Senior Vulnerability Researcher

Step into a senior position at the forefront of telecom security research. In this role, you won't just explore vulnerabilities; you'll define how they are discovered, understood, and mitigated across complex telecom ecosystems. You will lead high-impact research initiatives, guide technical direction, and mentor others while continuing to push the boundaries of your own expertise.

Lead Vulnerability Research - Take ownership of advanced vulnerability research across carrier-grade telecom systems. You'll drive investigations into complex, real-world technologies, uncovering deep and previously unknown security weaknesses. Your work will directly influence the resilience of critical national infrastructure.

Set Technical Direction & Strategy - Shape the vision for vulnerability research within the organisation. Define priorities, methodologies, and tooling approaches, ensuring research efforts remain innovative, relevant, and impactful. You will provide technical leadership across multiple domains, guiding teams through ambiguous and complex problem spaces.

Innovate & Build at Scale - Design and develop advanced research tooling and environments. Whether creating bespoke fuzzers, software-defined radio solutions, or entirely new frameworks, you'll enable large-scale experimentation and discovery. You'll lead by example—prototyping, iterating, and pushing technical boundaries.

Mentor & Elevate the Team - Support and develop other researchers by sharing knowledge, reviewing work, and fostering a culture of curiosity and technical excellence. You'll help build capability across the team, raising standards and accelerating collective impact.

Deepen Expertise & Drive Insight - Apply structured research methodologies to understand complex systems—how they behave, where they fail, and how they can be secured. You'll connect insights across domains (hardware, software, and networks) to solve real-world security challenges.

Work, Build & Experiment in a World-Class Lab - Operate within a cutting-edge research environment where experimentation is encouraged. You'll have the freedom to deconstruct systems, explore their limits, and rebuild them more securely at scale. Alongside this, you'll design and evolve the infrastructure that underpins advanced telecom security research.

About You - You are a highly experienced and deeply technical security researcher, driven by curiosity and a passion for understanding how complex systems work—and how they break. You thrive in ambiguity, lead with confidence, and have a track record of delivering meaningful research outcomes.

Your Skills & Experience

• Proven experience leading or contributing to advanced vulnerability research initiatives across multiple roles or organisations.
• Strong expertise across telecom technologies such as 4G/5G, fibre broadband, and OpenRAN.
• Deep understanding of hardware and software development lifecycles, and how they introduce security risks.
• Practical knowledge of cryptographic systems, including encryption, authentication, and digital signatures.
• Solid grasp of data structures, distributed systems, virtualisation, and containerisation.
• Expert-level understanding of network protocols and software internals, from low-level assembly to high-level languages.
• Experience with embedded systems, OS internals, and hardware debugging techniques.
• Strong knowledge of Linux internals, with the ability to quickly adopt new programming languages.
• Demonstrated experience identifying and exploiting memory corruption vulnerabilities, including bypassing modern protections (ASLR, stack canaries, etc.).
• Proficiency in reverse engineering, using tools such as IDA Pro, Ghidra, or equivalent.
• Skilled in using debugging tools (e.g., GDB) and advanced exploitation techniques.
• Experience building custom tools, research platforms, or test environments to support vulnerability discovery.

Please note: Applications will be reviewed, and interviews conducted throughout the duration of this advert; therefore, we may at any time bring the closing date forward. We encourage all interested applicants to apply as soon as practical.

We actively recruit citizens from all backgrounds; however, due to the sensitive nature of the work in this area, nationality, residency, and security requirements are more tightly defined than in other roles. To work in this position, you will need to meet the necessary security standards. The role requires DV clearance with no restrictions, though you are able to start in post with SC clearance while your DV clearance is in progress. You are welcome to apply without already holding the required clearance, but you will not be able to start in post until the appropriate level SC has been successfully granted.

About Us - UKTL is building leading edge Telecoms testing facilities to keep our telecommunications networks safe, accelerate the roll-out of new technologies, and grow our world leading telecoms sector to maintain resiliency and security. Successful candidates will join a state-of-the-art facility and be supporting the team conducting testing and research on the latest technologies and innovations in the industry.

You will work alongside our infrastructure and Cybersecurity professionals to ensure that the UK's world class Telecoms infrastructure grows in a resilient and secure manner underpinning growth in other industry sectors. As a trusted and independent national capability, UKTL interacts with standards bodies, Academia, and Government Departments as well as Communications Service Providers and equipment vendors.

The National Physical Laboratory (NPL) is a world-leading centre of excellence that provides cutting-edge measurement science, engineering and technology to underpin prosperity and quality of life in the UK.

We offer a wealth of above industry standard benefits, such as enhanced pension scheme, flexible working, and more. Our values are at the heart of what we do, and they shape the way we interact, develop our people and celebrate success. To ensure everyone has an equal chance, we're always willing to make reasonable adjustments to the recruitment process.