Network & Systems Engineer, Robot Security
About the role
Our robots work on customer sites, next to energized equipment, controlled by an operator over a network. If someone can tamper with the robot, read its data or hijack the link, that is a safety problem, not just an IT one. Every layer has to be locked down: hardware, operating system, software, and every channel data travels through.
You'll own the security, kernel-level integrity and network communications of our deployed systems. The role carries equal weight across three areas: system and device security, Linux kernel-level work, and network and data-transfer engineering.
What you'll do
- Secure robots for field deployment at the hardware, OS and application levels, including secure boot, disk and storage encryption, and protection of software and model IP against extraction or leaks
- Find vulnerabilities across systems and networks through audits, penetration testing and threat modeling
- Use reverse-engineering tools on our own systems, and put countermeasures in place such as binary hardening, obfuscation and anti-tamper measures
- Design and enforce access control and user management across all systems: least-privilege policies, authentication and audit logging
- Manage certificates and PKI for device identity and encrypted communication
- Harden and configure the Linux kernel and OS for production use on embedded and edge platforms
- Configure and maintain mandatory access controls (SELinux or AppArmor), kernel security modules and system services
- Monitor and lock down system-level behavior, including processes, services, permissions and attack surface
- Design, implement and maintain the network stack and the communication protocols between robots, operators and backend systems
- Build firewalls with strict inbound and outbound rules, so all traffic in and out of a device is authenticated, encrypted and gated
- Protect communication channels against hijacking, spoofing, replay and man-in-the-middle attacks
- Write and maintain custom data-transfer protocols, balancing latency, reliability and security
What we're looking for
- A bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Cybersecurity or a related field with 3+ years of relevant experience, or a master's with 1 to 2 years
- Strong experience with Linux internals and system administration in production or embedded environments
- Solid knowledge of network architecture, protocols and standards (TCP/IP, UDP, TLS, DNS, routing, VLANs, VPNs)
- Hands-on experience with firewalls and traffic control (iptables/nftables or similar), network segmentation and secure remote access
- Practical experience in vulnerability assessment and penetration testing at both the system and network levels
- Familiarity with reverse-engineering tools (such as Ghidra, IDA, gdb and Wireshark) and the techniques used to defend against them
- Experience with encryption, key management, PKI, and secure boot or hardware-backed security (TPM, secure elements or similar)
- Experience implementing access control and identity management across multi-user systems
- Proficiency in C and Python. C++ or Rust is a plus
Nice to have
- Linux device driver and kernel module development
- Developing and deploying system services and daemons
- Securing embedded, IoT or robotic devices in the field
- ROS 2 security (SROS2) or securing DDS-based communication
- Security certifications such as OSCP, OSCE, GIAC or CISSP
About Mundane
Mundane builds force-feedback teleoperation for dangerous, hands-on work. A skilled tradesperson wears our exoskeleton and works through a robot on site, seeing in stereo and feeling the forces it meets, from outside the hazard. We're starting with energized electrical work and expanding across the trades. Every job also produces the force-rich data that robot learning is missing. We're a small, venture-backed team in Palo Alto.
Work authorization
Please tell us whether you're authorized to work in the US and whether you'll need visa sponsorship now or in the future.
Equal opportunity
Mundane is an equal opportunity employer. We welcome applicants from every background and don't discriminate on the basis of any legally protected characteristic.