Microsoft
Principal Security Engineer
$143K–$304K
Redmond, WA · On-site · Principal · Full-time · Posted Oct 2, 2026
- Experience
- 4+ years with a master’s degree, or 6+ years with a bachelor’s degree, in software development lifecycle, large scale computing, threat modeling, cyber security, or anomaly detection; or equivalent experience. Preferred: 5+ years in security assessments and penetration testing, cloud security, or coding/scripting and security tooling.
- Education
- Master's Degree or Bachelor's Degree in Statistics, Mathematics, Computer Science, Risk Management, Cyber Security, or related field; or equivalent experience.
About the job
Evaluates and improves the security of Microsoft Azure service ecosystems through security reviews, systemic mitigations, secure-by-design guidance, and scaled assessment automation.
What you'll do
- Conduct security reviews and deep dives of Azure-hosted service ecosystems to identify risks.
- Develop security guidance, reference architectures, and remediation strategies to address systemic security challenges.
- Use AI and automation to scale assessments and risk identification, while influencing teams and mentoring engineers on secure development.
What they ask for
- Master’s degree in a listed or related field and 4+ years of relevant experience, or bachelor’s degree in a listed or related field and 6+ years of relevant experience, or equivalent experience.
- Security expertise in at least one core area, such as virtualization, memory safety (C/C++), networking protocols, cloud security, or kernel security.
- Ability to meet Microsoft, customer and/or government security screening requirements, including passing the Microsoft Cloud Background Check upon hire/transfer and every two years thereafter.
Nice to have
- Hands-on experience identifying and exploiting vulnerabilities across cloud, identity, endpoint, and network environments.
- 5+ years in security assessments and penetration testing; cloud security; or coding/scripting and maintaining security tooling.
Pay
USD $142,800 - $274,800 per year (base salary); USD $188,000 - $304,200 per year (base salary)
Tools
Azure, AWS, GCP, Entra ID, Active Directory, Windows, Linux, Python
AI focus
Leverage AI and automation to scale security assessments, improve risk identification, and increase security coverage across complex product portfolios.
Model-written summary · the original posting is authoritative