CYS_ R&T Collaborator_TP

Job Description:

Leonardo SpA is an international industrial group, one of the main global realities in Aerospace, Defense and Security that creates multi-domain technological capabilities in Helicopters, Aircraft, Aerostructures, Electronics, Cyber Security and Space. With over 60,000 employees worldwide, the company has a solid industrial presence in Italy, the United Kingdom, Poland, the United States, and operates in 150 countries also through subsidiaries, joint ventures and participations.

A protagonist of the main strategic programs at a global level, it is a technological and industrial partner of Governments, Defense Administrations, Institutions and companies.

Within the Technology & Innovation Area, and specifically the Cryptography & Quantum Information Lab, we are looking for an Embedded Systems Security Researcher for our office in Rome Laurentina.

The person will be responsible for the following activities:

• Development of prototypes for the secure implementation of cryptographic functionalities on embedded systems and FPGAs: within the activities of the Cryptography & Quantum Information lab, the resource will deal with the aspects of HW integration of the cryptographic primitives developed within the laboratory, previously contributing to their development. Regarding the embedded part, the main interest is towards ARM and RISC-V architectures.

• Identification of industrial research topics on reference topics: the resource is expected to analyze technological trends related to the topics of relevance to the activity and proactively propose industrial research topics to their manager, then collaborating with them in defining the related technological development roadmap.

• Participation in technical activities supporting funded research programs or client projects: the candidate will have to collaborate when requested and necessary in technical support for the proposal and execution phase of funded projects or client projects on topics of their competence.

Educational Qualification:

Master's Degree in Electronic Engineering.

Ph.D. in Electronic Engineering - Preferred

Seniority:

Expert: at least 3-5 years of experience in the field.

Technical Skills:

• FPGA Development:

  • HDL Languages: VHDL, Verilog, SystemVerilog
  • Toolchain: Xilinx Vivado, Intel Quartus, ModelSim
  • Ability to optimize for execution times and resources, design skills (pipelining, parallelization);
  • Debugging and analysis: Logic analyzer, JTAG, timing analysis;
  • Simulation and verification capabilities

• Embedded Systems:

  • Embedded programming: C/C++, Rust
  • RTOS: Free RTOS, Zephyr
  • Toolchain: GCC ARM, CMake, OpenOCD;
  • Knowledge, management and use of peripherals and protocols SPI, I2C, UART, CAN, Ethernet;
  • SW optimization: memory management and latency reduction;
  • Debug and development: JTAG, SWD, oscilloscopes, EM probes, hardware debugger;
  • Proactivity and ability in testing automation;

• Plus (nice to have)

  • Participation in open-source projects (e.g., OpenTitan, lowRISC).
  • Previous experience in hardware security labs or hardware red teams.

• Experience in HW integration of cryptographic functionalities (optional but evaluated): experience in integrating cryptographic functionalities on HW (bare metal or OS-based - RTOS-based) will be evaluated and appreciated;

• Experience in security testing and side-channel analysis (optional but evaluated): experience or skills in side-channel analysis (power-based, time-based), and the implementation of mitigation measures (masking, randomization) will be evaluated and appreciated;

• Knowledge of Post-Quantum cryptography standards (optional but evaluated): knowledge of FIPS 203, 204, 205 standards, HQC and Falcon algorithms, and other relevant algorithms in the field will be appreciated. Other knowledge in the context of cryptography, especially with a focus on post-quantum primitives, will be well evaluated.

Behavioral Skills

• Good communication and interpersonal skills, also appreciated the ability to popularize technical topics to promote industrial research work both internally and externally to the company, if necessary;

• Good time and priority management skills;

• Ability to plan technical activity, identify risk components associated with a project, are appreciated qualities;

Language Skills:

• Italian, English (B2)

Other:

• Certifications, Master's degrees and Research Doctorates in the relevant field will be well evaluated.

• More in-depth knowledge regarding technological topics pertinent to the laboratory will be well evaluated.

Seniority: Expert

Primary Location: IT - Rome - Via Laurentina

Contract Type: Permanent

Hybrid Working: Hybrid