Cyber Security Researcher Internship

Job content

CoreTech Security’s mission is to deliver high-end security research and bespoke solutions to some of the most interesting cyber security clients in the UK. In practice, this means that we have built a world-class team of vulnerability researchers, reverse engineers, and high-assurance software engineers.

CoreTech is looking for talented final year students (graduating in 2024), with an active interest in subjects such as ethical hacking, vulnerability research and reverse engineering, to join our world-class research team for a paid summer 2023 internship. On completion of your internship you may be offered a contract for our 2024 graduate intake.

By working closely with your peers in small, usually two-to-three person teams, our interns rapidly develop the skills necessary to deliver bespoke research and capabilities for our most trusted clients. Our intern projects are chosen specifically to give you direct insight into the sorts of projects we deliver for our clients, with real demands and as-yet unsolved technical challenges you’ll be expected to best. Just ask our previous interns!

Our focus is the security of mobile and embedded technologies (although we do occasionally branch out). Our research team use Ghidra as our tool of choice for reverse engineering and produce proof of concepts in the most suitable language for the project which could be C, C++, Python or assembly code. The role requires an inquisitive mindset and enthusiasm for solving challenging research tasks.

Whilst we appreciated that candidates for internships might not have had time to build up experience, a successful candidate should be able to demonstrate most of the following skills:

• A genuine interest in how software vulnerabilities and exploits work
• Familiarity with one or more high-level languages such as C, C++ or Java
• Experience in basic scripting using Python
• Familiarity with the Linux OS and working in the shell
• Participation in Capture the Flag (CTF) challenges
• A basic understanding of how computers communicate (networking)
• Strong inter-personal skills and enthusiasm for working with others

If you also have any of these skills, we’d put them to great use:

• Experience of reverse engineering binary executables
• Experience with debuggers, disassemblers and decompilers
• Experience writing apps for Android or iOS devices
• Experience with hardware hacking

Benefits Package

We understand that work-life balance can be hard, particularly when you love your job, so we’ve designed our package to ensure you see the benefit in both your home and working lives. Our benefits currently include:

Work

☆ A generous profit share scheme so that everybody is rewarded for company success. We aim for 10% or more of base salary each year.

☆ Promotions assessed informally quarterly and based on technical excellence - there isno needto move into management to continue your career progression

☆ 25 days holiday per year (with bank holidays on top), option to buy/sell up to 5 days per year

☆ Level up with an extra day of holiday per year, up to an extra 5 days, starting from 2 years’ service

☆ Working hours are flexible over our 37.5 week, and we also support compressed and part time arrangements where possible

☆ We offer financial support to cover allowable costs of relocating, if you’re moving to the area

☆ Training and development opportunities to support your career aspirations

☆ Regular events including internal technical conferences, company socials and pizza-fuelled lunchtime seminars

☆ Free seasonal fruit, tea, coffee and milk

Health

Private medical --- including access to:

☆ Private online GP, and a helpline to speak with various healthcare professionals

☆ Physiotherapists, osteopaths or chiropractors for muscle, bone and joint pain

☆ Mental health - counselling, and specialist consultations and treatment with psychologists and cognitive behavioural therapists

☆ Annual Health assessment

Financial Security

☆ 8% company contribution to pension with no minimum requirement for employee contribution

☆ Death in Service cover of 4x base salary

Lifestyle

Enhanced maternity/paternity/adoption leave -

☆ 12 weeks maternity leave at full pay as soon as you join, further enhanced to 20 weeks full pay from 2 years’ service;

☆ 2 weeks paternity leave at full pay as soon as you join, further enhanced to 4 weeks full pay from 2 years’ service.

☆ Enhanced cycle-to-work scheme including the ability to purchase a bike over £1,000 (e-bikes, specialist cycles and trikes allowed)

☆ The Electric Car Scheme – a pretax salary sacrifice scheme to enable you to purchase an electric car at a saving of 30-60% on the car lease, maintenance, servicing and roadside assistance

Salary

We are recruiting staff at all levels in this team, and are able to support market-leading salaries for every grade within our sector/location. We reward staff based on technical excellence and not years of experience, so it’s important to us to speak with you to see which grade you would fit into - it’s not always obvious from a CV! Your interviewer will spend time during your first interview speaking with you about how your skills and experience map against our grades, and discuss a salary band so that you know early what you can expect if you receive an offer from us. The technical interview will provide a deeper assessment of your skills against your mapped grade which ultimately determines whether you receive an offer and the exact salary.

Location 

Cheltenham: We are based in the center of Cheltenham in a stunning new build contemporary office 5min walk from the local shops and cafes. Our website has a few pictures which you can take a look at.  We do support some remote working when not prohibited by the nature of project work. As a consultancy, our team occasionally travel to our client’s sites to present findings and integrate our capabilities.