Senior CNO Operator

Senior CNO Operator

Location: Northern Virginia
Travel: Up to 5%, and various sites local to Northern Virginia
Clearance: Top Secret clearance required
Citizenship: US Citizenship required

About Grimm

Grimm is an innovative, forward-looking cybersecurity organization focused on solving complex technical challenges across hardware, firmware, and software systems. Our teams specialize in reverse engineering, vulnerability research, and security engineering, supporting mission-critical efforts across national security, defense, and critical infrastructure sectors.

Our work is rooted in real-world operational experience identifying advanced threats, uncovering critical vulnerabilities, and developing meaningful solutions to complex problems. Grimm engineers operate across embedded systems, vehicles, IoT, and enterprise technologies, with a focus on understanding systems deeply and demonstrating real-world impact.

We are a highly technical and hands-on organization. Our engineers and researchers specialize in breaking systems, discovering vulnerabilities, and improving resilience—working directly with real hardware and software to understand how systems function and how they fail.

About the Role

Grimm is seeking multiple Senior CNO Operators to work directly with software, firmware, and embedded systems.

In this role, you will provide on-site support in research and development of software designed to exploit vulnerabilities of adversary technology, algorithm development, script writing and software utility development, analysis and reverse engineering of source code, software integration and testing, technical writing and documentation, and lifecycle maintenance of customer software programs. You will also contribute to, or conceive of, tooling supporting engineering efforts to improve efficiency and automate tasking.

We're looking for individuals who are curious, driven, and enjoy working at the lowest levels of systems—those who aren't satisfied until they fully understand how something works.

What You'll Do

• Lead capability development which includes, but not limited to technology research, vulnerability assessment, software development, capability integration, system test, and product maintenance.
• Ownership and technical leadership of software development and reverse engineering efforts
• Provide technical expertise and advise project proposals to include scoping, level of effort, staffing, and what's needed to deliver a capability
• Responsible for end-to-end design and development of custom software for mobile, desktop, and virtual platforms
• Mentor and lead junior-level developers to accomplish mission objectives
• Reverse engineer automotive firmware and embedded systems
• Develop tooling for protocol analysis, fuzzing, and exploitation
• Perform binary analysis using tools such as Ghidra, IDA Pro, or Binary Ninja
• Research and develop novel attack techniques against target systems
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams spanning software, hardware, and cybersecurity

Required Qualifications

• Active Top Secret clearance
• US Citizenship
• Experience in one or more of the following areas:
  • Experience performing Low-level development with major operating system experience for Android, iOS, Windows, OS-X, or Linux
  • Proficient with C and common assembly languages (e.g. x86, arm)
  • Proficient with a disassembler like IDA Pro, Ghidra, or Binary Ninja
  • Experience with static and dynamic analysis techniques
  • Ability to reverse engineer binaries written in C/C++
  • JavaScript development
  • ARM/AARCH64 Assembly development C programming
  • Understanding of exploit mitigations such as ASLR, DEP, PXN, ROP
  • Knowledge of V8, JIT, WebKit
  • Networking Development
• • Reverse engineering or vulnerability research
• Strong understanding of low-level systems (memory, system architecture, firmware)
• Demonstrated experience in software integration and testing, technical writing and documentation, and lifecycle maintenance of customer software programs.
• Proven experience in script writing and software utility development.
• Ability to clearly communicate technical findings in both written and verbal formats to the highest levels - prepare and present analytical documents for senior government officials

Preferred / Nice to Have

• Experience developing in system firmware or kernel
  • i.e. “baremetal” environments
• Knowledge of common binary file formats
  • ELF, PE, machO
• Use of user- and kernel-mode debuggers
• Ability to take unknown hardware and/or software systems from initial triage to reconstruction of system architecture through reverse engineering efforts
• Background in:
• • Offensive cyber operations (CNO)
  • Military, intelligence, or law enforcement environments
• Experience experimenting with AI/LLMs for security research or tooling

Benefits

Grimm offers a comprehensive benefits package that includes medical, dental, and vision coverage, life and disability insurance, retirement benefits, paid leave, and opportunities for tuition assistance and ongoing professional development.

Why Grimm

You'll be working alongside highly specialized engineers and researchers tackling challenging problems in embedded security and reverse engineering. Our work directly supports national security missions and requires a high level of technical ownership, creativity, and precision.

If you enjoy working hands-on with hardware, digging into complex systems, and pushing your technical skills further, you'll find this environment both challenging and rewarding.

Equal Opportunity Employer

Grimm is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation, and gender identity), national origin, age, disability, genetic information, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local laws.