Linda Taylor is a Principal Software Engineer at Microsoft with over two decades of experience in Windows, specializing in Active Directory, authentication, and enterprise security. She currently works in Windows Authentication fixing customer bugs, addressing security vulnerabilities, and advancing Kerberos and NTLM. She is a key technical leader driving NTLM deprecation, defining architecture, telemetry, and solutions to reduce legacy authentication. Before becoming a software developer in 2019, she spent 16 years in Microsoft customer support engineering, building deep technical credibility and practical insight. She has delivered significant Active Directory security enhancements, including contributions to features shipped in Windows Server 2025.