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Microsoft UK • London, United Kingdom

Principal Penetration Testing Engineer

Employment type:  Full time
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top 3
scores:
83%

Location flexibility

81%

Hours flexibility

79%

Autonomy

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Job Description

Security represents the most critical priorities for our customers in a world awash in digital threats, regulatory scrutiny, and estate complexity. Microsoft Security aspires to make the world a safer place for all. We want to reshape security and empower every user, customer, and developer with a security cloud that protects them with end to end, simplified solutions. The Microsoft Security organization accelerates Microsoft’s mission and bold ambitions to ensure that our company and industry is securing digital technology platforms, devices, and clouds in our customers’ heterogeneous environments, as well as ensuring the security of our own internal estate. Our culture is centered on embracing a growth mindset, a theme of inspiring excellence, and encouraging teams and leaders to bring their best each day. In doing so, we create life-changing innovations that impact billions of lives around the world. Are you passionate about uncovering hidden vulnerabilities in complex systems and exploring new techniques for ethical hacking? Do you thrive on discovering post-exploitation methods for lateral movement across networks? Are you fascinated with staying current on computing threats? If so, the Regulated Industries Pentest Team at Microsoft is looking for you. As a Principal Penetration Testing Engineer, you will be at the forefront of securing Microsoft products and services. Our team conducts manual assessments of products, services, and software within regulated industries, ensuring the highest levels of security. You'll play a pivotal role in streamlining workflows, enhancing team processes for greater efficiency and scalability, and providing innovative solutions to complex problems.Join us in this exciting opportunity to collaborate with some of the brightest minds in the industry and help shape the future of cybersecurity at Microsoft. Your intelligence, creativity, and dedication will be key to elevating our organization's security standards 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 beyond. In 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

  • Plan, research, and execute testing of computer systems and applications to simulate real world attacks on Microsoft’s services and infrastructure.
  • Assess existing security capabilities to detect and respond to emerging threats.
  • Outline and document risk impacts in executive summary reports and communications to relevant stakeholders.
  • Perform research to stay current with penetration testing tools, methodologies, tactics, and mitigations.
  • Participate as an infrastructure/operation specialist in overt penetration testing engagements, where we emulate real-world adversaries, During Purple Team engagements
  • Develop and maintain penetration testing procedures and methodologies.
  • Conduct research to remain updated with the latest in application security, both offensive and defensive techniques. Use these findings to educate and raise awareness within the Microsoft Security Community

Qualifications

• Experience in identifying security vulnerabilities, software development lifecycle, large-scale computing, modeling, cyber security, and anomaly detection.• Experience on penetration testing/red-teaming, cloud, services and network security.• Strong coding skills, including any of the following languages: C#, Python, C++, Go, PowerShell, ASP.NET, JavaScript Preferred Qualifications: • Master’s degree in computer science, software engineering, information security or equivalent work experience.• GPEN, GWAPT, GXPN, OSCP, OSCE, or similar certifications• Proven ability to quickly learn about new attack vectors and creativity to identify new threats.• Effective collaboration skills and ability to deal with ambiguity.• Experience with Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) emulation, purple teaming, and/or working with threat intelligence• Experience exploiting bugs and bypassing security mitigations in operating systems Other Requirements• This position requires verification of UK citizenship due to citizenship-based legal restrictions. Specifically, this position supports UK government agency customers and is subject to certain citizenship-based restrictions where required or permitted by applicable law. To meet this legal requirement, and as a condition of employment, the successful candidate’s citizenship will be verified with a valid passport. • 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 and credit history analysis upon hire/transfer and every year thereafter #RISO #RIPENTT #MSFTSecurity

Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. Consistent with applicable law, 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. If you need assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application process, read more about requesting accommodations.

Company benefits

Wellbeing allowance
Health insurance
Dental coverage
Gym membership
Mental health platform access
Buy or sell annual leave
Shared parental leave
Charity donation scheme
Employee assistance programme
Employee discounts
Volunteer days
Fertility treatment leave
Open to compressed hours
Open to job sharing
Fertility benefits
Enhanced sick pay
Enhanced sick days
Compassionate leave
Travel insurance
20 days annual leave + bank holidays
Enhanced maternity leave
Enhanced paternity leave
Adoption leave
Childcare credits
Carer’s leave
Cycle to work scheme
Faith rooms
Annual bonus
Annual pay rises
Company car
Hackathons
Open to part-time employees
Pregnancy loss leave
Life insurance
Equity packages
Financial coaching
Relocation packages
Sabbaticals
Enhanced pension match/contribution

We asked employees of Microsoft UK what it's like to work there, and this is what they told us.

Location flexibility
83%
Employees are very happy with their working location freedom
Hours flexibility
81%
Employees are very happy with the flexibility in the hours they work
Benefits
67%
Employees are largely happy with the benefits their company offers
Work-life balance
63%
Employees feel that they can switch off quite easily from work
Role modelling
74%
Employees feel that most people work flexibly
Autonomy
79%
Employees feel that they can mostly manage how they get their own work done

Working at Microsoft UK

Company employees

Globally: 228,000

Gender diversity (male:female)

67:33

Currently Hiring Countries

United Kingdom

Office Locations

Awards & Achievements

Family Friendly

Family Friendly

Flexa awards 2025
Career Progression

Career Progression

Flexa awards 2025
Most flexible companies

Most flexible companies

Flexa100 2024
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