Principal Security Research Engineer at Microsoft - Redmond, Washington, United States

Principal Security Research Engineer at Microsoft – Redmond, Washington, United States Security represents the most critical priorities for our customers in a world awash in digital threats, regulatory scrutiny, and estate complexity. Microsoft Security aspires to make the world a safer place for all. We want to reshape security and empower every user, customer, and developer with a security cloud that protects them with end to end, simplified solutions. The Microsoft Security 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. Email, chat, and the web are integral parts of our everyday lives. They are essential for communication and productivity, but are also the primary ways cybercriminals exploit victims and infiltrate organizations. Attackers abuse these communication methods to steal identities through phishing, hold critical assets for ransom, inflict financial harm, and install malicious software. Do you want to join a team dedicated to protecting hundreds of millions of people from these threats? At Microsoft Security, our mission is to make the world a safer place for all. The Social Engineering Threats Research team is a global, multidisciplinary organization of engineers, data scientists, security researchers, and program managers. With an unparalleled view of the threat landscape, we develop deep expertise in attacker techniques and use that knowledge along with the latest technology to stop it. We protect customers using Outlook.com, Microsoft Defender for O365, Microsoft Edge, and much more. We are looking for a Principal Security Research Engineer who can turbocharge our most important initiatives and has the breadth and adaptability to take on a range of challenging projects, whether that is assessing new applications of the latest generative AI, proposing a redesign of our detection stack, or working with a partner team to integrate an amazing new customer experience across product lines. Responsibilities Engage with stakeholders across our team and beyond to identify the most critical challenges worth solving Seek out experts across Microsoft and industry to learn about potential solutions and bring back the best and most relevant to solve our most critical problems. Prototype solutions (either yourself or through others) to validate ideas and adjust our strategy. Let a deep empathy for customers guide you to improvements that make a tangible difference. 7+ years experience in software development lifecycle, large‑scale computing, modeling, cybersecurity, and/or anomaly detection OR Doctorate in Statistics, Mathematics, Computer Science or related field. 6+ years prototyping and deploying innovative new tech that requires collaboration across multiple disciplines and teams (engineering, program management, research, data science). 3+ years practical experience in threat research, threat intel, or security engineering, ideally with experience in developing defenses against email or web‑based threats such as phishing, malware, fraud/scams, and spam. 1+ years of experience working with LLMs and/or SLMs Knowledge of large‑scale, distributed system architectures and the software development lifecycle. Other Requirements 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 Experience designing or implementing scalable data pipelines, threat intelligence feeds, machine learning or rule‑based detection solutions, and/or cybersecurity researcher tooling and workflows. Experience applying generative AI and machine learning in cybersecurity. Experience working across multiple product teams to deliver combined innovations and features. Security Research IC5 – The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $139,900 – $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. Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran status, race, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by applicable laws, regulations and ordinances. We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements. If you need assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application or the recruiting process, please send a request via the Accommodation request form. #J-18808-Ljbffr Victrays