Principal Applied Scientist

Microsoft Security AI Research team is seeking a Principal Applied Scientist to join their Autonomous Defense and Protection Team (ADAPT). This role focuses on advancing AI-driven capabilities to enable autonomous defense through collaboration between blue and red teams. The position involves leveraging Large Language Models (LLMs) and agentic systems to tackle complex security scenarios.

The role sits within Microsoft Security, which aims to make the world safer through end-to-end security solutions. You'll be working on defending Microsoft's complex environment, providing a unique opportunity to build and evaluate autonomous defense through emerging generative AI capabilities. The team works closely with Microsoft Threat Intelligence Center (MSTIC) to build a knowledge graph describing relationships between risk, investigation, and response.

Key responsibilities include processing structured and unstructured data, fine-tuning models for security tasks, creating synthetic data generation systems, and building foundations for training and evaluating agentic capabilities. You'll collaborate with security researchers to integrate AI and security expertise, driving innovation in security operations.

The position offers competitive compensation with base pay ranging from $137,600 to $294,000 depending on location, particularly higher in San Francisco and New York City areas. Microsoft provides comprehensive benefits including healthcare, educational resources, parental leave, and investment opportunities. The role allows for up to 100% remote work with 0-25% travel requirements.

This is an excellent opportunity for an experienced AI professional to impact billions of lives by advancing the frontier of autonomous security systems while working with cutting-edge technologies in a collaborative, growth-minded environment.