Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Cybersecurity Research Scientist / Engineer: Secure Systems

Information Technology
5 - 7 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • PhD in Computer Science, Cybersecurity, or related field; or a Master's with 5+ years of relevant experience.
  • Technical depth in systems security, software security, or applied cryptography.
  • Proven record of research or technical innovation through publications or patents.
  • Ability to lead research efforts and identify critical problems.
  • Strong communication skills for technical and non-technical audiences.

Responsibilities

  • Develop and evaluate new cybersecurity approaches for software and systems.
  • Lead R&D efforts from concept to mission use.
  • Research AI applications in cybersecurity and evaluate AI-enabled systems.
  • Publish and present findings, collaborating with various stakeholders.
  • Mentor researchers and engineers, fostering new research programs.

Benefits

  • Comprehensive health, dental, and vision plans.
  • MIT-funded pension.
  • Matching 401K.
  • Paid leave including vacation and parental leave.
  • Tuition reimbursement and continuing education programs.
  • Mentorship programs.
  • Work-life balance options.
Full Job Description
Job Description

As a Full Technical Staff member, you will:

  • Advance the state of the art in cybersecurity by developing and evaluating new approaches to securing software, embedded systems, communications, and computing infrastructure against sophisticated cyber threats.
  • Shape research directions and lead technically challenging R&D efforts, from new concepts through prototyping, evaluation, and transition to mission use.
  • Pursue research at the intersection of AI and cybersecurity, including applications of AI to cyber analysis and defense, as well as the security and evaluation of AI-enabled systems.
  • Publish and present research and collaborate with researchers across Lincoln Laboratory, government, industry, and academia.
  • Mentor researchers and engineers, identify important new problems, and contribute to the development of new research programs and sponsor relationships.


Required Qualifications

To thrive in this role, you should have:
  • A PhD in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Cybersecurity, Software Engineering, Systems Engineering, or a closely related computing or engineering field.
    • Alternatively, a Master's degree with at least five years of relevant professional or research experience.
    • Candidates whose prior degrees are in another technical field may qualify with substantial relevant professional or research experience demonstrating comparable technical preparation.
  • Demonstrated technical depth in one or more of the following:
    • Systems security, particularly for embedded systems.
    • Software security and program analysis.
    • Secure-by-design systems and architectures.
    • Applied cryptography and security protocols.
    • Software testing, metrics, and evaluation.
    • Applied formal methods and programming languages security.
    • AI-enabled tools and techniques for cybersecurity.
  • A record of research or technical innovation, demonstrated through publications, patents, significant technical projects, prototypes, or comparable contributions that address complex problems with new approaches.
  • Demonstrated technical initiative and potential to lead research efforts, including the ability to identify important problems, formulate technical approaches, and influence the direction of collaborative work.
  • Strong technical communication skills, including the ability to communicate complex ideas effectively to technical and nontechnical audiences.


Desired Experience and Expertise

We particularly value demonstrated experience in one or more of the following areas:
  • Secure software development, operating system internals, embedded systems security, and network protocols.
  • Systems engineering, security requirements analysis, and threat modeling.
  • Security evaluation and assurance, including adversarial testing, experimental methods, security measurement, and evidence supporting security and assurance claims.
  • Applied cryptography and protocols, including industry and government standards.
  • Static and dynamic software analysis and applied formal methods.
  • AI-enabled software analysis, vulnerability discovery, security testing, threat analysis, and cyber defense.
  • Security and evaluation of AI-enabled systems, including adversarial threats, robustness, and resilience.
  • Experience across the R&D lifecycle, from concept development and prototyping through evaluation and transition, particularly in national security, government, or defense-related environments.
  • Systems-level thinking and analysis, including identifying important national security problems, understanding mission and technical context, evaluating alternative approaches and tradeoffs, and translating technical vision into executable research plans.
  • Technical leadership and mentoring of researchers and engineers.
  • Development of new research concepts, proposals, or programs, including collaboration with government sponsors and other research partners.


We do not expect candidates to have expertise in all of these areas.

Recent Graduate Hiring Range: $145,200 - $170,000
Experienced Hiring Range: $145,200 - $220,000

Disclaimer: MIT Lincoln Laboratory provides a typical hiring range as a good faith estimate of what we reasonably expect to offer for this position at the time of posting. The final salary offered to a selected candidate will depend on various factors, including-but not limited to-the scope and responsibilities of the role, the candidate's experience, skills and education/training, internal equity considerations and applicable legal requirements. This range reflects base salary only and does not include additional forms of compensation or benefits.

At MIT Lincoln Laboratory, our exceptional career opportunities include many outstanding benefits to help you stay healthy, feel supported, and enjoy a fulfilling work-life balance. Benefits offered to employees include:
  • Comprehensive health, dental, and vision plans
  • MIT-funded pension
  • Matching 401K
  • Paid leave (including vacation, sick, parental, military, etc.)
  • Tuition reimbursement and continuing education programs
  • Mentorship programs
  • A range of work-life balance options
  • ... and much more!

Please visit our Benefits page for more information. As an employee of MIT, you can also take advantage of other voluntary benefits, discounts and perks.

Selected candidate will be subject to a pre-employment background investigation and must be able to obtain and maintain a Secret level DoD security clearance.

Requisition ID: 43409

About Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT is a member of the Association of American Universities (AAU) and is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity". The university is known for its strong emphasis on scientific and technological research and its engineering programs. MIT was founded in 1861 and has a long history of innovation and entrepreneurship. The university has produced numerous Nobel laureates, Rhodes Scholars, and MacArthur Fellows.
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