AI Engineer II

Design, build, and operate AI-powered cloud services and APIs in Azure using C#/.NET and Python (AKS, Container Apps, Functions, App Service) Implement LLM/RAG/agentic workflows: retrieval, grounding, function/tool calling, and safe automation for investigation and remediation with human-in-the-loop controls Build data and indexing pipelines: embeddings, vector search (Azure AI Search, Cosmos DB vector, Postgres+pgvector), and connectors to Microsoft security data (Defender, Sentinel) and ADX/Kusto Add evaluation, safety, and observability: golden datasets, automated regressions, prompt/response guardrails and content filters, prompt-injection/jailbreak defenses, metrics/dashboards/alerts Optimize inference and service performance/cost: batching, caching, streaming, model selection/routing, multi-region deployment, and fallback strategies Ship securely: threat modeling, least-privilege access, Managed Identity/Key Vault, encryption, data minimization, consent/policy enforcement, and audit logging Own CI/CD and IaC: GitHub Actions or Azure DevOps; Docker/Kubernetes; Bicep/Terraform; canary/ring deployments, safe rollbacks; participate in on-call and improve SLOs Contribute to reusable SDKs/services for RAG, agent runtime, and tool/action APIs; write high-quality documentation and conduct code/design reviews Collaborate with researchers, PMs, and partner teams to translate scenarios into production features with clear KPIs (precision/recall, MTTD/MTTR, latency, cost)

• Design, build, and operate AI-powered cloud services and APIs in Azure using C#/.NET and Python (AKS, Container Apps, Functions, App Service)
• Implement LLM/RAG/agentic workflows: retrieval, grounding, function/tool calling, and safe automation for investigation and remediation with human-in-the-loop controls
• Build data and indexing pipelines: embeddings, vector search (Azure AI Search, Cosmos DB vector, Postgres+pgvector), and connectors to Microsoft security data (Defender, Sentinel) and ADX/Kusto
• Add evaluation, safety, and observability: golden datasets, automated regressions, prompt/response guardrails and content filters, prompt-injection/jailbreak defenses, metrics/dashboards/alerts
• Optimize inference and service performance/cost: batching, caching, streaming, model selection/routing, multi-region deployment, and fallback strategies
• Ship securely: threat modeling, least-privilege access, Managed Identity/Key Vault, encryption, data minimization, consent/policy enforcement, and audit logging
• Own CI/CD and IaC: GitHub Actions or Azure DevOps; Docker/Kubernetes; Bicep/Terraform; canary/ring deployments, safe rollbacks; participate in on-call and improve SLOs
• Contribute to reusable SDKs/services for RAG, agent runtime, and tool/action APIs; write high-quality documentation and conduct code/design reviews
• Collaborate with researchers, PMs, and partner teams to translate scenarios into production features with clear KPIs (precision/recall, MTTD/MTTR, latency, cost)

• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 2+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python
• Proficiency in C#/.NET and Python, API/microservice design, testing, and code quality practices
• Experience building on Azure, including but not limited to AKS, Container Apps, Functions, or App Service; plus Storage/Cosmos/SQL/ADX, Service Bus/Event Hubs, Key Vault, Managed Identity; basic networking
• Experience with distributed systems fundamentals: concurrency, messaging, resilience patterns, performance, and telemetry/observability
• Experience with CI/CD and infrastructure-as-code experience (GitHub Actions/Azure DevOps; Docker/Kubernetes; Bicep/Terraform)
• 2+ years working with Machine Learning (ML)/Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems (e.g., Large Language Models (LLMs)/Generative AI (GenAI), retrieval/Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), model serving, experimentation platforms, data pipelines) including establishing evaluation metrics and improving model quality

• Industry leading healthcare
• Educational resources
• Discounts on products and services
• Savings and investments
• Maternity and paternity leave
• Generous time away
• Giving programs
• Opportunities to network and connect

NEXT is the research and incubation arm of Microsoft Security AI (MSECAI), building the next generation of AI native security products, and we're looking to hire an AI Engineer II. In the 18 months since our founding, we’ve driven the science behind Microsoft Security Copilot and delivered both foundational and specialized models. We pursue long horizon bets while landing near term impact, taking ideas from 0→1 prototypes to MVPs and then 1→N platform integration across Defender, Sentinel, Entra, Intune, and Purview. Our culture blends ambition and scientific rigor with curiosity, humility, and customer obsession; we invest in new knowledge, collaborate across world class scientists and engineers, and tackle the immense challenge of protecting millions of customers. 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.