Overview

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.

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.

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 so, you may be a fit for a Principal Security Researcher role for the Global Hunting, Oversight, and Strategic Triage (GHOST) team!

We are looking for an experienced Principal Security Researcher with a strong 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.

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:

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 findings.

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 4+ 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 5+ 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 position requires Australian citizenship and ability to attain and hold a government issued security clearance. To meet this legal requirement, and as a condition of employment, the successful candidate’s citizenship will be verified with a valid passport.

Microsoft Cloud Background Check: This position will be required to pass the Microsoft Cloud background check upon hire/transfer and every two years thereafter.

Additional or Preferred Qualifications

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.
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
Consulting background
Active Directory subject matter expertise
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
Microsoft Azure and/or Office365 platform knowledge and experience
Experience with various forensic log artifacts found in SIEM logs, web server logs, AV logs, protection logs such as HIDS and NIDS logs
Familiarity with Microsoft Defender 365 security stack (for Endpoints, Identity, Cloud, etc), especially with Advanced Hunting query writing
Excellent understanding of Windows internals and where trace evidence can be found
Knowledge of third-party cybersecurity solutions, especially EDR and SIEM solutions
Linux and/or macOS forensic analysis and threat hunting skills
Technical certifications based on domain (e.g., Azure, SharePoint)
Project Management certifications (e.g., PMP, Scrum)
Investigation/Cybersecurity/Digital Forensics/DFIR certifications (e.g. CISSP, SANS GIAC, etc)
Ability to obtain and maintain a United States Security Clearance.

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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.

Principal Security Researcher (GHOST)