Microsoft Defender Engineer - Trading organisation - London, Hybrid, Outside IR35 at Ink Search, London, 6 Months, £750 per day

Microsoft Defender Engineer

Outside IR35 Contract | 6 months | Circa £750 per day | Hybrid

We're supporting a leading organisation undertaking a major cloud security and resilience programme and are looking for an experienced Microsoft Defender & Azure Security Engineer to take ownership of their Microsoft security estate.

This is a fantastic opportunity for a security specialist who thrives in Azure-native environments and wants to play a key role in strengthening enterprise security, enhancing threat detection capabilities, and embedding security best practices across cloud platforms and DevOps pipelines. The role centres on the Microsoft security ecosystem, including Defender, Sentinel, Azure Security, Identity Protection and automation.

The Role

You'll act as the technical SME for Microsoft's security stack, helping to design, implement and optimise security controls across a cloud-first Azure environment. Working closely with infrastructure, platform and engineering teams, you'll drive security improvements, automate responses to threats and ensure the organisation maintains a robust security posture.

Key responsibilities will include:

• Enhancing Azure security governance through Azure Policy and Management Groups.
• Strengthening cloud security monitoring using Microsoft Defender for Cloud.
• Managing and optimising the Microsoft Defender suite, including Endpoint, Identity and Cloud Apps.
• Developing advanced threat detection and response capabilities within Microsoft Sentinel.
• Creating SOAR playbooks and security automation using Azure Logic Apps.
• Embedding security controls into CI/CD and Infrastructure-as-Code delivery pipelines.
• Supporting business continuity and cloud resilience initiatives across Azure environments.

What We're Looking For

We're keen to speak with contractors who bring a strong blend of Azure security engineering, Microsoft security tooling and security automation expertise.

You'll ideally have experience with:

• Microsoft Defender for Cloud
• Defender for Endpoint
• Defender for Identity
• Defender for Cloud Apps (MCAS)
• Microsoft Sentinel
• Microsoft Entra ID/Azure AD
• Azure Policy and Governance
• Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)
• Intune
• Kusto Query Language (KQL)
• PowerShell, Terraform or Bicep
• DevSecOps and CI/CD security controls
• Threat hunting, incident response and security operations

Contract Details

• 6-Month Initial Contract
• Outside IR35
• Circa £750 per day
• Remote/Hybrid working
• Immediate interview availability preferred

This is an excellent opportunity for a seasoned Azure Security professional to join a high-profile programme and make a significant impact on enterprise cloud security, detection engineering and cyber resilience.