JobsSenior Security Researcher
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Senior Security Researcher

Microsoft

Location

Redmond, WA, Reston, VA

Type

Full-time

Posted

6/25/2026

Compensation

$119,800 - $261,000 per year

PhD with 5+ Years of Experience
Master's with 5+ Years of Experience
Undergraduate with 5+ Years of Experience
Approval 98.4%·Filings 6,363·New hires 3,142·
👑 Elite Sponsor
·FY 2025

Job description

The Microsoft Threat Protection Research (MTP-R) Purple Team is seeking a senior-level red team security researcher to design and execute realistic attack simulations in an AI-first environment. This role focuses on adversary emulation, offensive tooling, and malware development to enhance security measures against real-world cyberattacks. The researcher will work with agentic systems and LLM-driven workflows to automate and scale attack development. Collaboration with blue team and detection engineering teams is essential to validate detections and improve defensive capabilities.

Requirements

  • Doctorate in Statistics, Mathematics, Computer Science, Computer Security, or related field.
  • Master's Degree in Statistics, Mathematics, Computer Science, Computer Security, or related field AND 3+ years experience in relevant fields.
  • Bachelor's Degree in Statistics, Mathematics, Computer Science, Computer Security, or related field AND 4+ years experience in relevant fields.
  • Ability to meet Microsoft, customer and/or government security screening requirements.
  • 5+ years of incident response, threat hunting, and/or SOC experience.
  • Experience leveraging and producing threat intelligence at the campaign or actor level.
  • Knowledge of MITRE ATT&CK and threat modeling methodologies.
  • Security related certifications such as: GCIA, GMON, GCIH, CISA.
  • 3+ years of experience with coding.
  • Experience in classical and deep learning machine learning methods.

Responsibilities

  • Design and execute adversary simulations that emulate real-world threat actors across various environments.
  • Develop and modify offensive tooling, including custom payloads and command-and-control frameworks.
  • Conduct malware development and tradecraft research to replicate modern attacker techniques.
  • Leverage threat intelligence to inform adversary emulation scenarios.
  • Apply threat modeling frameworks to emulate realistic attack paths and identify defensive gaps.
  • Utilize AI-enabled systems to generate attack variations and automate tradecraft execution.
  • Partner with blue team and detection engineering teams to validate detections.
  • Analyze telemetry generated from simulations to assess detection coverage.
  • Contribute to simulation reports, technical documentation, and internal knowledge sharing.
  • Collaborate across teams to improve offensive tooling and research practices.

Benefits

  • Employees at Microsoft are often offered comprehensive, “world-class” benefits—including health and mental-wellness programs, competitive pay with bonuses and stock awards, and retirement/savings options. Time-off and flexibility are common, with generous vacation and holidays, parental and caregiver leave, and flexible work schedules, alongside learning support, employee resource groups, product discounts, and matching-gifts/volunteering programs. Specific benefits can vary by region.

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