Security Researcher II

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.

Do you enjoy the challenge of discovering and analyzing vulnerabilities in software and services to understand how they work and how an attacker might exploit them? Are you excited by the idea of analyzing real-world exploits and researching new attack techniques? Are you passionate about driving meaningful security improvements into products and services to better protect billions of customers? Do you want to be part of an inclusive & collaborative team that invests in the growth and success of one another? 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 motivated Security Researcher to join our team.

As part of MSRC, our team V&M(Vulnerabilities and Mitigations)  is 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. As part of this research, our team works collaboratively with many teams across Microsoft to investigate, develop, and deploy security features that help discover and mitigate the biggest threats to customers.

This role is crucial for the success of a new sub team in MSRC V&M -Exploit Research Team. The Exploit Research team will be responsible for a variety of tasks, including analyzing exploits, writing detections to identify active exploits, and enhancing the capabilities of our services and products by developing and promoting exploit mitigations to prevent underlying threats.

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.

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.

Other : Embody our Culture and Values 

Other : Embody our Culture and Values 

Responsibilities

Analyzing vulnerabilities in software and services to determine their root cause, severity, and security impact Identifying variants of vulnerabilities and discovering new vulnerabilities  
Building tools and inventing new approaches to automate the discovery & analysis of vulnerabilities  
Analyzing trends in vulnerabilities being discovered to spot patterns  
Researching, developing, and deploying mitigations for common patterns of vulnerabilities  
Performing penetration testing, offensive security research, and red teaming activities  
Engaging with and contributing knowledge back to the security research community  
Mentoring and contributing to the growth of individuals within the team and across Microsoft  
Supporting a healthy and inclusive culture within the team and across Microsoft 

Qualifications

Required Qualifications

• 3+ years experience in software development lifecycle, large-scale computing, modeling, cybersecurity, and/or anomaly detection
  • OR Master's Degree in Statistics, Mathematics, Computer Science or related field.

• 3+ years experience in identifying vulnerable patterns in C and/or C++ code and secure coding practices.
•  Understanding of exploit mitigations (DEP, ASLR, CFG, CET etc.), bypasses and defenses.
• 1+ years experience in reverse engineering/reading and analyzing assembly (x86,x64, Arm, Arm64)
• Proficiency in developing tools and automations for discovering and detecting exploits.

Additional  Qualifications

• 4+ years experience in software development lifecycle, large-scale computing, modeling, cybersecurity, and/or anomaly detection

OR Doctorate in Statistics, Mathematics, Computer Science or related field

• A proven track record of one or more of - vulnerability research & discovery, threat & exploit analysis or creating signatures and detections.
• Ability to communicate and advise on security design and implementation for complex security challenges.

Security Research IC3 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $100,600 - $199,000 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 $131,400 - $215,400 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 June 4th, 2025.

#CISOOrg#MSRC#MSRC IDC #MSFTSecurity 

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.