New

Principal Applied Scientist

Microsoft
$139,900.00 - $274,800.00 / yr
United States, Washington, Redmond
Jan 14, 2026
Overview Securityrepresentsthe most critical priorityfor 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 withend 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. The Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) Security Research team leads advanced research in Identity protection,leveragingnext-generation AI and cloud technologies. Our teamcomprisesglobally recognized experts in identity and cloud-related threats-highly skilled, passionate professionals committed to driving innovation and safeguarding customers in an ever-evolving. We are hiring aPrincipalApplied Scientist. Microsoft's mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. Asemployees,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 positivelyimpactour culture every day. Responsibilities Responsibilities Lead independently projects focused on AI / Agentic research appliedtocybersecurity problems aiming to translate ideas and prototypes into concrete product advancements or novel capabilities Productionize AI & ML:collaborate with engineering and product teams toproductionizemodels,pipelines, and meetobjectivesfor latency, throughput, and availability. Develop fine-tuning techniques for transformer models andestablishbenchmarks for accuracy, robustness, and performance to ensure reliable model delivery. Identifyand integrate diverse data sources, develop deepexpertiseacross them, and surface new patterns and opportunities-communicating clear, compelling,data drivenstories visually and verbally. Analyze largescale datasets and buildrobust, scalable feature engineering pipelinesinPySpark based environment. Partner with AI, Engineering and Data scientist teams to build machine learning systems thatidentifyanomalies, account compromise, fraud, andidentity threats, leveraging GenAI andgraph basedapproaches. Collaborate across Threat Research, Engineering, and Product teams to define and instrument metrics thatdemonstrateproductand businesssuccess (e.gDetection Efficacy, Coverage,Timetodetect) Embody ourcultureandvalues Qualifications Required 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: Abilityto meet Microsoft,customerand/or government security screening requirements arerequiredfor this role. These requirements include, but are not limited to the following specialized security screenings: Microsoft CloudBackgroundCheck: This position will berequiredto pass the Microsoftbackgroundand Microsoft Cloudbackgroundcheckupon hire/transfer and every two years thereafter. Preferred Qualifications: Proven ability to designend-to-end data and feature pipelines (SQL,PySpark, Azure Data Studio) that ship robust,production readyML models. Provenexpertisein applying AI/ML systems and solutions to solve real cybersecurity problems 7+ years ofhands-onexperience with Spark/PySpark, Databricks, Azure ML, SQL/KQL, and strong programming skills in Python and/or C 2+years experiencepresenting at conferences or other events in the outside research/industry community as an invited speaker. 3+yearsexperiencedeveloping and deploying products or systems at multiple points in the product cycle from ideation to shipping. 5+years experienceconducting research as part of a research program (in academic or industry settings). Comfortable working with complex,high-dimensional, multisource data; excels at data wrangling, enrichment, and quality assurance to solve hard,real worldproblems. Works cross-functionally with Data Scientists, Threat Researchers, Engineering, and Product to define metrics, measure outcomes, and improve customer value. Communicates insights visually and verbally, telling clear, compelling,datadrivenstories to drive decisions. Appliedexpertisein classification, prediction, anomaly detection, optimization, graph ML, and NLP. Experience with Generative AI (prompt engineering, RAG, finetuning,responsibleAIpractices) is highly valued. Applied Sciences 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: https://careers.microsoft.com/us/en/us-corporate-pay 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.