Cyber Developer/Vulnerability Researcher at The Hawaii Pacific Foundation
Hanahan, SC
$160,000–$200,000from the description
Jul 16, 2026
Hanahan, SC
Jul 21, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
An on-site offensive cyber role supporting a naval research center's rapid capability team, focused on discovering and analyzing vulnerabilities, reverse engineering software and binaries, and building custom cyber tools. Day-to-day work spans exploit research, zero-day analysis, and writing code in low-level and scripting languages. Suited to developers with a strong adversarial mindset and an active TS/SCI clearance.
Senior level · Charleston-North Charleston, SC · TS/SCI clearance · Full-time
“or” means any one of them counts — you don't need all of them.
We read this from the posting text with AI. Skim the description below before ruling yourself out.
How this req sits in the market our data
Rare in this occupation — lead with these, and say what you built with them.
Most people in this occupation already list these. Still required — just not what gets you shortlisted.
What the occupation pays Median $112,736 (middle half $87,237–$143,017). This posting is about at that midpoint.
Estimated from BLS employment for this occupation and area, per-skill prevalence across our listing corpus, and published wage benchmarks — as of Jul 28, 2026. It is a model, not a headcount.
Why we read it this way (8)
The posting lists two salary ranges: '$145,000–$190,000' in the body text and '$160,000–$200,000' in the header metadata. The higher header figure ($160K–$200K) was used as it appears to be the authoritative posting-level value, but hiring managers should confirm the intended range.
A polygraph is listed as preferred ('Poly preferred'), not a hard gate; only the TS/SCI is required.
This role sits at the boundary between Information Security Analysts (15-1212) and Software Developers (15-1252): it requires substantial offensive tool development and coding, but the primary mission framing is vulnerability research and offensive cyber operations. 15-1212 was chosen as the primary code given the dominant security/research focus.
The requirements section frames vulnerability research, reverse engineering, and exploit development together as a combined requirement with 'experience or strong interest,' suggesting some of these may be aspirational for the right candidate. Reverse engineering and vulnerability research are treated as hard gates given their centrality to the role; exploit development is marked preferred as the JD softens it with 'or strong interest.'
No minimum total years of experience are stated anywhere in the posting.
No degree requirement is specified ('Education Level: Not Specified').
Ignored 2 non-technology phrase(s) as skills (responsibilities/concepts, not named tools): reverse engineering, exploit development.
Requires a TS/SCI clearance — the cleared population is a small fraction of this occupation, so the real candidate pool is materially smaller than the estimate below, which does not model clearance.
Read the full posting
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