Principal Security Researcher

The Cloud & AI organization accelerates Microsoft’s mission and bold ambitions to ensure that our company and industry are securing digital technology platforms, devices, and clouds in our customers’ heterogeneous environments, as well as ensuring the security of our own internal estate. Our culture is centered on embracing a growth mindset, inspiring excellence, and encouraging teams and leaders to reach their full potential each day. In doing so, we create life-changing innovations that impact billions of lives around the world. Microsoft is one of the largest enterprise services companies in the world.

Do you have a passion for helping Microsoft’s clients defend themselves against targeted exploitation? Are you interested in being intimately involved in the latest cutting-edge developments in the security industry and having a direct impact on the security of all Microsoft customers? Do you want to be on the front lines of helping our customers go toe-to-toe against advanced adversaries? Are you interested in a fast-paced job full of new opportunities?

If that resonates, consider joining us as a Security Researcher on the Global Hunting, Oversight, and Strategic Triage (GHOST) team!

We are looking for an experienced Principal Security Researcher with a Digital Forensics and Incident Response background to join our team to perform threat hunts, assist with investigations, develop threat intelligence, and cultivate effective investigation practices within Microsoft tooling and products.

Researchers will support a global team in identifying and cataloging new attacker tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) and victims, as well as delivering customer notifications to protect enterprise customers worldwide and empower them to protect themselves through constantly improving Microsoft products.

Microsoft’s mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. As employees, we come together with a growth mindset, innovate to empower others, and collaborate to realize our shared goals. Each day, we build on our values of respect, integrity, and accountability to create a culture of inclusion where everyone can thrive at work and beyond. In alignment with our Microsoft values, we are committed to cultivating an inclusive work environment for all employees to positively impact our culture every day.

Responsibilities

This role is part of a collaborative team, assisting our customers with:

Leading technical workstreams during investigations and guiding others in conducting deep analyses of attacker activity across on-premises and cloud environments.

Identifying potential threats, enabling proactive defense before an incident occurs.

Presenting technical findings and recommendations to improve customers’ cybersecurity posture and transferring threat intelligence knowledge to prepare customers to defend against today’s threat landscape.

Defining requirements for and assisting in the development of production threat-hunting tools, automations, and new capabilities.

Driving investigation strategies, developing new hunting methodologies, and influencing security products and practices across multiple teams.

Mentoring others and helping the team strengthen both technical and interpersonal skills.

Qualifications

Required qualifications

Extensive and demonstrated professional experience in Threat Hunting, Incident Response (DFIR), Threat Intelligence, or Security Research.

Experience investigating sophisticated cyber threats, including APT or nation-state activity.

Extensive experience working with forensically collected data and associated tooling, security telemetry, logs, and SIEM platforms.

Expertise in KQL or equivalent query languages (Splunk, Humio, Kibana, etc.).

Experience with EDR and security monitoring technologies such as Microsoft Defender, Microsoft Sentinel, CrowdStrike, or similar platforms.

Experience managing or conducting security reviews of Microsoft Azure tenants, Microsoft 365, and Entra ID.

Proven ability to analyze security data to investigate attacker activity and identify indicators of compromise (IOCs), indicators of activity (IOAs), and tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs).

Experience and familiarity with the collection of digital forensic data, as well as case management and forensic analysis tools such as X-Ways Forensics.

Solid written and verbal communication skills in English and the ability to work in a global team environment.

Ability to obtain and maintain UK security clearance.

Preferred qualifications

Industry certifications in cybersecurity, DFIR, incident response, or threat hunting (e.g., CISSP, GIAC).

Experience across multiple cybersecurity disciplines, including threat hunting, incident response, digital forensics, and threat intelligence.

Experience leading technical workstreams in incident response scenarios.

Extensive knowledge of Microsoft security technologies, including Defender and Sentinel.

Extensive knowledge of Microsoft Entra ID.

Experience analyzing large-scale security telemetry and hunting across enterprise environments.

Understanding of scripting or the ability to read and interpret code and automation workflows.

Security Research IC5 - The typical base pay range for this role across United Kingdom is £ 93,500.00 - £ 161,800.00 per year. Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation.

Find additional benefits and pay information here:

https://careers.microsoft.com/v2/global/en/corporate-pay/united-kingdom-corporate-pay.html

Security Research IC5 - The typical base pay range for this role across United Kingdom is £ 93,500.00 - £ 161,800.00 per year. Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation.

Find additional benefits and pay information here:

https://careers.microsoft.com/v2/global/en/corporate-pay/united-kingdom-corporate-pay.html

This position will be open for a minimum of 5 days, with applications accepted on an ongoing basis until the position is filled.

Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, citizenship, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, immigration status, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran or military status, race, ethnicity, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by applicable local laws, regulations and ordinances. If you need assistance with religious accommodations and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application process, read more about requesting accommodations.