Principal Applied Scientist
Microsoft
Principal Applied Scientist
Redmond, Washington, United States
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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.
Are you passionate about leveraging cutting-edge research to tackle real-time threats? Join our team as a Principal Applied Scientist and be at the forefront of innovation in interactive data analysis. You'll have the opportunity to build upon a broad set of research from Microsoft, academia, and industry to develop novel methods, tools, and frameworks that demonstrate defensive capabilities. Collaborate with internal and external partners to apply your research to real-world scenarios and challenges. If you're looking to make a meaningful impact in protecting people and businesses, this is the team for you. Security is a top priority for our customers in a world filled with digital threats, regulatory scrutiny, and estate complexity. At Microsoft Security, we aspire to make the world a safer place for all. Our mission is to reshape security and empower every user, customer, and developer with a security cloud that offers end-to-end, simplified solutions. We accelerate Microsoft's mission and bold ambitions to secure digital technology platforms, devices, and clouds in our customers' diverse environments, as well as our own internal estate. Our culture embraces a growth mindset, inspiring excellence, and encouraging teams and leaders to bring their best every day. Together, we create life-changing innovations that impact billions of lives worldwide.
The Microsoft Security Social Engineering Research Team is dedicated to defending Microsoft's customers against threats across all messaging and web platforms through applied AI innovation. Our culture fosters a growth mindset, inspiring excellence, and encouraging teams and leaders to bring their best every day. As attackers' methods evolve, our solutions adapt and anticipate. This is an exciting opportunity to innovate and detect threats in real-time across new platforms and technologies using emerging generative AI capabilities. Working with data at scale, utilizing emergent technologies, and being empowered by Microsoft's unique set of threat intelligence is the perfect challenge for any Principal Applied Scientist.
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 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.
- 1+ years experience bringing new technology and approaches into production by applying long-term research efforts to solve immediate product needs.
- 3+ years combined experience in data science and/or engineering - demonstrating foundational knowledge of both data science and ML (Machine Learning) operations AND in shipping and supporting large-scale computing data science products, features, or content.
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.
- 5+ years experience creating publications (e.g., patents, libraries, peer-reviewed academic papers).
- 2+ years experience presenting at conferences or other events in the outside research/industry community as an invited speaker.
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
Microsoft will accept applications for the role until July 16, 2025.
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Responsibilities
- Lead the design and development of advanced machine learning and AI models to address complex security and detection challenges.
- Drive innovation through experimentation, prototyping, and deployment of scalable solutions in production environments.
- Translate research breakthroughs into practical applications that enhance product capabilities and user protection.
- Scope and prioritize scientific investments based on business impact and evolving threat landscapes.
- Collaborate closely with engineering, product, and research teams to align scientific direction with strategic goals.
- Rapidly respond to emerging threats by developing and deploying mitigation strategies with scientific rigor.
- Own the end-to-end lifecycle of applied science projects—from ideation to deployment and monitoring.
- Partner with internal and external research communities to integrate state-of-the-art techniques into Microsoft products.
- Mentor and guide other scientists, fostering a culture of excellence, curiosity, and continuous learning.
- Communicate complex technical concepts clearly to diverse stakeholders, including leadership and cross-functional teams.
- Embody our culture and values