Senior Research Scientist

Key Skills

Java Programming, Python Programming, Framework, SQL, Machine learning techniques, Deep Learning, PyTorch, TensorFlow, Natural Language Toolkit - NLTK, NeurIPS, Large scale data processing

Job Description

We are an impact-driven research team within Microsoft Defender with the primary focus on driving mid- and long-term product innovations that our customers love and cutting-edge technologies that shape the security industry. Our team consists of research scientists, applied scientists, ML engineers and economists that bring deep technical expertise in a variety of different research areas. Our diverse research background provides unique perspectives into how we approach different complex research problems. We leverage state-of-the-art research to address our strategic challenges with the willingness to question the status quo. We consult broader product and business groups on research opportunities, explore the unproven and enable them to drive boundary pushing innovation from ideation to real world impact. While also generating mindshare in the process through academic publications, open-source releases, blog posts, patents and industry conferences. We drive several research collaborations through academic and industry partnerships to share our passion of driving AI/ML innovations to build a safer world for all.

If you enjoy being on the cutting edge of applied and fundamental research with a core focus in security, come join us! We’re looking for researchers passionate about exploring a diverse set of research challenges and building new technologies. Candidates in this role will become pioneering research leaders within Microsoft’s security division (Defender) and shape the next revolution of AI and ML for cybersecurity.

Responsibilities

• Conduct fundamental and applied research and lead research collaborations that yield new insights, theories, analyses, data, algorithms, and/or prototypes that advance the state-of-the-art of computer science and cybersecurity. 
• Research and develop an understanding of the state-of-the-art insights, tools, technologies, or methods being used in the research community to advance a research agenda in one or more research subareas.
• Provide research expertise to product and business groups and create long-term business opportunities through research outcomes
• Drive fundamental research into real world security products impacting over half a billion people in over a hundred countries around the world. 
• Communicate research outcomes to internal and external audiences through journals and academic publications, industry conferences, open-source releases, patents and other mindshare venues such as blogs, media interviews, etc. 

Qualifications

Required:

• 3+ years of experience in research areas such as deep learning, transformer models, graph representation learning, natural language understanding and processing, vision, responsible AI 
• 3+ years of hands-on experience with deep learning frameworks (such as PyTorch, Tensorflow, etc.). 
• 2+ peer reviewed publications, patents and/or open code contributions in AI/ ML. 
• 3+ years of relevant industry experience driving cutting-edge research into real world impact. 

Preferred 

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, ability to simplify and explain complex ideas.
• Team player, confident and enthusiastic; Proven partner engagement and cross-team collaboration skills
• Proven publication record in top-tier venues. Examples include but are not limited to ICML, NeurIPS, ICLR, EMNLP, ACL, NAACL, KDD, AAAI, IJCAI, etc.
• Experience with large-scale data processing tools
• Experience in safety and ethical aspects of AI. 
• Experience formulating research problems, evaluating related work, innovating differentiators, defining success metrics, developing plans and schedules for achieving metrics, and learning and iterating on further improvements
• Expert knowledge in security, threat intelligence and hunting, anti-fraud systems, phish detection technologies and social engineering research

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