Location(s): UK, Europe & Africa : UK : Gloucester 

BAE Systems Digital Intelligence is home to 4,500 digital, cyber and intelligence experts. We work collaboratively across 10 countries to collect, connect and understand complex data, so that governments, nation states, armed forces and commercial businesses can unlock digital advantage in the most demanding environments.

Early Careers Operational Cyber Researcher

Job Title:  Operational Cyber Researcher – Early career

Job City:  Gloucester, Manchester, London

Professional Area:  Engineering - Software

Grade: GG08

Operational Cyber Group is a team of industry‑leading experts in high‑assurance development, research, reverse engineering, and vulnerability research.

With a focus on National Security, we work on some of the country’s toughest technical challenges. Our people provide mission‑changing capability for our customers across a wide variety of platforms and technologies.

We are looking for Junior Researchers & Vulnerability Researchers who are passionate about security research and want to develop deep technical expertise in vulnerability discovery, reverse engineering, and low‑level software analysis. Whether your experience comes from university projects, CTFs, personal research, or early industry experience, you will benefit from training, mentorship and support from experienced researchers across the team.

Role Description

• Technical delivery: support and conduct research tasks, varying from vulnerability research and reverse engineering to IoT device teardowns.
• Collaboration: work closely with experienced researchers and contribute to team deliveries in the form of proof-of-concept solutions, research reports, or tooling.
• Adaptability: operate across a range of tools, languages, and platforms. Learn new tooling quickly or help develop bespoke tools where needed.
• Customer focus: understand the mission‑critical needs of our customers and help deliver in line with those requirements.

What we are looking for

Must‑have:

• Strong interest in vulnerability research or security research, that can be demonstrated, for example, through university coursework, CTF participation, personal research projects, or reading & experimenting with current published research.

• Low‑level programming skills, especially C/C++ (or Rust), with evidence you can:
• write, debug, and test low‑level code,
• reason about memory and behaviour,
• work confidently with pointers/structs/buffers.
• Comfortable working with, reviewing, and building large codebases, including understanding unfamiliar systems from scratch.
• Clear technical communication to both technical and non‑technical audiences.

Nice to have

• Experience using software reverse engineering tools (e.g. Ghidra, IDA Pro).
• Knowledge of exploitation techniques and mitigations.
• Familiarity with common computing topics: Linux usage, networking fundamentals, scripting.
• Scripting and tooling languages such as Python or Bash.
• Understanding of assembly, e.g. ARMv7, ARMv8, MIPS, or x86/x64.
• Awareness of Android, iOS, or Linux internals.
• Exposure to fuzzing or user‑mode emulation.
• Knowledge of current cryptography practices, such as public/private key systems.
• Mobile application development or reverse engineering experience (Android, iOS).

Why join us?

• Benefit from our team’s training budget: this can be used for specialist courses, major cybersecurity conferences such as Black Hat, and more.

• By joining the Operational Cyber Group, you will be addressing the most critical cyber needs of governments and businesses across the globe, with a meaningful and tangible impact on UK National Security.
• Work-life balance is important to us: we can offer a variety of hours to suit individual needs, such as part-time or flexible working, along with a minimum of 25 days of holiday per year.
• Our flexible benefits package includes private medical and dental insurance, a competitive pension scheme, cycle to work scheme, childcare vouchers, discount cards and more.
• We are a supportive, inclusive and friendly team, committed to helping each other learn and succeed. We have a number of Diversity and Support groups which cover everything from gender diversity to mental health and wellbeing.
• With clear career progression pathways, mentorship, as well as ongoing training throughout your career, you can feel confident that your aptitude will be rewarded.

Please be aware that this role is subject to security restrictions. We do not expect you to have a security clearance before applying, but you will need to be eligible to work in the UK, and be able to successfully achieve an eDV UK security clearance. For more details see https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/united-kingdom-security-vetting-clearance-levels/edv-guidance-pack-for-applicants. Our recruiters are happy to explain the process.

Why BAE Systems Digital Intelligence?

BAE Systems Digital Intelligence is home to 4,500 digital, cyber and intelligence experts. We work collaboratively across 10 countries to collect, connect and understand complex data, so that governments, nation states, armed forces and commercial businesses can unlock digital advantage in the most demanding environments.

This is a place where you’ll be able to make a real difference. You’ll be part of an inclusive culture that values diversity of thought, rewards integrity, and merit, and where you’ll be empowered to fulfil your potential. We welcome people from all backgrounds and want to make sure that our recruitment processes are as inclusive as possible. If you have a disability or health condition (for example dyslexia, autism, an anxiety disorder etc.) that may affect your performance in certain assessment types, please speak to your recruiter about potential reasonable adjustments.

Life at BAE Systems Digital Intelligence 

We are embracing Hybrid Working. This means you and your colleagues may be working in different locations, such as from home, another BAE Systems office or client site, some or all of the time, and work might be going on at different times of the day.

By embracing technology, we can interact, collaborate and create together, even when we’re working remotely from one another. Hybrid Working allows for increased flexibility in when and where we work, helping us to balance our work and personal life more effectively, and enhance well-being.

Diversity and inclusion are integral to the success of BAE Systems Digital Intelligence. We are proud to have an organisational culture where employees with varying perspectives, skills, life experiences and backgrounds – the best and brightest minds – can work together to achieve excellence and realise individual and organisational potential. 

Division overview: Capabilities

At BAE Systems Digital Intelligence, we pride ourselves in being a leader in the cyber defence industry, and Capabilities is the engine that keeps the business moving forward. It is the largest area of Digital Intelligence, containing our Engineering, Consulting and Project Management teams that design and implement the defence solutions and digital transformation projects that make us a globally recognised brand in both the public and private sector.

As a member of the Capabilities team, you will be creating and managing the solutions that earn us our place in an ever changing digital world. We all have a role to play in defending our clients, and this is yours.