Senior Threat Intelligence Analyst

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 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 service companies in the world.

If you have a deep background in analysis and want to be at the forefront of threat tracking and technique discovery, the Microsoft Threat Intelligence Center (MSTIC) wants to hear from you. As a Principal Threat Intelligence Analyst on our team, you will obtain real-time visibility into hundreds of simultaneous intrusions and convert this into finished intelligence, prioritized judgments, and protection at scale. The successful candidate is a critical thinker and problem solver, skilled at discovering novel intrusions and adversary tradecraft through analysis, and curious enough to pursue impact through product hardening and disruptions where there is no precedent.

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.

Responsibilities

Discovering and analyzing attacker activity across on-premises and cloud environments.

Identifying potential threats, allowing for proactive defense and customer notification before an actual incident.

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 intelligence and intrusion analysis at scale to engineering partner teams.

Using large-scale query workflows to distill adversary signal within an unparalleled volume of potentially malicious activity to pivot, validate, and scope what matters.

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 proven 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 substantial experience in software development lifecycle, large-scale computing, threat analysis or modeling, cybersecurity, vulnerability research, and/or anomaly detection OR equivalent experience.

Additional or preferred qualifications

Proven knowledge of security fundamentals across Microsoft platforms (Client, Server, Cloud), especially identity, cloud control planes, and enterprise attack paths.

Understanding of malware, tooling, and related activity well enough to extract indicators and develop detections for attacker methods. Reverse engineering or detection engineering depth is a plus, not a requirement. Curiosity and ingenuity matter as much as years of technical experience.

Experience producing strategic, operational, and tactical threat intelligence, including actor tracking, campaign clustering, and analytic writing for technical and executive audiences.

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.)

Deep knowledge of endpoint, email, and cloud forensic log artifacts - or similar experience in analysis of SIEM logs, web server logs, AV logs, and security logs.

Experience building and reviewing threat hunting automations using scripting languages.

Experience developing collection requirements, judging source reliability, and turning raw telemetry and partner reporting into actionable assessments.

Demonstrated advanced problem solving, troubleshooting, and analysis skills.

Security Research IC4 - The typical base pay range for this role across United Kingdom is £ 74,700.00 - £ 122,600.00 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 IC4 - The typical base pay range for this role across United Kingdom is £ 74,700.00 - £ 122,600.00 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.