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.
Microsoft Security Research is at the front line of defending Microsoft customers and the broader ecosystem against the world’s most sophisticated threat actors. Our Applied Threat Intelligence and Threat Response team serves two complementary missions: producing finished, customer-ready threat intelligence that empowers defenders and shapes the public narrative on the threat landscape — and responding with speed and precision when adversaries act against Microsoft customers and infrastructure in this new AI era.
We are looking for a Principal Security Research Manager to lead this blended team. Your threat intelligence analysts are writers and producers: they author actor profiles, campaign analyses, TTP deep-dives, and vulnerability profiles that ship through Microsoft’s customer-facing surfaces and brief C-suite audiences. Your threat response practitioners are operators: they maintain on-call readiness, lead active incident investigations, and close the loop from response findings back into finished intelligence. You own both missions, the talent that executes them, and the standards that make the work credible and impactful.
Responsibilities
People Leadership
Finished Intelligence Production
Threat Response Operations
Strategy & Cross-Organizational Influence
Qualifications
Minimum 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 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 6+ years experience in software development lifecycle, large-scale computing, threat analysis or modeling, cybersecurity, vulnerability research, and/or anomaly detection.
○ OR equivalent experience.
• 1+ year(s) people management experience.
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.
• This position requires verification of U.S. citizenship due to citizenship‑based legal restrictions. Specifically, this position supports United States federal, state, and/or local government agency customers and is subject to certain citizenship‑based restrictions where required or permitted by applicable law. To meet this legal requirement, and as a condition of employment, the successful candidate’s citizenship will be verified via a valid passport.
Preferred Qualifications:
• Doctorate 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 Master'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 Bachelor's Degree in Statistics, Mathematics, Computer Science, Computer Security, or related field AND 12+ years experience in software development lifecycle, large-scale computing, threat analysis or modeling, cybersecurity, vulnerability research, and/or anomaly detection.
○ OR equivalent experience.
• 3+ years people management and/or informal/indirect team leadership experience.
• Demonstrated experience producing or overseeing finished threat intelligence reporting for technical and/or executive audiences.
• Working experience with Microsoft Sentinel and Microsoft Defender XDR (or directly comparable SIEM/XDR platforms).
• 10+ years of experience in cyber threat intelligence, threat hunting, incident response, or a closely related security discipline.
• Demonstrated track record leading a finished intelligence production function — owning report quality, publication standards, and the analytic tradecraft that makes intelligence credible and actionable.
• Experience managing or operating across both intelligence production and incident response disciplines, with fluency in the tension between long-horizon analysis and rapid-response demand.
• Portfolio of public or customer-facing intelligence writing (actor profiles, campaign reports, vulnerability analyses, or equivalent).
• Understanding of adversary tradecraft and frameworks including MITRE ATT&CK, the Diamond Model, Cyber Kill Chain, and structured analytic techniques.
• Experience with endpoint, cloud, network, and identity-based attacks and datasets.
• Programming or scripting background (Python, KQL, PowerShell, or equivalent) sufficient to evaluate and guide technical work on the team.
• Familiarity with AI-assisted intelligence workflows and automation approaches for threat triage, enrichment, and intelligence delivery at scale.
#MSSecurity
Security Research M5 - 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.
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