Senior Security Solution Engineer

Microsoft · Reston · $106,400–$203,600 (stated in the posting)

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Microsoft Federal has a bold mission: Empower the U.S. Government and the nation it serves to achieve more.

Our team helps U.S. Government organizations protect the systems, identities, and data that power their missions. We partner with customers to translate complex cybersecurity challenges into practical security strategies, strengthen cyber resilience, and modernize with confidence.

Within Microsoft Federal, our Security Solution Engineers bring technical depth and mission understanding to customer engagements across civilian, defense, and intelligence organizations. Working alongside account teams, security specialists, customer success teams, and partners, we help customers evaluate integrated security solutions that address their operational priorities and the requirements of their federal environments.

We are looking for a Senior Security Solution Engineer who combines cybersecurity expertise with curiosity, clear communication, and a passion for helping federal customers solve meaningful problems. You will help customers strengthen threat protection, modernize security operations, and secure access through Microsoft’s security portfolio, including Microsoft Defender, Microsoft Sentinel, and Microsoft Entra, as applicable to each customer’s environment. Join a team that values collaboration, continuous learning, and the ability to make complex technology understandable and actionable.

As a trusted technical advisor, you will lead discovery conversations, architecture discussions, tailored demonstrations, and proofs of concept that connect security capabilities to customer mission needs. You will help define success criteria, resolve technical blockers, and guide informed decisions on Zero Trust, cloud and hybrid security, and the secure adoption of AI. In partnership with sales, customer success, and delivery teams, you will translate validated solutions into clear next steps for deployment and adoption. This role offers the opportunity to deepen your technical expertise, build consultative skills, and help federal customers reduce risk while realizing the value of Microsoft’s security platform.

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. 

• Own the technical win for assigned federal security opportunities, independently planning and executing customer engagements in partnership with Security Specialists and account teams. Align solution recommendations, validation milestones, and deployment intent with agency mission priorities.
• Lead technical discovery, architecture discussions, tailored demonstrations, hands-on workshops, and scoped proofs of concept or pilots. Agree on customer success criteria, validate solution fit, and clearly communicate results and next steps, drawing on established assets and specialist expertise when needed.
• Build trusted relationships with federal technical decision makers, security operations teams, and architects. Listen to customer needs and explain how security capabilities address mission risks to both technical and nontechnical audiences. Translate requirements into practical designs that account for existing infrastructure, operational constraints, and government-cloud availability.
• Identify and troubleshoot technical and adoption blockers within assigned engagements. Document risks, propose practical alternatives, and engage technical resources, engineering, Customer Experience Engineering, support, or partners when resolution requires additional expertise.
• Apply hands-on security expertise and progressively deepen proficiency in priority workloads, including Microsoft Defender XDR, Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Microsoft Sentinel, and identity threat protection. Use Zero Trust and unified security operations principles in customer scenarios, and develop cloud and AI security knowledge aligned to account needs and validated service availability.
• Develop and execute opportunity-level technical win plans with Security Specialists. Use customer evidence and established guidance to demonstrate solution differentiation and measurable security value. Keep technical milestones, validation results, blockers, and deployment intent accurate in our Sales Tool.
• Coordinate with other internal teams and external partners to help guide the customer to the most successful outcome.
• Continuously develop technical and consultative skills through role-aligned learning, hands-on practice, and coaching. Contribute reusable demonstrations, customer learnings, and architecture patterns to the immediate team, and support peer learning and mentoring within areas of expertise.

Required/Minimum Qualifications:

• Master's Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or related field AND 3+ years technical pre-sales or technical consulting experience
  • OR Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or related field AND 4+ years technical pre-sales or technical consulting experience
  • OR 5+ years technical pre-sales or technical consulting experience
  • OR equivalent experience.

Other Requirements:

• 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 unable to sponsor a work visa for this role due to the nature of the role’s job duties.  
• Citizenship & Citizenship Verification: This position requires verification of U.S citizenship due to citizenship-based legal restrictions. Specifically, this position supports United States federal, state, and/or local United States government agency customers and is subject to certain citizenship-based restrictions where required or permitted by applicable law. To meet this legal requirement, citizenship will be verified via a valid passport.

Additional or preferred qualifications:

• Ability to obtain and maintain a United States Security Clearance.
• Experience designing, demonstrating, or implementing threat protection, security operations, identity and access, or cloud security solutions using Microsoft Defender XDR, Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Microsoft Sentinel, Microsoft Entra, or comparable enterprise security platforms. Experience in one or more priority workloads, with the ability to learn adjacent technologies.
• Customer-facing communication and consultative skills, including active listening, technical storytelling, and the ability to connect security capabilities to federal mission needs for both technical and nontechnical audiences.
• Working knowledge of Zero Trust principles, threat detection and response, security posture management, and endpoint, identity, and workload protection across enterprise environments.
• Experience supporting U.S. Government customers or mission-focused organizations, with familiarity with federal security requirements and cloud environments. Ability to account for service availability, deployment constraints, and customer authorization requirements when recommending solutions.
• Demonstrated ability to lead scoped customer technical engagements, including discovery sessions, architecture discussions, demonstrations, workshops, and proofs of concept or pilots, with clear success criteria and actionable deployment handoffs.
• Relevant security or cloud certifications, or equivalent demonstrated practical expertise, aligned to threat protection, security operations, identity and access, or cloud security.

Solution Engineering IC4 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $106,400 - $203,600 per year. There is a different range applicable to specific work locations, within the San Francisco Bay area and New York City metropolitan area, and the base pay range for this role in those locations is USD $137,600 - $222,600 per year.

Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation. Find additional benefits and pay information here:
https://careers.microsoft.com/us/en/us-corporate-pay

This position will be open for a minimum of 5 days, with applications accepted on an ongoing basis until the position is filled.

Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. 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 with religious accommodations and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application process, read more about requesting accommodations.

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