Security Analyst II

Job d:

Location:

United States, Washington, Redmond Salary: USD $102,100 - $202,200 per year

Employment type:

Full-Time Work site: 3 days / week in-office

Role type:
Individual Contributor Travel:
Less than 25%
Profession:
Security Engineering Discipline:
Security Operations Engineering Company:
Microsoft Overview The  Cyber Defense Investigations team is Microsoft's deep-dive investigative arm within Cyber Defense Operations (CDO). We investigate complex security incidents across Microsoft's cloud, identity, and supply chain environments, conduct root cause analysis, assess attacker activity, and drive actionable remediation and detection improvements.

As a Security Analyst II, you will lead investigations, craft quick detections, perform threat hunting, collaborate with engineering and response teams, and help improve Microsoft's ability to detect and respond to advanced threats.

Join Microsoft's CDI Escalations team and work at the forefront of cyber defense, investigating the most complex nation-state, supply chain, cloud, and identity-based attacks targeting Microsoft. Our team goes beyond traditional incident response, we combine deep investigations, threat hunting, intelligence operationalization, and cross-organizational collaboration to identify adversaries, drive platform-wide security improvements, and build defenses that prevent future attacks. You'll partner with leaders across MSTIC, GHOST, Detection Engineering, and service teams, leverage AI-powered investigation techniques, and directly influence Microsoft's security posture while solving some of the industry's hardest security challenges.

Starting February, 2026, Microsoft employees are expected to work from a designated Microsoft office at least three days a week if they live within 50 miles (U.S.) or 25 miles (non-U.S., country-specific) of that location. This expectation is subject to local law and may vary by jurisdiction. 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  alignment with our Microsoft values, we are committed to cultivating an inclusive work environment for all employees to positively impact our culture every day.

Responsibilities Investigate complex security incidents involving cloud, identity, endpoint, and supply chain compromises.

Ability to author detection at rapid speed.

Conduct root cause analysis, impact assessment, and scope determination.

Perform proactive threat hunting using Kusto (KQL), Defender, Entra , Azure, and other Microsoft telemetry sources.

Partner with Detection Engineering, MSTIC, Service Teams, and Incident Response teams to contain and remediate threats.

Develop investigative queries, hunting content, playbooks, and automation to improve operational efficiency.

Translate investigation findings into actionable security improvements, detections, and process enhancements.

Produce clear technical and executive-ready investigation reports.

Mentor peers and contribute to investigative best practices and knowledge sharing.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications:

Master's Degree in Statistics, Mathematics, Computer Science, or related field AND 1+ year(s) experience in software development lifecycle, large-scale computing, threat modeling, cyber security, anomaly detection, Security Operations Center (SOC) detection, threat analytics, security incident and event management (SIEM), information technology (IT), or operations incident responseOR Bachelor's Degree in Statistics,…