Senior Security Researcher

Microsoft • Redmond, WA

7d • $119,800 - $261,000

About The Position

Microsoft Security aims to make the world safer by providing simplified, end-to-end security solutions. The Microsoft Defender for Endpoint (MDE) core machine learning and data science team builds machine learning, large language model, and automation solutions to protect more than a billion end users and enterprises through Microsoft Defender Antivirus, Endpoint Detection and Response, and Network Protection products. The team combines machine learning engineers and security researchers who investigate attacks, develop data pipelines, experiment, and deploy protection at scale.

The Senior Security Researcher investigates cybersecurity attacks and develops durable detection and prevention strategies. The role combines telemetry-based attack investigations and threat hunting with light reverse engineering, and includes designing and maintaining client-side and cloud machine learning and automation systems. The researcher also applies large language models and agentic systems to customer protection and internal systems, contributes technical support during incidents and postmortems, and works with internal and external teams to strengthen product partnerships.

Requirements

• Doctorate in Statistics, Mathematics, Computer Science, Computer Security, or a related field; or a master's degree in one of these fields and 3+ years of relevant experience; or a bachelor's degree in one of these fields and 4+ years of relevant experience; or equivalent experience.
• Relevant experience includes software development lifecycle, large-scale computing, threat analysis or modeling, cybersecurity, vulnerability research, and/or anomaly detection.
• Ability to meet Microsoft, customer, and/or government security screening requirements, including passing the Microsoft background and Microsoft Cloud background checks upon hire or transfer and every two years thereafter.

Nice To Haves

• Doctorate in a listed or related field and 3+ years of relevant experience; or a master's degree and 6+ years; or a bachelor's degree and 8+ years; or equivalent experience.
• 2+ years of coding experience.
• 1+ years of experience with language models or machine learning.
• Experience with classical and deep-learning machine learning methods.
• Experience with reverse engineering.

Responsibilities

• Investigate and analyze ongoing cybersecurity attacks to develop durable detection and prevention strategies across the kill chain, including product or operating-system enhancements.
• Share knowledge and lead within the team.
• Conduct telemetry-based attack investigations and threat hunting, with some reverse engineering.
• Design, code, and maintain client-side and cloud machine learning and automation systems that power cybersecurity protection in products and services.
• Experiment with and apply large language models and agentic systems to protect customers and improve internal systems.
• Support incident management by diagnosing and triaging issues while maintaining product and service quality.
• Take notes during incidents and participate in postmortems and root-cause analysis.
• Work with internal and external teams to develop new partnerships and improve existing ones to mature the product.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior