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. 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. Microsoft is one of the largest enterprise service companies in the world. The Microsoft Threat Intelligence Center (MSTIC) have unique optics into end-to-end attacks and how different stages manifest across our telemetry: we join the dots and show the art of the possible. The threat intelligence research team research and develop new capability to detect attacks and threat actors through novel correlation and analysis ideas. We are looking for a highly motivated and experienced Principal Security Researcher with experience developing unique detection methodologies for tracking threat actor infrastructure. This individual will serve as a subject matter expert on internet scanning and detection capabilities and facilitate the expansion of our network detection capabilities in partnership with analysts across MSTIC. 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** + Leverage their experience and understanding of tracking threat actors to expand network infrastructure fingerprint signature development to broaden the impact of MSTICs infrastructure detection capability and collaborate with team members to identify opportunities to fingerprint existing and emerging actor infrastructure for improved tracking of threat actors. + Partner with Microsoft engineering teams to improve our internet wide scanning through the development of new probes and custom scanning capabilities that can drive additional threat actor insights and infrastructure detection + Effectively combine network intelligence with additional data sets to surface new nation state and ransomware campaigns and expand MSTICs visibility into attacks targeting Microsoft and its customers + Utilize network-based command and control insights to identify 1st party protection opportunities and partner across the CISO organization to enhance Microsoft’s defenses. + Embody our culture and values **Qualifications** **Required 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 + 5 + years threat intelligence experience tracking threat actors and their infrastructure + Deep knowledge of network protocols and internet scanning at scale + Experience developing signatures in internet scanning service data (Censys, Shodan, etc) to detect threat actor command and control infrastructure + Experience working with engineering teams to develop probes for internet wide scanning capabilities **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. **Preferred Qualifications:** + 8+ 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. + Experience developing scripts and tools to enable analysis to query large data sets using python or other scripting languages + Ability to conduct malware analysis and analyze network traffic associated with advanced attack campaigns + Experience querying large data sets via Kusto Query Language (KQL), python, or other similar query languages 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. 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 Microsoft will accept applications for the role until July 16, 2025. \#MSTIC #MSSecurity Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. Consistent with applicable law, 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 and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application process, read more about requesting accommodations (https://careers.microsoft.com/v2/global/en/accessibility.html) .