Senior Security Researcher

Are you passionate about reverse engineering malware? Do you enjoy partnering, collaborating, and driving work with different security & engineering teams to keep the company safe? MSTIC has a unique opportunity for you!

The Microsoft Threat Intelligence Center (MSTIC) is growing fast and looking for a seasoned malware reverse engineer with experience supporting threat intelligence analysis and security services and products. Are you passionate about reversing malware?

MSTIC is responsible for delivering timely threat intelligence across our products & services teams, assisting with our engineering response to security issues/incidents and assisting with government policy outreach for the company.

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Responsibilities

As a security researcher you will be responsible for analyzing and reverse engineering malicious artifacts that are associated with nation-state sponsored and financially motivated groups. You will collaborate with internal and external partners to disseminate analysis findings and generate product detections for various threat groups. You will be contributing to the development of tactical software and solution to support triage and deep-dive analysis of malicious artifacts surfaced by internal and external partners.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications:

• 4 years of experience in reverse engineering malware that are associated with APT or financially motivated groups

• In-depth technical knowledge of adversary capabilities, infrastructure, and techniques that can be applied to define, develop, and implement the techniques to discover and track the adversaries of today and identify the attacks of tomorrow.

• Tactical software development to support triage and analysis of datasets and information associated with APT activity and behavior as well as APT artifact analysis.

• Conducting triage and compressive analysis of known and suspected malicious applications, documents, network traffic and artifacts in support of MSTICs TI analysts, services, and products

• Reverse engineering & binary analysisto include dynamic and static malware analysis.Experienced user of static analysis tooling (e.g., IDA Pro, Ghidra etc.)

• Contributing host- and network-based detection signatures/scripts to a variety of Microsoft products and services

• Maintaining a deep understanding and knowledge of the latest offensive and defensive Tactics, Techniques and Procedures (TTPs)

• Knowledge across all critical elements and common data types used in threat intelligence analysis, including malware used in targeted adversary campaigns; host and log forensics including methods of data collection and analytic techniques; and network forensics including common protocols and how those are used in adversary operations.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Strong and in-depth knowledge of Windows OS internals and Windows API

• Demonstrated experience analyzing malicious desktop, mobile and web applications developed in common programming languages such as x86/x86-64 Assembly, ARM, C, C , C#, Visual Basic, PowerShell, Ruby, Python, ActionScript, ASP, Java, JavaScript, HTML, etc.

• Demonstrated experience using commercial and open-source malware analysis tools and platforms such as debuggers, disassemblers, decompilers, sandboxes and virtualization solutions

• Demonstrated experience analyzing packed and obfuscated programs, scripts, and shellcode

• Demonstrated experience identifying and subverting anti-disassembly, anti-decompilation, anti-debugging and anti-virtualization/emulation and anti-forensic techniques and methodologies

• Tactical software development experience in support of automation, triage and analysis of datasets, information and artifacts associated with APT related malware and campaign activity

• Familiarity with legacy and modern software and system protection mythologies and technologies

• Demonstrated experience working with SQL-based databases and Big Data solutions

• Experience working closely with threat intelligence analysts to understand their workflow and analytic problems and turning those into large-scale analytics

• Demonstrated capability to coherently present potentially sensitive threat intelligence to a wide variety of audiences in public and private settings

• Demonstrated interpersonal skills (adaptability, inclusiveness, optimism, curiosity, empathy, courage, respect) which support the development of high functioning teams

Additional preferred skills and experience:

• Computer, network, and software vulnerability research, analysis, and mitigation experience

• Kernel and driver development experience

• Analysis of crash and memory dumps

• Deep packet analysis of network data and development of custom decoders

• Development of malware configuration extractors and string decoders

• Supporting incident response and familiarity with common incident response procedures, processes, and tools

• Experience leading analysis of network data across the various protocol layers and an applied understanding of a range of application/transport/network protocols

• Experience conducting forensic analysis of networks and systems impacted by small and large APT related intrusions

• Knowledge across all critical elements and common data types used in threat intelligence analysis, including malware used in targeted adversary campaigns; and host and log forensics including methods of data collection and analytic techniques; and network forensics including common protocols and how those are used in adversary operations

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.

US Base Pay Disclosure:

Security Research IC4 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $112,000 - $218,400 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 $145,800 - $238,600 per year.

Microsoft has different base pay ranges for different work locations within the United States, which allows us to pay employees competitively and consistently in different geographic markets (see below). The range above reflects the potential base pay across the U.S. for this role (except as noted below); the applicable base pay range will depend on what ultimately is determined to be the candidates primary work location. Individual base pay depends on various factors, in addition to primary work location, such as complexity and responsibility of role, job duties/requirements, and relevant experience and skills. Base pay ranges are reviewed and typically updated each year. Offers are made within the base pay range applicable at the time.

At Microsoft certain roles are eligible for additional rewards, including merit increases, annual bonus and stock. These awards are allocated based on individual performance. In addition, certain roles also have the opportunity to earn sales incentives based on revenue or utilization, depending on the terms of the plan and the employees role. Benefits/perks listed here may vary depending on the nature of employment with Microsoft and the country work location. U.S.-based employees have access to healthcare benefits, a 401(k) plan and company match, short-term and long-term disability coverage, basic life insurance, wellbeing benefits, paid vacation time, paid sick and mental health time, and several paid holidays, among others.

Our commitment to pay equity

We are committed to the principle of pay equity paying employees equitably for substantially similar work. To learn more about pay equity and our other commitments to increase representation and strengthen our culture of inclusion, check out our annual Diversity & Inclusion Report. ( [ Link removed ] - Click here to apply to Senior Security Researcher )

Understanding roles at Microsoft

The top of this page displays the role for which the base pay ranges apply Security Research IC4.

The way we define roles includes two things: discipline (the type of work) and career stage (scope and complexity). The career stage has two parts the first identifies whether the role is a manager (M), an individual contributor (IC), an admin-technician-retail (ATR) job, or an intern. The second part identifies the relative seniority of the role a higher number (or later letter alphabetically in the case of ATR) indicates greater scope and complexity.

Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran status, race, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by applicable laws, regulations and ordinances. We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements. If you need assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application or the recruiting process, please send a request via the Accommodation request form ([ Link removed ] - Click here to apply to Senior Security Researcher .

Benefits/perks listed below may vary depending on the nature of your employment with Microsoft and the country where you work.

Salary : $112,000 - $218,400