Job Description

Are you excited about building capabilities that help protect our customers from cybersecurity threats? Making security incident detection and investigation autonomous? Do you enjoy designing & building full-stack products using technologies ranging from backend services and APIs for optimized data retrieval and business logic, to LLM-based agentic workflows? Do you thrive in a collaborative and data-driven environment? Do you enjoy working with talented feature teams including software engineers, product managers, and security researchers? If so, you'll love our collaborative, agile, and fun group with a startup mindset.

We are part of the Defender Experts Product Unit Team (part of Microsoft’s Security Division). Our mission is to help protect our customers with innovative AI-powered & full-stack capabilities, combined with human-powered intelligence. We are committed to defending Microsoft customers from cyber-attacks as well as providing sophisticated capabilities to protect their digital assets. Making our customers succeed with our solutions is what excites us every day! We are a diverse group with people from a wide variety of backgrounds, prior work & life experiences. We foster a strong culture of learning & a collaborative work environment.

We are building multiple managed services/product offerings for Enterprise customers. Our products combine backend/cloud services, Big Data processing, state-of-the-art Generative AI/LLMs, and Agentic Workflows to deliver scalable and intelligent solutions. With an intuitive and easy-to-use UX, we aim to delight both our customers and security researchers. Our products offer a big growth opportunity for our division. We work with partners across the Microsoft Security division to innovate in our products and services. 

We are looking for a Software Engineer II to join engineering side of the Defender Experts Product Unit Team.

Responsibilities

• Design, implement, test, and operate cloud‑based backend services and APIs on Azure that support security detection, investigation, and response workflows.
• Build AI‑powered product features using technologies such as large language models (LLMs), vector stores, and agentic workflows to improve security signal analysis and customer outcomes.
• Own medium‑to‑large features end‑to‑end, including design, implementation, deployment, monitoring, and iteration in production environments.
• Collaborate closely with Product Managers, Security Researchers, and Engineers to translate security domain requirements into reliable, scalable software solutions.
• Contribute to technical design discussions and reviews, proposing sound designs, identifying trade‑offs, and incorporating feedback from lead engineers and stakeholders.
• Write high‑quality, maintainable code, participate in peer code reviews, and follow secure coding and engineering best practices aligned with Microsoft standards.
• Monitor and troubleshoot live services, using telemetry and logs to diagnose issues, improve system reliability, and enhance performance and scalability.
• Apply Security‑by‑Design and Responsible AI principles when building features that leverage AI to enhance threat detection and response capabilities.
• Continuously improve engineering efficiency by leveraging AI tooling, automation, and documentation to streamline development and operational workflows.
• Contribute positively to team culture, demonstrating growth mindset, openness to feedback, and a collaborative approach in a fast‑paced, data‑driven environment.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 2+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++ or Java
  • OR equivalent 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 Cloud Background Check upon hire/transfer and every two years thereafter.

Additional or Preferred Qualifications:

• Master's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 3+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++ or Java
  • OR Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 5+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++ or Java
  • OR equivalent experience.
• 3+ years of experience designing, building, and delivering high-quality production software.
• 3+ years of experience developing cloud-based services or AI-driven systems at scale.
• Experience building and shipping AI-powered features in customer-facing, production environments.
• Experience with machine learning frameworks such as PyTorch, TensorFlow, or equivalent tools.

Software Engineering IC3 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $102,100 - $202,200 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 $133,800 - $219,200 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.