Vincent James Zimmer

Firmware · Platform Security · Formal Methods · Linux/NixOS · Seattle area, WA

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Resume

Current resume (PDF) — updated April 2026:

⬇ Download Resume (PDF)

Employment

Anduril Industries

Staff Software Engineer — Firmware & Security

October 2025 – Present · Seattle, WA

Firmware for defense-grade autonomous systems. Rust, C, OCaml on Linux/NixOS. NVIDIA Jetson platform bring-up and security hardening for AI edge hardware. Wrote Nix flakes and modules for declarative, reproducible firmware packaging; authored Rust-based systemd services in NixOS. Formal verification using Lean 4, TLA+, Rocq, Isabelle/HOL, CBMC, Frama-C.

RustCOCaml Lean 4TLA+Rocq Isabelle/HOLNixOSNVIDIA Jetson

Microsoft Corporation

Principal Software Engineer — Firmware Security

October 2024 – September 2025 · Redmond, WA

C and Rust firmware (Project Mu). Threat modeling of platform firmware and OS features.

Intel Corporation

Senior Principal Engineer — Firmware Architecture & Security

February 1997 – September 2024 · Seattle area, WA

27 years leading UEFI/firmware architecture. Co-authored UEFI Secure Boot (shipped in 3B+ devices), PI Specification vol. 1, Intel FSP 1.0–2.4. Chair: UEFI Security Subteam, UEFI Networking Subteam. Intel representative to TCG Technical Committee. Contributed to NIST SP 800-193.

Technical Skills

Linux / NixOS

Nix flakes & modules, reproducible firmware packaging, Rust-based systemd services

Firmware / BIOS

UEFI 2.x, EDKII, Project Mu, PI Spec, FSP, SMM, PEI, DXE, ACPI

Platform Security

Secure Boot, TPM/TCG, SPDM, NIST 800-193, post-quantum crypto, threat modeling

Formal Methods

Lean 4, TLA+, Rocq/Coq, Isabelle/HOL, CBMC, Frama-C, symbolic execution, fuzzing

Languages

Rust · C · OCaml · Python · Nix · Bash · LaTeX

Platforms / Hardware

x86/x64, ARM64, NVIDIA Jetson, Itanium, RISC-V, IoT/OCP

Standards

UEFI Forum, TCG, NIST, IETF (RFC 5970 co-author), OCP OSF

Books

System Firmware: An Essential Guide to Open Source and Embedded Solutions — Banik, Zimmer · Apress2022
Building Secure Firmware: Armoring the Foundation of the Platform — Yao, Zimmer · Apress2020
Beyond BIOS: Developing with the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface, 3rd Ed. — Zimmer, Rothman, Marisetty · De Gruyter2017
Harnessing the UEFI Shell: Moving the Platform Beyond DOS, 2nd Ed. — Rothman, Zimmer, Lewis · De Gruyter2017
Embedded Firmware Solutions: Development Best Practices for the IoT — Sun, Zimmer et al. · Apress2015

Selected Publications & Standards

Yao, Matusiewicz, Zimmer — Post Quantum Design in SPDM for Device Authentication and Key Establishment
MDPI Journal of Cryptography, 2022
Yang, Viktorov, Yang, Yao, Zimmer — UEFI Firmware Fuzzing with Simics Virtual Platform
DAC 2020
Bazhaniuk, Loucaides, Rosenbaum, Tuttle, Zimmer — Symbolic Execution for BIOS Security
USENIX WOOT 2015
Huth, Freimann, Zimmer, Thaler — RFC 5970: DHCPv6 Options for Network Boot
IETF, 2010
Full list of papers, talks, and book chapters →
vincentjzimmer/Documents on GitHub

Education

University of Washington — Seattle

M.S. Computer Science & Engineering

June 1999

Cornell University — Ithaca, NY

B.S. Electrical Engineering

January 1992

Erdős number: 3 · csauthors.net