Senior & Principal Security Researcher

The Cloud & AI organization accelerates Microsoft’s mission and bold ambitions to ensure that our company and industry is 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, a theme of inspiring excellence, and encouraging teams and leaders to bring their best 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 service 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 Senior or Principal Security Researcher on the Tip of the Spear team, which includes the Global Hunting, Oversight, and Strategic Triage (GHOST) team and the Microsoft Threat Intelligence Center (MSTIC)!

• Within GHOST, we are looking for an experienced Senior Security Researcher with a proficient analytical background to join our team to perform threat hunts, assist with investigations, develop threat intelligence, and to cultivate investigation best practices into Microsoft tooling and products. Researchers will support a global team to identify and catalog new attacker TTPs, victims, and deliver customer notifications to protect worldwide enterprise customers and empower customers to protect themselves via constantly improving Microsoft products.
• MSTIC is a global, multidisciplinary team that detects, analyzes, and disrupts cyber threats to protect Microsoft, its customers, and partners. As a Senior and Principal Security Researcher/Threat Intelligence Analyst, you will track sophisticated adversaries, develop actionable intelligence, advance hunting and detection capabilities, and collaborate across Microsoft and with external partners to strengthen security.

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. 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

GHOST Security Researcher:

• Performing deep analysis of attacker activity in on-premises and cloud environments
• Identifying potential threats, allowing for proactive defense before an actual incident
• Notifying customers regarding imminent attacker activity
• Providing recommendations to improve customers’ cybersecurity posture going forward and performing threat intelligence knowledge transfer to prepare customers to defend against today’s threat landscape
• Building proof-of-concept and prototype threat hunting tools, automations, and new capabilities
• Driving product and tooling improvements by conveying learnings from threat hunting and incident response at scale to engineering partner teams
• Identifying, prioritizing, and targeting complex security issues that cause negative impact to customers. Creating and driving adoption of relevant mitigations and providing proactive guidance
• Working with others to synthesize research findings into recommendations for mitigation of security issues. Sharing across teams. Driving change within team based on research finding.

MSTIC Security Researcher/Threat Intelligence Analyst:

• Discover, track, and disrupt priority threat actors
• Own actor portfolios and critical lines of effort; serving as advisor on identified threat actors
• Hunt and enrich detections using advanced telemetry, partnering with product teams to enhance detections
• Collaborate across Microsoft teams and partner groups to detect and disrupt abuse activity
• Integrate intelligence into products and disruption actions

Qualifications

Required/minimum qualifications:

• Doctorate in Statistics, Mathematics, Computer Science, Computer Security, or related field OR Master's Degree in Statistics, Mathematics, Computer Science, Computer Security, or related field AND 3+ years experience in software development lifecycle, large-scale computing, threat analysis or modeling, cybersecurity, vulnerability research, and/or anomaly detection
  • OR Bachelor's Degree in Statistics, Mathematics, Computer Science, Computer Security, or related field AND 4+ years experience in software development lifecycle, large-scale computing, threat analysis or modeling, cybersecurity, vulnerability research, and/or anomaly detection
  • OR equivalent experience.

Other Requirements:

• Citizenship & Citizenship Verification: This role will require access to information that is controlled for export under export control regulations, potentially under the U.S. International Traffic in Arms Regulations or Export Administration Regulations, the EU Dual Use Regulation, and/or other export control regulations. As a condition of employment, the successful candidate will be required to provide either proof of their country of citizenship or proof of their U.S. permanent residency or other protected status (e.g., under 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3)) for assessment of eligibility to access the export controlled information. To meet this legal requirement, and as a condition of employment, the successful candidate’s citizenship will be verified with a valid passport. Lawful permanent residents, refugees, and asylees may verify status using other documents, where applicable.
• Ability to meet Microsoft, customer and/or government security screening requirements are required for this role. These requirements include, but are not limited to the following specialized security screenings:
  • Microsoft Cloud Background Check: This position will be required to pass the Microsoft background and Microsoft Cloud background check upon hire/transfer and every two years thereafter.

Additional or preferred qualifications

• Doctorate in Statistics, Mathematics, Computer Science, Computer Security, or related field AND 3+ years experience in software development lifecycle, large-scale computing, threat analysis or modeling, cybersecurity, vulnerability research, and/or anomaly detection
  • OR Master's Degree in Statistics, Mathematics, Computer Science, Computer Security, or related field AND 6+ years experience in software development lifecycle, large-scale computing, threat analysis or modeling, cybersecurity, vulnerability research, and/or anomaly detection
  • OR Bachelor's Degree in Statistics, Mathematics, Computer Science, Computer Security, or related field AND 8+ years experience in software development lifecycle, large-scale computing, threat analysis or modeling, cybersecurity, vulnerability research, and/or anomaly detection
  • OR equivalent experience.
• Proven knowledge of security fundamentals across Microsoft platforms (Client, Server, Cloud)
• Strong understanding of malware and the modern threat landscape, especially identity-based attacks
• Familiarity and understanding of SQL or Kusto Query Language (KQL) queries (or experience with large database/SIEM query languages such as Splunk/Humio/Kibana, etc.)
• Familiarity and understanding of Jupyter Notebooks, or building equivalent threat hunting automations with scripting languages
• Experience with sophisticated threat actor evidence including familiarity with typical Indicators of Compromise (IOCs), Indicators of Activity (IOAs) and Tools, Techniques and Procedures (TTPs)
• Use of forensic analysis tools such as X-Ways Forensics®, WinHex®, Encase®, FTK®, etc
• Experience with various forensic log artifacts found in SIEM logs, web server logs, AV logs, protection logs such as HIDS and NIDS logs

Security Research IC4 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $119,800 - $234,700 per year. There is a different range applicable to specific work locations, within the San Francisco Bay area and New York City metropolitan area, and the base pay range for this role in those locations is USD $160,200 - $261,000 per year.

Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation. Find additional benefits and pay information here:

https://careers.microsoft.com/us/en/us-corporate-pay

Security Research IC5 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $142,800 - $274,800 per year. There is a different range applicable to specific work locations, within the San Francisco Bay area and New York City metropolitan area, and the base pay range for this role in those locations is USD $188,000 - $304,200 per year.

Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation. Find additional benefits and pay information here:

https://careers.microsoft.com/us/en/us-corporate-pay

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.