OverviewSecurity represents one of the most critical priorities for our customers in a world of evolving digital threats, increasing regulatory requirements, growing estate complexity, and rapid advances in AI. Microsoft Security aspires to make the world a safer place by empowering every user, customer, and developer with integrated security solutions that protect across heterogeneous environments. Perception is an advanced AI platform designed to empower security and IT teams to operate at the speed and scale of AI while adhering to Microsoft's Responsible AI principles. Within Perception, the Red Agents team builds autonomous, AI-powered offensive security agents that continuously emulate real-world adversaries.
We are looking for a Principal Security Engineer to lead and build secure, reliable and safe agentic red teaming capabilities at enterprise scale. You will set technical direction and execution strategy for multi-agent systems that combine Generative AI, reasoning, memory and planning with deep security domain expertise, all operating within strict safety, authorization and scope guardrails. You will partner closely with Product, Applied Science, Responsible AI and Microsoft's internal red teams to turn emerging adversary tradecraft and industry frameworks into customer-ready agent capabilities. You will also drive engineering excellence across architecture, service health, compliance and security hygiene. You will also navigate ambiguity across organizational boundaries to ship innovative, trustworthy AI-driven security experiences for Microsoft's customers.
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 Own the architecture and long-term technical strategy for the Red Agents portfolio. Facilitate cross-team collaboration, identify dependencies, and resolve technical and organizational challenges that span teams and services. Drive the engineering roadmap in alignment with product goals, prioritizing investments and adopting new technologies and approaches where they provide meaningful value.
Guide the team in making architectural and technical decisions, balancing scalability, security, reliability, maintainability, and delivery velocity.
Champion experimentation and telemetry-driven development, enabling rapid iteration and data-informed decisions.
Drive engineering excellence through automation, tooling, testing, and standardization across development, deployment, and operations.
Own operational excellence and reliability practices, including SLOs, incident response, capacity planning, and ensuring post-incident learnings drive systemic improvements
QualificationsRequired/minimum qualifications:- Master's Degree in Statistics, Mathematics, Computer Science, or related field AND 4+ years experience in security or related field
- OR Bachelor's Degree in Statistics, Mathematics, Computer Science, or related field AND 6+ years experience in security or related field
- 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:- Experience building Generative AI or agentic systems, including LLM orchestration, retrieval, tool use, evaluation, and safety guardrails.
- Background in offensive security, red teaming, penetration testing, or adversary emulation, including familiarity with frameworks such as MITRE ATT&CK.
- Understanding of identity and authorization concepts such as least privilege, role-based access control (RBAC), delegated access, and multi-tenant isolation, especially for autonomous or AI-driven systems.
- Proven ability to lead through ambiguity, align across teams and organizations, and clearly communicate technical tradeoffs and risks to engineering and leadership audiences.
Penetration Testing IC5 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $142,800 - $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. 
