Embedded Cybersecurity Specialist - Pentester Profile

Embedded Cybersecurity Specialist - pentester profile

Quebec City, QC (Hybrid) Full time

Job Summary

CortAIx Factory, based in Quebec City and Montreal, is recognized as a true accelerator of technological innovation for the Thales group and its clients. The role of cortAIx is to extend Thales' influence within scientific and technical communities, offering a platform for innovation and knowledge sharing while attracting talented science and technology graduates who will hone its expertise.

OUR TEAM

CortAIx Factory Canada is dedicated to research and development (R&D) work focused on the needs of the Department of National Defence (DND) and the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF). These projects, built around digital technologies, require a high level of expertise in a multitude of areas specific to the Canadian Armed Forces but also depth in complex systems architecture. The challenges are very high and must take into account a panoply of parameters as much at the level of equipment or even the particular environment of our clients. The team is composed of developers and artificial intelligence specialists.

As an embedded cybersecurity specialist:

• You will perform penetration tests on embedded platforms to determine vulnerabilities and advise clients on corrective measures to take to resolve them;

• You will propose and develop new tools or innovative testing techniques to improve the effectiveness of penetration tests currently in place;

• You will participate in reverse engineering processes within a multidisciplinary team to determine potential entry points of the complex systems investigated;

• You will develop new effects on the platforms under test in order to demonstrate the potential impacts that a security flaw could have on this system and those connected to it.

Essential Functions

• Participate in software or hardware reverse engineering of certain systems embedded to understand how they work and identify potential vulnerabilities;

• Perform penetration testing on embedded systems;

• Develop and assemble test benches to perform cybersecurity tests;

• Perform tests to confirm vulnerabilities (observation or destructive);

• Develop tools to communicate with or analyze the behavior of embedded systems;

• Design, program and test software that can be deployed on embedded systems;

• Participate in the smooth running of activities within an Agile team (Sprint Planning, Daily Meeting, Sprint Review and Sprint Retrospective);

• Document and effectively communicate the results of tests performed;

• Perform all of these tasks in compliance with the team's best practices.

Minimum Requirements

• Bachelor's degree (or higher) in computer science, electronics or any other related and relevant field;

• 3 years of relevant experience in embedded systems and/or cybersecurity (junior, intermediate and senior profiles sought);

• Have an interest in the field of cybersecurity;

• Excellent communication skills, ability to listen and demonstrate openness to work with various stakeholders such as clients, scientists and the development team;

• Good sense of organization, responsibilities and priorities;

• Intellectual curiosity, taste for learning and desire to diversify one's skills;

• Aptitudes for teamwork and ability to foster collective intelligence;

• A keen sense of code quality as well as programming and architecture best practices is desired;

• Knowledge of scripting languages (Python, Bash, PowerShell) and programming (C/C++, C#, etc.);

• Mastery of Linux operation;

• Good command of spoken and written French; proficiency in English is an asset, but not a requirement;

This position requires a good knowledge of English for writing technical documents, to interact, support and/or provide services to international clients, employees and/or partners as well as to foreign government authorities who do not speak French.

Desirable Qualification

• Experience in hardware security of embedded system components;

• Side-channel leak analysis or fault injection on embedded systems to evaluate and validate hardware security at the component level;

• Experience with physical reading or probing techniques at the component level

• Knowledge of disassembler software like IDA/Ghidra is an asset;

• A keen sense of code quality and programming and architecture best practices is desired;

• Having experience with Agile development methods (Scrum, Kanban) is an asset;

• Having an interest in embedded systems;

• Having intellectual curiosity, the taste to learn and diversify;

• Having aptitudes for teamwork and promoting collective intelligence;

• Having a good sense of professional ethics is essential.

This position requires direct or indirect access to hardware, software, or technical information controlled under the Canadian Export Control List, the Canadian Controlled Goods Program, the Canadian Industrial Security Program, the US International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) or the US Export Administration Regulations (EAR). All applicants must be eligible or able to obtain authorization for such access, including eligibility for the Canadian Controlled Goods Program and be able to obtain a Canadian NATO Secret level security clearance.