For more than two decades, Keystone has been a premier, tech-forward strategy and economics consulting firm, helping leading technology companies, global brands, and top law firms solve their most complex challenges in competition, strategy, and regulation.

Our founders believed that modern consulting should integrate economics, strategy, and technology to drive true digital transformation and business model innovation. That’s what we call our “Triad of Skills." Keystone brings this interdisciplinary approach to the forefront of influential technology cases, changing consumer behavior and regulation laws and impacting society on a global scale, by leveraging the intersection of economics, technology, and business strategy to deliver transformative ideas.

As we rapidly expand globally, we are redefining what a consulting firm can be.

Economic, Technology, and Strategy Advisory (ETSA)

Keystone’s practices sit within our Economic, Technology, and Strategy Advisory (ETSA) group, which provides expert guidance across high-stakes business, legal, and technology challenges.

What We Do

ETSA leverages Keystone's connections with leading industry and academic experts to solve complex legal and regulatory issues and win high-stakes legal cases. Through our Centres of Excellence in Keystone Economics and Keystone Advanced Technology Services, we unite economists, technologists and management scientists to solve the hardest problems facing our clients

How We Operate

Our tech-native, internal consultants bring unique insights and experience to evaluate and solve client issues. Our economic, industry, and tech experts carry out in-depth analysis, build robust data and technology solutions, and produce economic and technology reports that win cases.

Who We Serve

Our ETSA group helps major law firms, Fortune Global 500 companies, leading technology companies, and government agencies.

Our practice areas

• Antitrust & Competition
• Financial Economics, Tax, and Securities (FETS)
• Intellectual Property (IP)
• Information Strategy, Risk and Regulation (ISRR)
• Healthcare and Life Sciences
• Technical Investigations
• Behavioral Insights
• Strategy Consulting

As a Forensic Hardware/Software Engineer at Keystone, you will collaborate with lawyers, academics, and technology leaders to analyze the functionality of complex technical systems - Including source code, hardware designs, and circuitry, in the context of high-stakes legal and business matters such as patent litigation, trade secret disputes, and mergers and acquisitions. This role offers the opportunity to investigate the inner workings of products developed by the world’s leading technology companies, spanning semiconductors, analog and digital electronics, power systems, signal processing, embedded systems, and more.

Role Expectations

• Analyze hardware and software systems and present summary findings to clients
• Assess the originality, similarity, and differences between multiple hardware and software systems
• Reverse engineer software applications and review semiconductor teardown reports to analyze key features and functionalities
• Evaluate the complexity and value of software and hardware developed
• Draft documents describing the functionality and behavior of hardware and software systems against legal claims
• Develop and productize tools to make analyses more efficient and scalable

Qualifications

• 3-5 years of experience working as a hardware consultant, circuit design engineer, or electrical/software engineer
• Skilled in a variety of programming languages, hardware description languages, databases, and embedded system platforms, such as: Java, C++, C, C#, Python, PHP, SQL, MySQL, VHDL, Verilog, and FPGA.
• Deep understanding of fundamental concepts in electrical engineering, such as: circuit design and analysis, semiconductor fabrication processes, analog and digital electronics, power systems, signal processing, embedded systems, PCB design, and hardware-software integration
• Deep understanding of fundamental concepts in computer science, such as: data structures, architecture design, programming paradigms (object-oriented, functional, declarative), algorithms, distributed computing, concurrency, computational complexity, database systems, networking, compilers
• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills
• Capacity to work in fast-paced, high-stakes environment
• The passion to learn, grow, and help us to improve our business
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or Materials Science; Master’s is a plus

US Salary Range: $135,000 - $186,000, 401k contribution, and competitive benefits package. Actual compensation within the range will depend upon the level the individual is hired into based on their skills, experience, and qualifications.

At Keystone we believe diversity matters. At every level of our firm, we seek to advance and promote diversity, foster an inclusive culture, and ensure our colleagues have a deep sense of respect and belonging. If you are interested in growing your career with colleagues from varied backgrounds and cultures, consider Keystone.

In addition to annual salary, we provide annual 401k contributions and competitive benefits package. Actual Compensation within the range will depend upon the level the individual is hired into based on their skills, experience, and qualifications.

Annual Salary Range

$135,000—$186,000 USD