Security Researcher - MSRC

Security represents the most critical priorities for our customers in a world awash in digital threats, regulatory scrutiny, and estate complexity. Microsoft Security aspires to make the world a safer place for all. We want to reshape security and empower every user, customer, and developer with a security cloud that protects them with end to end, simplified solutions. The Microsoft Security 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.

The Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC) is responsible for detecting, protecting, and responding to threats that affect Microsoft’s products and services.

We are looking for a driven Security Researcher to join our team. As a Security Researcher in the MSRC Vulnerabilities & Mitigations team, you will be responsible for analyzing vulnerabilities found in Microsoft’s products and services to determine their root cause, severity, and security impact. This analysis plays a critical role in shaping the security updates that are deployed to customers.  

The knowledge that we gain from analyzing vulnerabilities also informs the offensive and defensive security research performed by our team. We regularly collaborate with many teams across Microsoft to investigate, develop, and deploy security features that help discover and mitigate the biggest threats to customers.  

As well as vulnerability analysis, you’ll work on varied research projects covering a range of topics - including vulnerability discovery & automation, safer programming languages, exploit and vulnerability mitigations, software sandboxes, penetration testing & red teaming, exploit development, operating systems security (Windows and Linux), virtualization security, cloud services security, and hardware vulnerabilities and mitigations. 

This is a unique opportunity to have a positive impact on improving safety for customers around the world and to work on challenging real-world security problems as part of a supportive and collaborative team.

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.

Responsibilities

• Analyze critical security vulnerabilities reported by security researchers from around the world and provide guidance on remediation.
• Develop tools and techniques to discover and exploit vulnerabilities in Microsoft products and services.
• Innovate in security mitigations and hardening to make Microsoft products and services more resilient to attacks.
• Gain insights from incoming bug trends to inform security research for the team, as well as influence the broader Microsoft security strategy.
• Work with and learn from experts across Microsoft and grow your career in security in a motivated and supportive team.
  
  

Qualifications

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor's Degree in Statistics, Mathematics, Computer Science or practical experience in software development lifecycle, large-scale computing, modeling, cyber security, and/or anomaly detection.
• An ability to read, understand and debug C and/or C++ code. 
• Ability to communicate and advise on security design and implementation 
• Experience in security research on Windows/Linux systems 
• Knowledge of software security vulnerabilities, how they can be exploited, and how they can be prevented. 
• Proficiency in developing tools and automation to identify or verify security issues. 

Other Requirements:

Ability to meet Microsoft, customer and/or government security screening requirements are required for this role. These requirements include but are not limited to the following specialized security screenings:

• Microsoft Cloud Background Check: This position will be required to pass the Microsoft Cloud background check upon hire/transfer and every two years thereafter.

Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran status, race, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by applicable laws, regulations and ordinances.  We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements. If you need assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application or the recruiting process, please send a request via the Accommodation request form.

Benefits/perks listed below may vary depending on the nature of your employment with Microsoft and the country where you work.

#MSRC