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Principal Applied AI Engineer

Microsoft

Microsoft

Software Engineering, Data Science
Posted on Mar 13, 2025

Principal Applied AI Engineer

Multiple Locations, United States

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Date posted
Mar 12, 2025
Job number
1798408
Work site
Up to 100% work from home
Travel
0-25 %
Role type
Individual Contributor
Profession
Research, Applied, & Data Sciences
Discipline
Applied Sciences
Employment type
Full-Time

Overview

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.

The Microsoft Security AI Research team is responsible for defending Microsoft and our customers through applied AI innovation. 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. Defending Microsoft’s complex environment provides a unique opportunity to build and evaluate autonomous defense and offense through emerging generative AI capabilities. Microsoft understands and learns from its own defensive and offensive expertise, including via teams like Microsoft’s Threat Intelligence Center and Microsoft’s Red Team, and has the opportunity to build a unique knowledge graph describing the relationship between risk, investigation, and response. This data, built over Microsoft’s complex digital estate, along with Microsoft AI forms the foundation for innovative solutions to defend Microsoft.

We are looking for a Principal Applied AI Engineer to join our applied science team to reshape how we defend Microsoft. You will actively innovate by leveraging and building upon a broad set of research from Microsoft, academia, and industry to develop novel AI methods, frameworks, and systems to enhance our defensive and red teaming capabilities. You will collaborate with internal and external partners on real-world scenarios and challenges and deliver scalable, reliable, and secure AI solutions. For those passionate about making a meaningful impact in the security industry, don’t miss this opportunity to join the team working on the latest AI technology and applicability. 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.

Qualifications

Required/Minimum 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.

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 background and Microsoft Cloud background check upon hire/transfer and every two years thereafter.

Preferred Qualifications

  • Master's Degree in Statistics, Econometrics, Computer Science, Electrical or Computer Engineering, or related field AND 9+ years related experience (e.g., statistics, predictive analytics, research)
    • OR Doctorate in Statistics, Econometrics, Computer Science, Electrical or Computer Engineering, or related field AND 6+ years related experience (e.g., statistics, predictive analytics, research)
    • OR equivalent experience.
  • 4+ years of experience in shipping at large-scale ML/AI-based services or applications, preferably in the security domain on cloud platforms (Azure, AWS, GCP, etc.)
  • 4+ years of relevant industry experience driving cutting-edge research into real world impact.

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 March 19, 2025.

#MSFTSecurity LLMs Generative AI Agentic AI / Agentic Frameworks Knowledge graphs Security tradecraft MSecADAPT

#MSFTNSBE25

Responsibilities

  • You will review business and product requirement, incorporate research, and provide strategic direction for problem solving. You’ll also ensure scientific rigor, support the development of methods, and apply your expertise to support business impact.
  • Conduct cutting-edge research that builds towards transformative defensive and red teaming AI capabilities with demonstrated scientific rigor. Champion innovative principles and forward-looking concepts guided by research trends in academia, OSS and industry.
  • Work with defenders, threat hunters, PMs, researchers and engineers to turn research into effective solutions that improve our ability to protect ourselves.
  • Build industry leading systems that are scalable, reliable, and secure with appropriate monitoring and alerting.
  • Produce reliable and performant code and conduct design and code reviews to ensure alignment with standards and best practices. Follow release management policies to ensure data integrity, compliance, and system stability.

Benefits/perks listed below may vary depending on the nature of your employment with Microsoft and the country where you work.
Industry leading healthcare
Educational resources
Discounts on products and services
Savings and investments
Maternity and paternity leave
Generous time away
Giving programs
Opportunities to network and connect

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 and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application process, read more about requesting accommodations.