including TCP/IP, DNS, VPNs, APIs.
• Ability to write and review Python and shell scripts; knowledge of C/C++/Go is valued.
• Ability to work independently, manage ambiguity, preserve evidence, and communicate risk.
• Willingness to travel and support testing outside normal hours.

Responsibilities

• Lead end-to-end red team assessments, penetration tests, and adversary emulation of space systems.
• Create assessment plans, attack paths, test cases, and Rules of Engagement.
• Evaluate Linux-based systems, embedded devices, flight software, ground-station services, and cloud apps for weaknesses.
• Research vulnerabilities in firmware, OS, interfaces, authentication, APIs, containers, and identity services.
• Develop tooling, exploits, proofs-of-concept, and automation for repeatable tests.
• Coordinate with owners, engineers, and range personnel to avoid impact to safety or mission ops.
• Document evidence, steps to reproduce, attack chains, severity, and remediation recommendations.
• Support purple-team validation, detection engineering, and post-testing retesting.
• Mentor operators, contribute to internal tradecraft, and assist with scoping and proposals.

Skills

Advanced Linux

Embedded systems

Cloud security

Red team / adversary emulation

Penetration testing

Python scripting

Shell scripting

Risk communication

Travel flexibility

Ethical testing

Tools

JTAG

SWD

UART

CAN

Firmware analysis

Kubernetes

CI/CD tooling

Container tooling

Job description

SIXGEN's mission is to deliver agile, mission-ready cybersecurity solutions that empower government and critical infrastructure organizations to stay ahead of advanced cyber threats. We combine innovation, deep expertise, and leading technical capabilities to uncover vulnerabilities, protect vital systems, and strengthen operational resilience.

Position Overview

• Position: Senior Space Red Team Operator
• Job Type: Full Time
• Location: Remote or Hybrid with travel to customer and test locations as required
• Clearance Requirement: Ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. Government security clearance; active Secret or higher preferred

What You'll Do

SIXGEN is seeking a hands-on Senior Space Red Team Operator to lead authorized adversarial assessments of space systems and the infrastructure that supports them. You will evaluate attack paths across spacecraft, payload, ground, cloud, mission-network, and operator environments; develop safe and repeatable test methods; and translate technical findings into clear mission risk and practical engineering improvements. This role is suited to an operator who can move comfortably between Linux hosts, cloud services, embedded targets, and customer briefings while maintaining disciplined authorization and mission-safety boundaries.

Responsibilities include:

• Lead end-to-end red team assessments, penetration tests, and threat-informed adversary emulation against authorized space and mission systems.
• Develop assessment plans, attack paths, test cases, and Rules of Engagement that define objectives, authorization boundaries, safety controls, prohibited actions, and stop-work criteria.
• Assess Linux-based systems, embedded devices, flight and payload software, ground-station services, mission networks, cloud environments, and supporting applications for exploitable weaknesses.
• Research and validate vulnerabilities in firmware, operating systems, communications interfaces, authentication flows, APIs, containers, identity services, and other mission-relevant components.
• Create or adapt operator tooling, exploits, proof-of-concept code, automation, and test harnesses to support repeatable assessment objectives.
• Coordinate closely with system owners, engineers, operators, range personnel, and defensive teams to execute testing without unacceptable impact to safety, availability, or mission operations.
• Correlate technical access with realistic mission effects and help customers understand how weaknesses could affect command, telemetry, payload data, availability, or operational trust.
• Document evidence, reproduction steps, attack chains, severity, and prioritized remediation recommendations in clear technical reports and executive briefings.
• Support purple-team validation, detection engineering, remediation retesting, and after-action activities to confirm that identified attack paths have been reduced or closed.
• Mentor operators, contribute to internal tradecraft and lab development, and support technical scoping, customer discussions, and proposal efforts when needed.

What You Bring

Required qualifications:

• Seven or more years of hands-on experience in red teaming, penetration testing, vulnerability research, exploit development, or closely related offensive security work; equivalent military, government, or industry experience will be considered.
• Advanced Linux knowledge, including networking, permissions, services, process behavior, logging, troubleshooting, and security controls.
• Hands-on embedded-systems knowledge, including firmware analysis, boot processes, hardware-software interfaces, common processor architectures, debugging, and at least some exposure to RTOS or embedded Linux environments.
• Practical cloud-security knowledge in at least one major platform such as AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud, including identity and access management, networking, logging, storage, compute, and common misconfiguration paths.
• Experience assessing enterprise networks and applications, including TCP/IP, routing, VPNs, DNS, authentication protocols, web services, APIs, and segmented or hybrid environments.
• Ability to write and review code or automation in Python and shell scripting; working knowledge of C, C++, Go, or similar systems-oriented language is strongly valued.
• Demonstrated ability to work independently, manage technical ambiguity, preserve evidence, and communicate risk to both deeply technical and nontechnical audiences.
• Commitment to authorized testing, operational safety, professional ethics, and careful handling of sensitive customer information.
• Ability to travel periodically and support testing windows that may occur outside normal business hours.

Preferred qualifications:

• Experience assessing satellites, spacecraft buses, payloads, ground stations, mission-control systems, or other aerospace and operational-technology environments.
• Familiarity with spacecraft flight software, command and telemetry workflows, common space-data protocols, or platforms such as NASA core Flight System.
• Experience with firmware extraction and reverse engineering, JTAG or SWD, UART, SPI, I2C, CAN, bootloaders, device drivers, or hardware debugging tools.
• Experience with containers, Kubernetes, infrastructure as code, CI/CD pipelines, cloud-native services, and identity attack paths across hybrid environments.
• Familiarity with radio-frequency systems, software-defined radio, satellite communications, or testing within hardware-in-the-loop and cyber-range environments.
• Active U.S. Government security clearance and prior work supporting Department of War, Intelligence Community, civil-space, or commercial-space missions.
• Relevant certifications such as OSCP, OSEP, OSED, GXPN, GPEN, GREM, or comparable demonstrated technical expertise.

Compensation And Benefits

SIXGEN offers competitive compensation based on the responsibilities of the role and the candidate's experience, qualifications, specialized expertise, and security-clearance status. The final compensation package will be discussed during the hiring process.

SIXGEN offers benefits for full-time employees, including:

• Employer-paid health insurance premiums, including medical, dental, and vision coverage, for employees and their families
• Employer-paid short- and long-term disability insurance and basic life and AD&D insurance
• 401(k) plan with a 4% employer contribution
• Professional-development reimbursement options for training, certifications, and education
• Flexible and remote-work policies for most positions
• Flexible paid time off and holiday schedule

For more information, please contact Human Strategist Amy Maxwell at [e-mail].

OUR COMMITMENT

SIXGEN is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, age, marital status, ancestry, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.

We are committed to fostering an inclusive culture that values diversity in our people and reflects the communities and customers we serve. We strive to attract and retain a diverse talent pool and to create an environment where everyone is empowered to do their best work.