Dan McArdle

Resume :: CV :: 💡

A generalist software engineer with 10+ years’ experience in security and privacy, I enjoy designing and implementing new features, bug-hunting in low-level code, and contributing to open-source software. I currently work in Google’s Privacy Sandbox, where I’ve been building private advertising technology in Chrome. Before that, I wrote bare-metal C for OpenTitan and developed novel e2e testing infrastructure. I’ve contributed to IETF specifications in the TLS and DNS spaces by implementing prototypes of draft revisions in order to evaluate feasibility. In the defense arena, I authored a winning Phase II SBIR proposal and created a system based on FreeBSD and LLVM that generates VMs with unique calling conventions throughout their kernel and userspace.

Experience

Google SWE Privacy Sandbox Cambridge, MA Oct. 2023–Present

Contributed to the Private Aggregation API
Designed and launched two privacy-preserving, utility-improving features in Chrome
Received two peer bonuses for self-driven 20% work in fuzzers and code health

zeroRISC Inc. SWE OpenTitan Cambridge, MA Apr. 2023–Sept. 2023

Developed recovery mode for reprogramming flash memory after manufacturing
Optimized CRC32 implementation, achieving a 28x speedup
Improved debuggability by adding fixed-offset “chip info” data to the ROM

Google SWE {OpenTitan, Chrome} Cambridge, MA Oct. 2018–Mar. 2023

OpenTitan

Saved >1 hour per build by developing tool to splice OTP images into FPGA bitstreams
Developed glue code that enabled e2e tests to be written in terms of GDB & OpenOCD
Implemented e2e tests that relied on splicing and testing infra
Optimized memory functions and achieved a 1.5-5x speedup
Received a peer bonus for discovering and fixing a subtle build caching bug
Received a peer bonus for various improvements to developer quality-of-life

Chrome

Implemented early drafts of TLS Encrypted Client Hello in BoringSSL [draft-ietf-tls-esni]
Created BoringSSL’s first implementation of HPKE [RFC 9180]
Conducted an experiment to support development of the HTTPS RR [RFC 9460]
Analyzed solutions for “authenticated embeds” in post-third-party-cookie world
Received three peer bonuses for self-driven 20% work

Draper Laboratory Security Programmer Cambridge, MA Mar. 2018–Oct. 2018

Technical work on DoD projects with a focus on formal methods and cybersecurity
Specific topics include formally-verified software, static taint analysis, and fuzzing
Audited Adam Chlipala’s Spring 2018 Formal Reasoning about Programs at MIT

ATCorp R&D SWE Ithaca, NY Aug. 2015–Feb. 2018

Cybersecurity R&D for DoD customers and technical proposal writing
Authored winning Phase II SBIR proposal for SWARM project and managed development effort
Proposal work led to a number of patents

University at Buffalo Adjunct Professor Buffalo, NY June 2015–Aug. 2015

Taught CSE 305: Introduction to Programming Languages
Whirlwind tour through imperative, logic, and functional paradigms
Special focus on Haskell and the Lambda calculus

Education

University at Buffalo M.S. Computer Science & Eng. Buffalo, NY 2015

Graduate coursework in Programming Languages and Computer Vision
Contributed to published research on adding real-time capabilities to Standard ML

SUNY Geneseo B.A. Computer Science Geneseo, NY 2013

Completed multiple Directed Studies focused on Document Image Analysis
Developed Stompbox, a system that simulated analog audio effects in software