Principal Software Engineers - Applied AI for Microsoft Threat Protection (MTP)

Overview

The Microsoft Security Organization is building the next generation of security solutions by rethinking how security work is done from the ground up. The AI for Security (AI4S) Team within the Microsoft Threat Protection (MTP) Org is pioneering a new paradigm: leveraging frontier AI models, security specific tooling, knowledge graphs, and deep context engineering to transform how defenders detect, investigate, and respond to threats at global scale.

This is a fast-paced, highly interdisciplinary environment focused on real world security outcomes. We are looking for Principal Software Engineers - Applied AI for Microsoft Threat Protection (MTP) to help us in our goal to build intelligent security systems that meaningfully reduce defender toil, improve precision and speed, and unlock entirely new security workflows that were previously impossible.

The Challenge

Security today spans an enormous range of jobs from threat detection and triage to incident response, hunting, secure design, compliance, and platform hardening. Existing tools only partially address this space and often place the cognitive burden on humans.

AI for Security is changing that by:

• Applying frontier models purpose built for security workloads

• Building rich security knowledge graphs and context systems

• Combining structured and unstructured signals across Microsoft's security platforms

• Designing AI native experiences that integrate reasoning, action, and feedback

This role directly contributes to creating worldclass AI powered security solutions used by millions of customers and defenders worldwide.

Responsibilities

• Design and evolve AI-driven security systems leveraging large language models, multimodal models, and frontier capabilities to address complex security challenges

• Develop contextual knowledge systems, including security graphs, semantic representations, memory frameworks, and high-quality reasoning over security data

• Collaborate across disciplines with Security Engineers, domain experts, and Product Managers to define inclusive, AI-native security experiences

• Partner with AI Infrastructure and Platform teams, Research, and Model Engineering groups to translate security workflows into AI-optimized architectures

• Enable automation, augmentation, and responsible autonomy to drive measurable functional improvements across security solutions

• Prototype, validate, and deploy solutions in live production environments while upholding Microsoft standards for security, reliability, privacy, and trust

• Shape technical direction for AI Security by influencing architecture, tooling, engineering practices, and shared best practices

• Lead cross-team initiatives spanning security products, platforms, and business units through collaboration and shared ownership

• Mentor and sponsor engineers at multiple levels, fostering inclusive technical dialogue, sound engineering judgment, and continuous growth

• Contribute to a culture of learning, accountability, and impact across the broader engineering and security community

Qualifications

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 4+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, Python, C#, Go, or Java
  • 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.

Additional or Preferred Qualifications:

• Master's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 6+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python
  • OR Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 8+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python
  • OR equivalent experience.
• 6+ years of experience designing, building and operating scalable ML systems, including ML infrastructure and pipelines (Azure ML, Kubernetes), model versioning, observability, and secure deployment, with hands-on experience in MLOps/AIOps/SecDevOps practices.
• 6+ years of experience building secure, reliable software systems, with applied knowledge of authentication, data protection, access control, and secure coding practices.
• 6+ years of experience designing, building, and operating distributed or cloud-scale systems (Azure, AWS, or Google Cloud Platform), including production ownership, CI/CD integration, and operating highly available services.
• 2+ years of experience designing and building applications with LLM orchestration frameworks (e.g., LangChain, AutoGen), including agent-based workflows, RAG pipelines, prompt engineering, and model fine-tuning/evaluation.

#MicrosoftThreatProtection #MSFTSecurity #MTPAI

Software Engineering IC5 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $139,900 - $274,800 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 $188,000 - $304,200 per year.

Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation. Find additional benefits and pay information here:
;br>
Software Engineering IC5 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $139,900 - $274,800 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 $188,000 - $304,200 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.