Microsoft

Principal AI Security Researcher

Microsoft • $142K — $274K *
Reston, VA 20191In-Person
Information Technology
Less than 5 years of experience
Today
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Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • Doctorate in relevant field OR Master's or Bachelor's degree with extensive experience in software development, threat analysis, or cybersecurity.
  • Experience of 3-12 years in large-scale computing, cybersecurity, vulnerability research, or anomaly detection, based on degree level.
  • Hands-on experience in penetration testing, red teaming, or application security with an adversarial mindset.
  • Solid understanding of modern AI techniques, including LLMs and fine-tuning.
  • Proficiency in Python for developing attack automation and research tools.
  • Familiarity with security frameworks like MITRE ATLAS and OWASP for applications in AI.

Responsibilities

  • Lead purple team simulations to enhance AI security.
  • Execute hands-on attacks against AI systems to inform product security.
  • Develop and apply diverse attack methodologies, including prompt injections and social engineering.
  • Create scalable red teaming tools for continuous AI system testing.
  • Collaborate with cross-functional teams to implement security mitigations based on findings.
  • Evaluate AI defenses and recommend strategic improvements.
  • Conduct research on evolving AI attack techniques and document them.

Benefits

  • Comprehensive healthcare and wellness programs.
  • Generous paid time off and holidays.
  • Professional development and training opportunities.
  • Retirement savings plans with matching contributions.
  • Support for work-life balance and flexible working options.
Full Job Description
Responsibilities

As a Principal Security Researcher, you will:

  • Lead the design and execution of purple team simulations aimed at making AI safer, conducting realistic AI attacks whose findings inform our security products and help them protect customers more effectively.


  • Develop and execute hands-on attacks against AI systems, including:


  • Direct prompt injection and jailbreaks that bypass system prompts, safety instructions, and alignment.


  • Indirect (cross-domain) prompt injection (XPIA), where malicious instructions are hidden in untrusted content the model consumes: documents, web pages, emails, tickets, code, and RAG sources.


  • Multi-turn, crescendo, and social-engineering style attacks that steer a model toward unsafe behavior over a conversation.


  • Multimodal injection through images, audio, and files that carry hidden instructions.


  • Guardrail, content filter, and safety-system bypass, including encoding, obfuscation, and adversarial phrasing.


  • Sensitive data exfiltration and leakage, including system prompt and grounding-data disclosure and cross-tenant or cross-session leakage.


  • Agentic and tool-use abuse: excessive agency, confused-deputy attacks, unsafe autonomous actions, and manipulation of tools, plugins, and connected systems.


  • Data and model attacks: training-data and RAG poisoning, model extraction, model inversion, membership inference, and adversarial examples / evasion.


  • Build scalable AI red teaming tooling and automation (custom attack harnesses and evaluation frameworks) to generate attack variations, run large evaluations, and continuously test AI systems as they change.


  • Partner with product, engineering, Responsible AI, and detection teams to translate findings into mitigations: better system prompts, input and output filters, grounding controls, agent guardrails, and detections.


  • Evaluate the effectiveness of AI defenses (detections, safety classifiers, filters, and monitoring) and provide strategic recommendations to close gaps.


  • Conduct deep research into emerging AI attacker techniques and map them to frameworks such as MITRE ATLAS and the OWASP Top 10 for LLM Applications.


  • Deliver executive-level briefings, technical reports, and prioritized, actionable recommendations.


  • Act as a technical leader: shape AI simulation methodology, mentor team members, and drive long-term innovation in Security for AI.


Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications:
  • Doctorate in Statistics, Mathematics, 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 Statistics, Mathematics, 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 Bachelor's Degree in Statistics, Mathematics, 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 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:
  • Doctorate in Statistics, Mathematics, Computer Science, Computer Security, or related field AND 5+ 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 Statistics, Mathematics, 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 Bachelor's Degree in Statistics, Mathematics, Computer Science, Computer Security, or related field AND 12+ years experience in software development lifecycle, large-scale computing, threat analysis or modeling, cybersecurity, vulnerability research, and/or anomaly detection.
    • OR equivalent experience.
  • A security background: experience finding and exploiting real vulnerabilities (for example penetration testing, red teaming, vulnerability research, or application security), with an adversarial mindset.
  • Solid, practical understanding of how modern AI works: LLMs, prompting, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), fine-tuning, and agentic / tool-using systems.
  • Hands-on experience and familiarity with agentic AI systems, red teaming harnesses, and AI tooling: building or working with agents, tool-using LLMs, orchestration and evaluation frameworks, LLM APIs, and attack harnesses.
  • Demonstrated hands-on experience attacking AI systems: prompt injection (direct and indirect), jailbreaks, guardrail bypass, data exfiltration, or agent abuse, in research or professional settings.
  • Python skills for building attack automation, evaluation harnesses, and research tooling.
  • Familiarity with AI security and safety frameworks such as MITRE ATLAS, OWASP Top 10 for LLMs and Responsible AI principles.
  • Ability to translate offensive findings into practical defenses and to communicate clearly with both engineers and executives.
  • Contributions to AI security research, publications, CTFs, or open-source AI red teaming tooling.

#MSsecurity

Security Research 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:
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.

About Microsoft

Microsoft is an American multinational corporation that develops, manufactures, licenses, supports, and sells a range of software products and services. Microsoft’s devices and consumer (D&C) licensing segment licenses the Windows operating system and related software, Microsoft Office for consumers, and the Windows Phone operating system. The company’s computing and gaming hardware segment provides Xbox gaming and entertainment consoles and accessories, second-party and third-party video games, and Xbox Live subscriptions; surface devices and accessories; and Microsoft PC accessories. Its phone hardware segment offers Lumia smartphones and other non-Lumia phones. Its D&C segment provides Windows Store, Xbox Live transactions, and Windows phone store; search advertising; display advertising; Office 365 Home and Office 365 Personal; first-party video games; and other consumer products and services as well as operating retail stores. Microsoft’s commercial licensing segments license server products, including Windows Server, Microsoft SQL Server, Visual Studio, System Center, and related Client Access Licenses (CALs); Windows Embedded; Windows operating system; Microsoft Office for business, including Office, Exchange, SharePoint, Lync, and related CALs; Microsoft Dynamics business solutions; and Skype. Its commercial segment offers enterprise services, including premier support services and Microsoft consulting services; commercial cloud comprising Office 365 Commercial, other Microsoft Office online offerings, Dynamics CRM Online, and Microsoft Azure; and other commercial products and online services. The company markets and distributes its products through original equipment manufacturers, distributors, and resellers, as well as online.

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Learn more about Microsoft
Size
181,000 employees
Market Cap
$1,762.4 billion
Industry
Enterprise Technology
Net Income
$51.3 billion
Founded
1975
5 Year Trend
+15.5%
Revenue
$153.2 billion
NASDAQ
MSFT
* Ladders Estimates

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