Cyber Security Incident Response Lead

Overview

With more than 45,000 employees and partners worldwide, the Customer Experience and Success (CE&S) organization is on a mission to empower customers to accelerate business value through differentiated customer experiences that leverage Microsoft's products and services, ignited by our people and culture. We drive cross-company alignment and execution, ensuring that we consistently exceed customers' expectations in every interaction, whether in-product, digital, or human-centered. CE&S is responsible for all up services across the company, including consulting, customer success, and support across Microsoft's portfolio of solutions and products. Join CE&S and help us accelerate AI transformation for our customers and the world.

The Global Customer Success (GCS) organization, an organization within CE&S, is leading the effort to enable customer success on the Microsoft Cloud by harnessing leading, AI-powered capabilities and human expertise to deliver innovation solutions that accelerate business value, drive operational excellence and nurture long term loyalty.

The Microsoft Detection and Response Team (DART) are seeking a skilled and experienced Cyber Security Incident Response Lead investigator to join our team, who is the first port of call for many customers during a security incident. This role presents an opportunity to be the tip of the spear during incident response engagements, the key point of contact and decision maker throughout an incident. You will be presenting investigative findings to stakeholders from every part of the business with a particular focus on the executive team members. Hands on experience and knowledge of all aspects of large-scale incident response management is key along with strong leadership skills, ideally with experience in both on premises and cloud environments. The ability to communicate technical content with clarity and context is a priority, alongside solid knowledge of nation state and cybercrime attack techniques. A desire to fail fast and learn quickly is critical, along with strong analytical and critical thinking skills.

Along with leading reactive incident response cases for some of the most esteemed businesses in the world, lead investigators should be able to build trust and drive significant change in any business they come into contact with, have excellent documentation skills, and be confident in disseminating knowledge both across the team and across partner teams within Microsoft. Thought leadership is a key priority, in the form of written and spoken content delivered both internally and externally. Any successful candidate should also embody Microsoft's culture and values.

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

Technical Delivery

This role will work as part of a collaborative team assisting our top customers with:

Contextualizing and prioritizing findings to put together a comprehensive account and briefing of the events that transpired during a security incident

Pulling together multiple disparate events to build and communicate a cohesive timeline of activity

Collaborating with stakeholders at every level of the business, including legal, compliance, cybersecurity, engineering, and executive functions

Communicating key objectives and results with clarity and context

Managing all of the complexities of large-scale cybersecurity investigations for global multi-national organizations, serving as the primary point of contact

Research

Security threats are constantly evolving, and so must the Microsoft Incident Response team. To that end, this role will involve:

Leading research and analysis of security threats, and sharing findings across the team

Identifying, conducting, and supporting others in conducting research into critical security areas, such as current attacks, adversary tracking, and academic literature

Analyzing complex issues using multiple data sources to develop insights and identify security problems and threats. Creating new solutions to mitigate security issues

Recommending prioritization and validation methods for technical indicators, developing tools to automate analyses

Leads efforts to clean, structure, and standardize data and data sources; leads data quality efforts to ensure timely and consistent access to data sources

Thought Leadership

This role includes the ability to be at the forefront of Microsoft Security thought leadership by:

Developing written content for publication on Microsoft blog platforms

Developing presentations for delivery at internal and external conferences

Use the unique experiences of Microsoft Incident Response to create unique storytelling moments

Lead from the front by ideating, mentoring, and supporting thought leadership efforts across the team

Operational Excellence

Must be maintained by:

Completing operational tasks and readiness with timeliness and accuracy.

Following Microsoft policies, compliance, and procedures (e.g., Enterprise Services Authorization Policy, Standards of Business Conduct, labor logging, expenses, travel guidelines).

Leading by example and guiding team members on operational tasks, readiness, and compliance.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications:

• Doctorate in Computer Science, Computer Security, or related field
  • OR Master's Degree in Computer Science, Computer Security, or related field AND 3+ years experience in software development lifecycle, large-scale computing, threat analysis or modeling, cybersecurity, vulnerability research, and/or anomaly detection
  • OR Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Computer Security, or related field AND 4+ years experience in software development lifecycle, large-scale computing, threat analysis or modeling, cybersecurity, vulnerability research, and/or anomaly detection
  • OR equivalent experience.

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.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Doctorate in Computer Science, Computer Security, or related field AND 3+ years experience in software development lifecycle, large-scale computing, threat analysis or modeling, cybersecurity, vulnerability research, and/or anomaly detection
  • OR Master's Degree in Computer Science, Computer Security, or related field AND 6+ years experience in software development lifecycle, large-scale computing, threat analysis or modeling, cybersecurity, vulnerability research, and/or anomaly detection
  • OR Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Computer Security, or related field AND 8+ years experience in software development lifecycle, large-scale computing, threat analysis or modeling, cybersecurity, vulnerability research, and/or anomaly detection
  • OR equivalent experience
• Security Certifications in any of the following: OSCP, CISSP, SANS Certifications, SC Certifications from Microsoft.
• Experience working with methods utilized for evidence collection, maintenance of chain of custody and associated documentation, evidence storage and analysis, and evidentiary reporting.
• Eligibility to obtain or currently active government security clearance.
• Incident Response Leadership: Experience in high pressure incident response environments where customers are experiencing a potentially business-ending event and your evidence-driven plans of action dictate their next steps. This skill set should include but is not limited to:
  • Lead and manage high-profile incident response efforts for some of the world's largest businesses
  • Coordinate and lead all key stakeholders as the primary point of contact for major incidents. This could include technical teams, executives, consultants, and partners
  • Identify gaps early in the engagement process and request appropriate resources to fill those gaps
  • Balance the need for rapid recovery with data collection and evidence preservation.
  • Direct activities to secure Enterprise-scale environments and assess potential data exfiltration or data collection
  • Management of large scale incidents in a follow-the-sun format working with fellow team members from across the globe
  • Contextual application of MITRE Attack Framework and or OSI Model.
  • Delivery of complex and technical discussions effectively to customer representatives of varying levels

Security Research IC4 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $119,800 - $234,700 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 $158,400 - $258,000 per year.

Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation. Find additional benefits and pay information here:
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This position will be open for a minimum of 5 days, with applications accepted on an ongoing basis until the position is filled.

Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. 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 with religious accommodations and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application process, read more about requesting accommodations.