Digital Forensics Engineer

BlueHalo is looking to hire exceptional and motivated talent who can both operate at scale and grow with the platform. At BlueHalo, we thrive at standing on the mission's edge supporting missions that matter. We remain singularly focused on implementing our client's vision and accelerating the execution of their goals providing cross cutting solutions in intelligence operations, identity management and data management. We have an amazing team, and we are looking for problem solvers, innovators, technologists, and operators looking to remain at the forefront of driving meaningful change and seeking to make an enduring impact on the national security mission. Make your mark standing at the mission's edge.

Our Digital Forensics Engineer position is part of a dynamic team focused on delivering robust state of the art technical research and solutions for our customers. Successful candidates will have strong research, collaboration, and communication skills coupled with self-starting attitude and willingness to tackle highly challenging problems. Candidates should be comfortable performing highly technical and deep analysis on multimedia such as imagery, video, and audio files.

WHAT YOU WILL DO

• Analyze metadata and other digital properties of multimedia files (i.e. images, videos, and audio) using reputable digital forensics industry tools and best practices for the purposes of determining a file's potential origin ("provenance"), its processing history ("pedigree"), and any other characteristics that can be attributed to it.
• Leverage advanced digital forensic software and techniques across a variety of domains (i.e., pixel-level, metadata-level, binary-level) to support comprehensive multimedia analysis for the purpose of determining the likelihood a file was maliciously altered (otherwise described as assessing its potential "authenticity").
• Employ the scientific method to conduct comprehensive research on assigned digital forensics topics and conduct independent research to overcome technical challenges.
• Use best practices for digital forensics investigations including techniques for proper identification, collection, preservation, analysis, and documentation of digital evidence.
• Conduct independent research/testing to acquire new skills and overcome technical challenges.
• Process, manipulate video/audio files (e.g., multiplexing, transcoding, stream copying, etc.) encoded across a variety of container formats (e.g., MP4, MKV, MOV, AAC, etc.) and compression standards (e.g., H.264, H.265) with tailored encoding parameters using commercial and/or open-source industry tools such as FFmpeg.
• Collaborate in a team-based environment to share knowledge, communicate progress on assigned tasks, solve technical challenges, and support the delivery of products that meet or exceed customer requirements.
• Conduct periodic quality control (QC) inspections of digital content.
• Produce and maintain detailed procedural documentation to enhance institutional knowledge and enable company developers to automate forensic processes.
• Maintain knowledge of emerging trends, techniques, and tools applicable to the digital forensics industry, including but not limited to rapid developments in the domain of synthetically generated multimedia.
• Collaborate with software engineers and testers to support the ongoing design, development, and quality assurance (QA) testing of customer-facing products.

WHAT QUALIFICATIONS YOU WILL BRING

• This position requires US Citizenship
• More than 9 years working experience as a research engineer
• Bachelor's degree in engineering or related
• Comprehensive understanding of the ISO base media file format (ISOBMFF) and other ISO/IEC container standards influence the structure, organization, and composition of common video file types such as MP4 and MOV
• General understanding of anti-forensic techniques, tactics, and procedures that may be employed by actors attempting to hide evidence of deliberate alterations to multimedia
• Familiarity with the general functionality of image editors such as Adobe Photoshop (Ps) and the GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP)

CONCEPTS THAT SHOULD SEEM FAMILIAR TO YOU

• Photography principles and elements (e.g., ISO, exposure time, focal length, color space, etc.) to include how they affect the spatial domain and underlying characteristics of an image or video
• Forensics tools such as ExifTool, Hex Editors, Magnet Verify, FFmpeg, MediaInfo and Amped Authenticat

BONUS POINTS IF YOU HAVE

• Experience with Jira for project management
• Basic scripting language such as Python
• GIAC - Battlefield Forensics and Acquisition (GBFA)
• GIAC - Advanced Smartphone Forensics Certification (GASF)
• ACIS - Certified Mobile Device Examiner