About Careertakes

👉 Important disclosure: Careertakes is a third-party recruiting platform supporting this hiring process. If selected, you will be employed directly by our client, IT.

Applicants for this role may also receive access to additional matched opportunities through the Careertakes platform.

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What You’ll Do

This early-career Cybersecurity Researcher / Engineer will join a research team focused on secure systems and the intersection of AI and cybersecurity. Working with a confidential client, you will:

• Research, design, prototype, and evaluate approaches to secure software, embedded systems, and communications against advanced threats.
• Implement high-quality experimental software and systems (Rust preferred; C/C++ and other languages as appropriate).
• Explore AI applications for cyber defense and the security evaluation of AI-enabled systems.
• Collaborate across disciplines—cybersecurity, cryptography, formal methods, communications, autonomy, and space-related programs.
• Produce technical reports, publications, reusable software, prototypes, and support transition of technologies to operational use.
• Present findings to internal and government stakeholders.

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Required Qualifications

To be considered, you should have:

• A Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Cybersecurity, Software Engineering, Systems Engineering, or a related technical field.
• Demonstrated proficiency in at least one of:
  • Systems programming and software design (Rust preferred; C/C++ or similar).
  • Secure software or systems security engineering.
  • Systems integration, testing, and evaluation of secure systems.
  • Embedded systems design, analysis, or implementation.
• Substantial hands-on technical experience beyond coursework—typically at least six months full-time equivalent (internships, co-ops, research, employment).
• Strong problem-solving ability and clear technical communication; able to work effectively on teams.

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Desired Experience & Expertise

We value candidates with experience in one or more of:

• Systems engineering, security requirements, and threat modeling.
• Security evaluation, adversarial testing, experimental methods, and assurance evidence.
• Operating system internals, embedded systems security, and network protocol security.
• Applied cryptography and secure protocols.
• Static/dynamic analysis and applied formal methods.
• AI & cybersecurity: AI-enabled software analysis, vulnerability discovery, security testing, adversarial evaluation of ML systems, and resilience/robustness assessment.
• Technical writing and presenting research results.

(You are not expected to have all these skills; we welcome candidates eager to grow through hands-on research.)

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Compensation & Benefits

• Recent Graduate Hiring Range (base): $100,200 - $120,000 per year.
• Experienced Hiring Range (base): $100,200 - $150,000 per year.
• Benefits include comprehensive health/dental/vision, MIT-funded pension, 401(k) match, paid leave, tuition reimbursement, mentorship, and flexible work-life options.

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Additional Requirements & Hiring Details

• 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.
• U.S. citizenship is required for this position.
• This is a full-time research role supporting government-focused missions.
• Requisition ID: 43403

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Equal Opportunity & Hiring Transparency

Careertakes and our client are Equal Opportunity Employers committed to building a diverse and inclusive workforce. We prohibit discrimination or harassment of any kind. To support a fair and efficient hiring process, AI tools may be used to assist with application review or resume screening. These tools do not replace human decision-making. Final hiring decisions are made by people.

If you have questions about how your data is used, please contact us directly.