Principal Applied Scientist

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. 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.

Join the vanguard of cybersecurity innovation with the Microsoft Security AI Research team. Our mission is to safeguard Microsoft and our customers by pioneering applied AI solutions. We foster a culture of ambition and science together with curiosity and humility that celebrates growth mindset, and operational excellence. At the heart of defending Microsoft's intricate ecosystem, we offer a rare chance to design and assess autonomous defenses powered by cutting-edge generative AI capabilities. We leverage Microsoft's vast defensive knowledge, including insights from teams like MSTIC, to construct a unique knowledge graph that elucidates the interplay between risk, investigation, and response. Our rich data, amassed across Microsoft's digital landscape and coupled with Microsoft AI, lays the foundation for groundbreaking defense innovations. We are on the lookout for a Principal Applied Scientist to spearhead the research and development of functional autonomous agents for security scenarios. This role demands deep technical innovation and collaboration across Microsoft, academia, and industry to forge novel methods, tools, and frameworks that showcase autonomous capabilities. Candidates are encouraged to publish their work in top-tier conferences, advancing state of the art within the scientific community. 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.

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

• Conduct cutting-edge research that builds towards transformative defensive security capabilities with demonstrated scientific rigor.
• Champion innovative principles and forward-looking concepts guided by research trends in academia, OSS and industry. Form strategic partnerships with thought leaders across the company, in the industry and across domains.
• Work with defenders, threat hunters, PMs, and engineers to turn research into effective solutions that improve our ability to protect ourselves.
• Share research findings and innovations through academic publications, open-source releases, blog posts, patents, and industry conferences. 
• Participate in partnerships with academia and industry to advance the state of the art in the field.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor's Degree in Statistics, Econometrics, Computer Science, Electrical or Computer Engineering, or related field AND 6+ years related experience (e.g., statistics, predictive analytics, research)
  • OR Master's Degree in Statistics, Econometrics, Computer Science, Electrical or Computer Engineering, or related field AND 4+ years related experience (e.g., statistics, predictive analytics, research)
  • OR Doctorate in Statistics, Econometrics, Computer Science, Electrical or Computer Engineering, or related field AND 3+ years related experience (e.g., statistics, predictive analytics, research)
  • OR equivalent experience.
• 3+ years of hands-on experience in Python, PyTorch, TensorFlow, or other machine learning frameworks.
• 2+ years of relevant industry experience driving cutting-edge research into real world impact.  
• 2+ years of experience applying LLMs (Large Language Models, generative and/or representative) towards successful product outcomes.

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

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience working with agentic frameworks such as AutoGen, CrewAI, Langchain, etc.
• Experience building LLM workflows using cloud services such as HuggingFace, Azure, Google Cloud, AWS, etc.
• Experience in safety and ethical aspects of AI.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, ability to simplify and explain complex ideas.
• Experience in working with large-scale datasets.
• Experience in cyber security and safety domains, such as malware detection, fraud prevention, cyber-physical systems, adversary tradecraft, emerging threats or SOC operations.

Applied Sciences IC5 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $137,600 - $267,000 per year. There is a different range applicable to specific work locations, within the San Francisco Bay area and New York City metropolitan area, and the base pay range for this role in those locations is USD $180,400 - $294,000 per year.    Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation. Find additional benefits and pay information here: https://careers.microsoft.com/us/en/us-corporate-pay

Microsoft will accept applications for the role until December 8, 2024. 

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.

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