[Hiring] Cybersecurity Lead Investigator @Microsoft

Role Description

Microsoft's Detection and Response Team (DART) is seeking a skilled and experienced Cybersecurity Lead Investigator to join the team in the United States. DART is the first port of call for many customers during a security incident. This pivotal, customer-facing position leads investigation direction, establishes technical priorities, and helps customers make evidence-led response decisions.

In this role, you will be required to work shift assignments during non-standard business hours, Friday through Monday: 10-hour shift scheduled between 8:00 AM - 6 PM EDT, Weekends and Public Holidays. Substitute days off will be provided for public holiday work. Working hours may change based on business needs.

You will lead the investigation, establish technical priorities, and act as the primary technical point of contact for customers, including executive stakeholders. Working with threat hunters, reverse engineers, infrastructure engineers, and incident coordinators, you will align specialist workstreams and help customers understand findings, confidence, risk, and response options.

As part of a globally distributed, mission-driven team, you will share research, mentor colleagues, and help shape the future of Defender Experts Cybersecurity Incident Response.

Responsibilities

• Orchestrate evidence-driven investigations and technical incident response.
• Align specialist workstreams and communicate clear findings, priorities, and recommendations to customers.
• Set investigation objectives, hypotheses, priorities, and evidence requirements; lead hands-on analysis and specialist workstreams across enterprise on-premises and cloud environments.
• Contextualize and prioritize findings, correlate disparate evidence, and build cohesive incident timelines.
• Assess adversary activity, compromise scope, and potential data collection or exfiltration; validate key findings and explain the confidence and limitations of conclusions.
• Direct technical response planning and recommendations to secure enterprise environments.
• Serve as the primary technical point of contact for complex investigations; brief technical teams, executives, legal, compliance, engineering, and other stakeholders.
• Identify skill, access, telemetry, and resource gaps early; work with incident coordinators and leadership to resolve dependencies.
• Maintain investigative documentation and clear follow-the-sun handovers covering evidence, hypotheses, decisions, risks, and next actions.

Qualifications

• Doctorate in Statistics, Mathematics, Computer Science, Computer Security, or related field OR Master's Degree 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 Bachelor'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 equivalent experience.
• Ability to meet Microsoft, customer, and/or government security screening requirements.

Preferred Qualifications

• Demonstrated hands-on experience leading large-scale, high-pressure cybersecurity incident response across on-premises and cloud environments.
• Ability to correlate and assess evidence from multiple sources, reconstruct incident timelines, evaluate compromise scope and possible exfiltration.
• Experience directing response activities while balancing rapid recovery, technical dependencies, and business impact.
• Demonstrated ability to lead technical specialists and stakeholders, identify engagement gaps, request appropriate resources, and manage investigations using a global follow-the-sun model.
• Proven customer-facing written and verbal communication, including executive briefings.
• Flexibility to work non-standard business hours that may include evening, nighttime, weekends, and/or holidays.
• Experience analyzing nation-state or cybercrime activity and applying adversary knowledge to complex enterprise investigations.
• Demonstrated research, analytical automation, data-quality improvement, and technical mentoring that strengthen investigation capability.
• Experience developing reviewed technical publications, presentations, or other knowledge-sharing material while protecting sensitive information.
• Experience leading globally distributed incident response workstreams with clear handovers, explicit ownership, and effective customer communication.
• Relevant security certifications or equivalent practical expertise.

Compensation

The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $119,800 - $234,700 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 $160,200 - $261,000 per year.

Application Process

This position will be open for a minimum of 5 days, with applications accepted on an ongoing basis until the position is filled.

Equal Opportunity Employer

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.