Cybersecurity Infrastructure Engineer

The Microsoft Incident Response team are seeking a skilled and experienced infrastructure specialist to join us. This role presents an opportunity to be the tip of the spear during incident response engagements, driving the data collection, response, containment, and recovery workstreams and presenting findings to stakeholders from every part of the business. Strong knowledge of Microsoft security solutions and identity systems is key, ideally with experience in containment and recovery of both on premises and cloud environments. The ability to communicate technical content with clarity and context, and good knowledge of nation state and cybercrime attack techniques is important. A desire to fail fast and learn quickly is critical, along with strong analytical and critical thinking skills. 

Along with working reactive incident response cases for some of the most esteemed businesses in the world, infrastructure team members should be able to conduct research into new attack and recovery techniques, have excellent documentation skills, and be confident in disseminating knowledge both across the team and across partner teams within Microsoft. Thought leadership is a key priority, in the form of written and spoken content delivered both internally and externally. Any successful candidate should also embody Microsoft’s culture and values. 

Required/Minimum Qualifications

• 5+ years experience in software development lifecycle, large-scale computing, modeling, cybersecurity, and/or anomaly detection
  • OR Master's Degree in Statistics, Mathematics, Computer Science or related field
• 2+ years experience with Threat Actor containment during an incident, rapid recovery of critical infrastructure (primarily Active Directory rebuild and restoration), and eviction of a Threat Actor after an investigation 
• 2+ years of Active Directory and associated components (Kerberos, NTLM, Group Policy, Backup and Disaster Recovery, DNS, AD tiering models, gMSAs) 
• 2+ years of Entra ID and associated components (Conditional Access, Multifactor Authentication, Passwordless Authentication, Privileged Identity Management, Identity Protection, Entra ID Connect) 

Additional or Preferred Qualifications

• 6+ years experience in software development lifecycle, large-scale computing, modeling, cybersecurity, and/or anomaly detection
  • OR Doctorate in Statistics, Mathematics, Computer Science or related field
• Azure Resource Management, Azure Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Role Based Access Controls (RBAC), Subscriptions, Resource Groups, Management Groups 
• Proficiency in one or more query languages (KQL, SPL, SQL, etc.)  
• Strong knowledge of at least two or more products in the Microsoft Defender 365 suite 
• Experience with large scale orchestration and deployment of software using deployment tools such as SCCM, Intune, Ansible, Chef, Puppet, etc. 
• Experience in PowerShell and bash scripting 
• Experience with third-party security products, including but not limited to, Splunk, CrowdStrike Falcon, QRadar, etc.  
• Experience with Microsoft Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) implementations, Active Directory Federation Services (AD FS) 
• Understanding and working knowledge of the Linux and MacOS platforms 
• Experience with two or more of Microsoft’s portfolio of Artificial Intelligence (AI) products such as Security Copilot, Bing Copilot, Github Copilot, Office Copilot and Windows Copilot 
• Understanding of DevOps, concepts such as Version Control, Infrastructure as code, CI/CD Pipelines, Frameworks, Configuration Management and Continuous Monitoring. 
• Experience with management of virtualization platforms such as Hyper-V, VMware, etc.  
• Experience with IP network management including routing, firewalls, access control lists, DHCP, packet analysis, and troubleshooting network traffic flow 

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.

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.

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

Technical Delivery 

This role will work as part of a collaborative team assisting our top customers with:  

• Ability to deliver adversary containment and recovery efforts across multiple workstreams 

• Ability to quickly build and execute a recovery plan as a response to large-scale impactful incidents involving ransomware and destructive adversarial campaigns 

• Deploying forensic collection tooling across a wide range of complex environments  

• Identifying potential threats – allowing for proactive defence before an actual incident  

• Providing recommendations to improve cybersecurity posture going forward  

• Performing knowledge transfer to prepare customers to defend against today’s threat landscape  

Research 

Security threats are constantly evolving, and so must the Microsoft Incident Response team. To that end, this role will involve: 

• Researching, analyzing, and summarizing security threats and response capabilities, sharing across the team 

• Identifying, conducting, and supporting others in conducting research into critical security areas, such as current attacks, adversary tracking, and academic literature 

• Creating and documenting new solutions to mitigate security issues 

• Recommending prioritization and validation methods for technical indicators, develops tools to automate analyses 

• Leads efforts to clean, structure, and standardize data and data sources; leads data quality efforts to ensure timely and consistent access to data sources 

Thought Leadership 

This role includes the ability to be at the forefront of Microsoft Security thought leadership by: 

• Developing written content for publication on Microsoft blog platforms 

• Developing presentations for delivery at internal and external conferences 

• Use the unique experiences of Microsoft Incident Response to create unique storytelling moments 

Operational Excellence  

Must be maintained by: 

• Completing operational tasks and readiness with timeliness and accuracy.  

• Following Microsoft policies, compliance, and procedures (e.g., Enterprise Services Authorization Policy, Standards of Business Conduct, labor logging, expenses, travel guidelines).  

• Leading by example and guiding team members on operational tasks, readiness, and compliance.