Principal Security Researcher

Technology, Data & Digital · IT Infrastructure & Security · Cybersecurity · Software Engineering

In short

Microsoft Defender Research is seeking a Principal Security Researcher to lead AI-driven security research for Project Perception. This role involves end-to-end research, agent design, evaluation, and driving capabilities into production to protect organizations from sophisticated attacks.

Responsibilities

Lead security research for agents within Project Perception, from problem definition to production delivery.
Set research strategy, align partner teams, and translate priorities into clear requirements and experiments.
Drive research outcomes into production and customer-facing experiences, partnering with engineering and data science.
Analyze large-scale data and conduct investigations to improve agent quality and effectiveness.
Apply and champion AI in security research, using current models and agentic architectures.
Mentor and grow researchers, elevating the team’s technical bar.

Requirements

At least 10+ years of experience in security research or a closely related cybersecurity research role.
Strong, evidence-backed adoption of AI in technical work, regularly using and developing AI skills.
Deep expertise in security research and modern attacker tradecraft.
Experience leading technical work from research to production delivery, influencing roadmaps and senior stakeholders.
Proficiency in programming languages such as Python or C#, and large-scale query languages such as KQL or SQL.
Demonstrated technical leadership through mentoring researchers and communicating complex findings.

Desired Qualifications

Bachelor’s, master’s, or doctoral degree in Computer Science, Computer Security, Software Engineering, or a related field; equivalent practical experience is also valued.
Ability to meet Microsoft, customer and/or government security screening requirements.

Benefits

Opportunity to have a direct, tangible impact on protecting organizations and the global economy.
Work with one of the world’s largest security telemetry sets.
Shape how defenders investigate and stop attacks at scale.
Partner with data science, engineering, and product teams.
Contribute to Microsoft Defender’s protection knowledge layer.
Utilize and champion AI in security research.

Skills

PythonC#KQLSQLAI

#security#research#AI#Microsoft Defender#cybersecurity

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