Threat Context Team Lead

Overview
The Microsoft Threat Analysis Center (MTAC) is looking for a Threat Context Team Lead with experience leading team-wide analysis and conducting open-source investigations in Mandarin. The team lead will leverage language skills, expertise in the geopolitics of East Asia, and open-source research across social media platforms, websites, and online information environments to drive the team’s assessments on PRC influence operations, cyber-enabled influence operations, and AI-enabled influence operations.

The role will contribute to MTAC’s mission to detect, assess, and disrupt digital threats to Microsoft, its customers, and democracies worldwide.

­­MTAC is part of Microsoft Global Affairs (MGA) within Microsoft’s Corporate, External, and Legal Affairs (CELA).

In this role, you will lead a team of analysts and set the direction for its work, managing a broader program of analysis. This will entail aligning analysts around priority research questions, guiding projects from lead generation through production, identifying appropriate analytic leads and driving cross-cutting reporting across the team and MTAC as a whole. You will be responsible for hitting deadlines; maintaining high standards for analysis, writing, and briefings; and collaborating across teams to ensure consistent and well-coordinated assessments.

You will leverage Mandarin language skills and regional, cultural, and geopolitical knowledge to inform attribution analysis and develop assessments about China-based influence, AI, and cyber operations. This will require monitoring and analyzing operations on social media platforms, websites, and press content in Chinese, as well as other publicly available sources, to quickly identify and capture relevant findings.

As both a manager and as an individual contributor, you will synthesize intelligence and data from across the team and the company to develop written and oral assessments for executive audiences. The position will require excellent written communication, professional briefing skills, and rigorous attention to detail.

Responsibilities
Set direction for team’s analytic work and align analysts around priority research questions.Provide analytic leadership, guidance, and quality review to other analysts, including mentoring analysts and strengthening the rigor and consistency of the team’s analytic products.
Manage team of analysts guiding, modeling, and coaching team members as they build an understanding of investigative, analytic, and business practices on the team.
Produce analytic assessments synthesizing team’s work and develop engaging presentations for senior or executive audiences.
Set and manage analytic priorities across multiple concurrent projects, ensuring the timely delivery of high-quality analysis for senior and executive audiences.
Lead analysis of China-related influence, AI, and cyber threats, using Mandarin-language skills and open-source research to identify emerging activity, trends, and implications.

Qualifications
Required Qualifications:

Master's Degree in Mathematics, Analytics, Engineering, Computer Science, Marketing, Business, Economics or related field AND 3+ years experience in data analysis and reporting, business intelligence, or business and financial analysis OR Bachelor's Degree in Statistics, Finance, Mathematics, Analytics, Engineering, Computer Science, Marketing, Business, Economics or related field AND 4+ years experience in data analysis and reporting, business intelligence, or business and financial analysis OR equivalent experience.

Other Requirements:
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.

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

Preferred Experience:

People management experience
Spoken and written proficiency in Mandarin Chinese.
Experience living, studying, and/or working in East Asia.
Reading and listening proficiency in additional language skills are a plus, particularly Japanese or other languages in Asia (e.g., Korean, Taiwanese, Cantonese, Filipino, Vietnamese, Malay, Indonesian).
8+ years of experience tracking Chinese threat capabilities, infrastructure, and operational techniques and East Asia geopolitical issues.
8+ years producing actionable threat intelligence or strategic analysis through written reports and products.
Experience in using AI platforms and applications to automate workstreams.
Experience in common database query languages (e.g. SQL).
Ability to read and write code in at least one language such as: PowerShell, Bash, Python, Ruby, Java etc. is a plus.
Excellent cross-group collaboration with experience building relationships.