Position: Senior Developer/Project Leader  

Description: Vigilant Cyber Systems, Inc. (VCS) is seeking to hire a Senior Software Developer to join our growing team working on research and development projects for the U. S. Department of Defense. This position will report to the President and CTO and will be responsible for leading our research and development efforts and supervising and mentoring our small but growing team of developers and engineers.

Initially, the work will be primarily to lead some of the current research and development efforts and provide vision to the software teams on projects for the Navy and the USAF. The expectation is to spend the first month getting familiar with the research and the goals of the active programs, with the expectation that some will continue with the current Principal Investigator (PI) and you will replace the PI on one or two.

Most of our work is for the federal government, and we primarily operate in the research and development of new cyber-security testing methods and tools, particularly in the Cyber-Physical System domain. Our current projects include:

  • Toolkit for Assessing Electromagnetic Disruption Recovery (TAEMDR) – A Testing Suite to simulate the effects of electromatic attacks against cyber systems and measure the human response time to restore the system to full operation.
  • Electromagnetic Battle Damage Assessment Tool (EMBDAT) – A Tool to assess the effects of high-power electromagnetic (HPEM) attack using sensor data from the system under attack (target system) and other known quantities about the target and weapon for predicting the time until a target system will be recovered.
  • Automated Tactical Effectiveness Service for Electromagnetic Effectors (ATES-EE) – a decision Tool for Integrated Combat System of navy Ships which provides real-time effectiveness assessment of electromagnet engagements.
  • Integrated & Automated Testing System (IATS) – A set of tools that run in a DevSevOps pipeline such as GitLab and automate all aspects of testing including unit testing, integration testing, static analysis, fuzzing, performance testing.
  • Framework for Avionics Security Testing (FAST) – A toolkit for pre-test, test execution, and post-test analysis for aircraft avionics systems with the goal of reducing testing complexity, reducing testing cost, and generating more valuable results.
  • Battery Management System Cyber Test Tool (BMS-CTT) a tool for integration into BMS DevSecOps pipelines to enable testing of all types in the development and delivery process.
  • Automated Mission Readiness Assessment of Shipboard Systems (AMRASS) – A prototype for Centralized Automated Fault Monitoring on Navy Frigates.

In addition to leading the development team and serving as a Principal Investigator (PI) on some projects, responsibilities will also include:

  • Preparing proposals for additional research and supervising our developer who writes and tracks the various SBIR offerings.
  • Providing recommendations to the CTO on improving development and testing practices including the use of Large Language Models and generative AI in for aiding developers

We offer competitive salaries, great benefits, and a flexible work schedule.

 

Qualifications: Candidates must be familiar with modern DevSecOps processes including all aspects of cyber security testing and evaluation, software development, algorithm development and have proven experience leading research projects. Candidates must have strong written and verbal communication skills and be capable of leading meetings with customer program managers. Candidates must have excellent coding and development skills and have an ability to meet deadlines and think strategically.

Applicants should have a PhD or Masters in Computer Science or Electrical Engineering or similar degree, and be proficient in programming in multiple languages.

The following experience is desired, but not required:

  • Experience with the DoD Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program
  • Experience with developing exploits for security testing
  • Experience with kernel level development
  • Experience with Cyber-Physical Systems
  • Knowledge of cyber attack tactics, techniques, and procedures.
  • Programming in C/C++
  • Programming in Rust
  • Programming in Python
  • Programing in the Scala programming language
  • Experience with ScalaFX or JavaFX
  • Experience with GitLab
  • DoD Security Clearance

Experience: We are looking for a candidate preferably with a PhD in CS or EE, and 10+ years of experience in research and development, but would accept MS in CS or EE and 15+ or a BA in CS or EE and  20+ years of experience.

Timeline: Immediately

Applicants must be U.S. Citizens and qualified to obtain a DoD security clearance

This position is primarily remote but will require some travel to Customer Sites and some work at our Company Offices in Mount Airy, NC.

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