Overview

The Government Cloud Investigations Analyst is a specialized member of Microsoft’s Fraud & Vetting Operations (FVO), responsible for conducting high-impact investigations into fraud, abuse, and security incidents within U.S. Government cloud environments (e.g., Azure Government, GCC, GCC High, DoD).

This role operates in a high-trust, regulated environment, requiring strict adherence to federal compliance frameworks (e.g., CJIS, FedRAMP, DoD SRG) while delivering audit-defensible, evidence-based investigative outcomes that protect government customers, national interests, and Microsoft services.

The analyst functions within a fraud-first, threat-actor-informed model, partnering with engineering, legal, compliance, and government stakeholders to detect, investigate, and remediate sophisticated threats.

Responsibilities

1. Investigations & Analysis

• Conduct deep-dive investigations into:
  • Fraud-from-birth tenants, account compromise, abuse of government cloud resources
  • Insider risk, misuse of privileged access, and policy violations within regulated environments
  • Correlate signals across identity, billing, telemetry, and cross-tenant activity to reconstruct attack timelines and determine root cause
  • Differentiate fraud vs. compromise vs. legitimate activity using structured decision frameworks and evidence correlation

2. Incident Response & Escalation

• Own or support Sev-1 / Sev-2 incidents within Government cloud environments

• Execute containment actions:

  • Account disablement, service restrictions, tenant isolation, enforcement actions

• Coordinate with:

  • Legal, Privacy, Engineering, and Federal engagement teams

• Provide executive-ready risk assessments and case summaries for high-visibility incidents

3. Case Ownership & Operational Excellence

• Manage investigations end-to-end:

  • Intake → Investigation → Containment → Documentation → Closure

• Ensure SLA adherence (time-to-contain, response timelines, throughput)

• Maintain high-quality, audit-ready documentation aligned to policy and compliance standards

• Serve as final decision authority for investigative disposition in assigned cases

4. Threat Hunting & Proactive Detection

• Identify emerging fraud patterns and adversary modus operandi (MO)

• Partner with threat hunting teams to:

  • Surface unknown threats
  • Validate detection gaps
  • Feed improvements into detection systems

• Contribute to proactive investigation strategies across Gov Cloud workloads

5. Process, Policy & Continuous Improvement

• Develop and refine Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)

• Improve:

  • Investigation quality standards
  • Decision frameworks
  • Automation opportunities

• Ensure consistent application of:

  • Enforcement policies
  • Audit defensibility standards
  • Cross-team operational discipline

6. Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Work across:

  • Engineering (detections, telemetry, automation)
  • Legal & Compliance (regulatory alignment, enforcement authority)
  • Government stakeholders (data governance, access, escalation)

• Act as a subject matter expert (SME) for fraud investigations within Government cloud environments

Qualifications

Required Qualifications:

• Doctorate in Statistics, Mathematics, Computer Science, or related field
  • OR Master's Degree in Statistics, Mathematics, Computer Science, or related field AND 3+ years 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 response
  • OR Bachelor's Degree in Statistics, Mathematics, Computer Science, or related field AND 4+ years 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 response
  • OR equivalent experience.

Other Requirements:

Security Clearance Requirements: Candidates must be able 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:

• The successful candidate must have an active U.S. Government Secret Security Clearance. Ability to meet Microsoft, customer and/or government security screening requirements are required for this role. Failure to maintain or obtain the appropriate clearance and/or customer screening requirements may result in employment action up to and including termination.

• Clearance Verification: This position requires successful verification of the stated security clearance to meet federal government customer requirements. You will be asked to provide clearance verification information prior to an offer of employment.

• Microsoft Cloud Background Check: This position will be required to pass the Microsoft Cloud background check upon hire/transfer and every two years thereafter.

• 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 customer 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, or other approved documents, or verified US government Clearance.

• Criminal Justice Information Services: This position requires passing a background check conducted through the CJIS criminal justice information system by authorized local, state, and/or federal agencies.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience supporting Azure Government, GCC High, or DoD environments

• Knowledge of CJIS Security Policy and government incident response procedures

• Background in threat hunting, digital forensics, or advanced incident response

• Experience in security operations, fraud investigations, or incident response; Cloud environments (Azure, M365, identity systems)

• Strong analytical capabilities: signal correlation, hypothesis testing, timeline reconstruction

• Experience with investigation tooling, logs, and telemetry systems

• Evidence-based decision making and analytical rigor

• Strong understanding of threat actors and fraud methodologies; identity abuse, tenant compromise, and cloud abuse patterns

• Ability to operate in ambiguous, high-pressure, high-impact environments

• Clear written and verbal communication for technical and executive audiences

Security Operations Engineering IC4 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $119,800 - $234,700 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 $160,200 - $261,000 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.

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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.