ASD 4, 5, 6 Cyber Security Cryptanalysts & Cryptographic Evaluators

at  Australian Signals Directorate ASD

• Total Salary Package: $77,787.84 - $147,915.36 incl. 4% Service Allowance & 40% skills payment (plus 15.4% Super)
• Canberra - ACT

CORE SKILLS AND TECHNICAL EXPERIENCE

We are looking for candidates who either are or have the potential to be Cyber Security Cryptanalyst or Cryptographic Evaluators. This includes candidates with experience in any of the following areas:

• electrical engineering
• system engineering
• computer science
• mathematics/statistics
• understanding complex designs and technical documentation
• programming (e.g. C/C++, Assembly, Rust)
• network and protocol analysis
• reverse engineering (software and hardware, source code analysis)
• threat modelling with application to a cryptographic system
• applying or preventing real world cryptographic attacks
• modern cryptography (algorithms, protocols, implementations and attacks)
• post-quantum cryptography
• firmware and gateware development (e.g. C, HDL, seL4)

NON-TECHNICAL SKILLS AND OTHER RELEVANT EXPERIENCE:

At the ASD 4 level, you will have:

• Ability to operate with direction to achieve outcomes.
• Relevant technical aptitudes and be developing experience.
• Ability to conduct research and analysis; capture your findings; and contribute to products that support ASD’s capability to protect and defend Australia from cyber threats.

At the ASD 5 level, you will have:

• Ability to operate with limited direction to achieve outcomes, drawing on your relevant technical skills and experience.
• Ability to proactively seek assistance and have discussions with the subject matter experts around you.
• Ability to conduct research and analysis which will inform products you contribute to that increase ASD’s capability to protect and defend Australia from cyber threats.

At the ASD 6 level, you will have:

• Ability to operate independently with minimal direction
• Ability to lead a small to team to achieve outcomes, drawing on your experience and subject matter expertise.
• Ability to build productive working relationships across ASD and partners, and provide guidance and mentoring in your areas of expertise.
• Ability to be an individual and leader and enhance ASD’s capability to protect and defend Australia from cyber threats.

At all levels, the most important characteristics you will display are

• a meticulous eye for detail without losing sight of the overall picture
• the drive to continuously learn (from others and independently)
• desire to work collaboratively and conscientiously with the team

ASD is seeking applicants to fill current and anticipated vacancies and to create a merit pool for future vacancies.
Candidate Information Pack - Word Opens in new window
Candidat

THE ROLE

The Cryptology section is expanding and seeking to fill multiple positions in its Cybersecurity mission. The role will involve supporting the assessment of Australia’s cryptographic systems and ensuring they remain secure from a wide range of threats. These positions range from entry level to senior team members. While the cryptology discipline lives in the intersection of mathematics and computer science, assessing implementations and architectures requires additional skills such as system and electrical engineering. The roles will leverage your knowledge from any of the fields to help ASD prosecute its mission.
The section is looking to recruit people with experience or an ability to develop within/across two main streams: Analysts and Evaluators. Examples of the types of things you will do (or learn to do) in each stream are:

DUTIES OF ROLE INCLUDE:

• compile results into reports and technical talks
• keep up to date with cryptographic research and physical threats to systems
• review cryptographic code in high and/or low level programming languages
• reverse engineer both software and hardware
• utilise formal methods to ensure the security of algorithms and protocols
• understand electronic hardware wire diagrams

DUTIES OF ROLE INCLUDE:

• review technical documents and provide feedback to deadlines
• be able to communicate to external customers in both writing and face-to-face
• assess and understand the goals of a system and the cryptographic components
• apply threat modelling principles to enumerate attacks to a system
• create and implement controls correctly to mitigate threats
• understand both theoretical and real-world attacks on cryptographic systems
  Note: we do not expect candidates to be able to do all these tasks, these lists are used to reflect the type of work the candidate could expect to be involved in.