Microsoft
Senior & Principal Security Researcher
$120K–$304K
United States · On-site · Principal · Full-time · Posted Oct 9, 2026
- Experience
- Required: master's degree plus 3+ years, or bachelor's degree plus 4+ years, in the listed fields; doctorate has no experience minimum stated. Preferred: doctorate plus 3+ years, master's plus 6+ years, or bachelor's plus 8+ years in the listed fields; equivalent experience accepted.
- Education
- Doctorate, master's, or bachelor's degree in Statistics, Mathematics, Computer Science, Computer Security, or a related field; or equivalent experience.
About the job
Conduct threat hunting and intelligence research to identify and disrupt sophisticated cyber adversaries, protect customers, and improve Microsoft security products and detections.
What you'll do
- Analyze attacker activity, identify threats, notify customers, and recommend mitigations.
- Track threat actors and develop actionable intelligence, detections, and disruption actions.
- Build threat-hunting tools and automations, and use research findings to improve products and security practices.
What they ask for
- Doctorate in Statistics, Mathematics, Computer Science, Computer Security, or a related field; OR a relevant master's degree and 3+ years of specified experience; OR a relevant bachelor's degree and 4+ years of specified experience; OR equivalent experience.
- Provide proof of citizenship, U.S. permanent residency, or other protected status for export-control eligibility assessment; citizenship will be verified with a valid passport, with other documents allowed for certain statuses.
- 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
- Knowledge of security fundamentals across Microsoft platforms and understanding of malware, modern threats, and identity-based attacks.
- Experience with SQL or Kusto Query Language (KQL), Jupyter Notebooks or scripting for threat-hunting automation, threat actor evidence, and forensic tools or logs.
Pay
USD $119,800 - $234,700 per year (base pay); USD $160,200 - $261,000 per year (base pay); USD $142,800 - $274,800 per year (base pay); USD $188,000 - $304,200 per year (base pay)
Tools
SQL, Kusto Query Language (KQL), Splunk, Humio, Kibana, Jupyter Notebooks, X-Ways Forensics®, WinHex®
Model-written summary · the original posting is authoritative