Security Researcher

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.

Do you have a passion for helping Microsoft’s clients defend themselves against targeted exploitation?

Are you interested in being intimately involved in the latest, cutting-edge developments in the security industry and having a direct impact on the security of all Microsoft customers?

Do you want to be on the front lines of helping our customers go toe-to-toe against advanced adversaries?

Are you interested in a fast-paced job full of new opportunities?

If so, you may be a fit for a Security Researcher role for the Global Hunting, Oversight, and Strategic Triage (GHOST) team!

We are looking for a Security Researcher with an analytical background to join our team to perform threat hunting, assist with investigations, develop threat intelligence, and to cultivate investigation best practices into Microsoft tooling and products. Researchers will support a global team to identify and catalog new attacker TTPs, victims, and deliver customer notifications to protect worldwide enterprise customers and empower customers to protect themselves via constantly improving Microsoft products.

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

This role is part of a collaborative team, assisting our customers with:

• Performing deep analysis of attacker activity in on-premises and cloud environments
• Identifying potential threats, allowing for proactive defense before an actual incident
• Providing recommendations to improve customers’ cybersecurity posture going forward and performing threat intelligence knowledge transfer to prepare customers to defend against today’s threat landscape
• Driving product and tooling improvements by conveying learnings from threat hunting and incident response at scale to engineering partner teams
• Identifying, prioritizing, and targeting complex security issues that cause negative impact to customers. Creating and driving adoption of relevant mitigations and providing proactive guidance
• Working with others to synthesize research findings into recommendations for mitigation of security issues. Sharing across teams. Driving change within team based on research findings.
  
  

Qualifications

Required Qualifications:

• 3+ years of experience in software development lifecycle, large-scale computing, modeling, cybersecurity, and/or anomaly detection from the industry
• OR 7+ years of experience in relevant positions from IDF/ Government security organizations
• Proven experience in Threat Hunting across Cloud (Azure – advantage)
• Fluency in English (reading, writing reports, speaking)
• Understanding the fundamentals of coding, Python preferably (no need to know how to write actual code)
  
  

Preferred Qualifications

• Proven knowledge of security fundamentals across Microsoft platforms (Client, Server, Cloud)
• Strong understanding of malware and the modern threat landscape, especially identity-based attacks
• Familiarity and understanding of SQL or Kusto Query Language (KQL) queries (or experience with large database/SIEM query languages such as Splunk/Humio/Kibana, etc.)
• Familiarity and understanding of Jupyter Notebooks, or building equivalent threat hunting automations with scripting languages
• Active Directory subject matter expertise
• Experience with sophisticated threat actor evidence including familiarity with typical Indicators of Compromise (IOCs), Indicators of Activity (IOAs) and Tools, Techniques and Procedures (TTPs)
• Use of forensic analysis tools such as X-Ways Forensics®, WinHex®, Encase®, FTK®, etc
• Microsoft Azure and/or Office365 platform knowledge and experience
• Experience with various forensic log artifacts found in SIEM logs, web server logs, AV logs, protection logs such as HIDS and NIDS logs
• Familiarity with Microsoft Defender 365 security stack (for Endpoints, Identity, Cloud, etc), especially with Advanced Hunting query writing
• Excellent understanding of Windows internals and where trace evidence can be found
• Knowledge of third-party cybersecurity solutions, especially EDR and SIEM solutions
• Linux and/or macOS forensic analysis and threat hunting skills
• Technical certifications based on domain (e.g., Azure, SharePoint)
• Investigation/Cybersecurity/Digital Forensics/DFIR certifications (e.g. CISSP, SANS GIAC, etc)
  
  

#GHOST

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.