Research Program Manager, ILDC Innovation Labs Is this for me? Are you independent thinker, self-motivated, and driven by desire for innovation? You also have a desire and ability to work with a team of professionals with diverse professional background and areas of expertise? If you answered yes, Microsoft's Israel Innovation Labs might be the right place for you. We are now looking for bright and exceptional researchers to join our team. What will I do? In fact, if we had the answer to this question, we would not be looking for you : You will be part of the research labs team, taking part in driving the creation of significant and valuable intellectual property and breakthroughs, by developing concepts, ideas or products relevant to Microsoft's businesses in the areas of communications, security, advertising, search, online services and entertainment. Here, you will have the right environment and strong support to drive your ideas from concept to solution. You will be empowered to influence hundreds of millions of end users while impacting Microsoft's business via bold, breakthrough technologies and applications. You will have the opportunities to work together with world class researchers and developers to stay in the front of advancing technology. Your main challenge will be to map your strengths passion and expertise to the Microsoft universe, philosophy and strategy. Together, we will create groundbreaking, innovative ideas and concepts which will have a potentially significant impact on consumers and businesses around the world. Ideal candidate should have: Ph.D. or M.Sc. in Computer Science, Mathematics, Statistics or related field. Industry experience in applying advanced knowledge to solving real-world problems. Strong analytic, quantitative and experimentation skills. Strong theory/algorithmic background. Solid programming skills and good knowledge of the tools used in the discipline. Experience in designing, implementing, and evaluating prototype systems Good teamwork skills and the ability to dream and dare. Clear presentation and strong communication skills, both verbal and written. Attention to detail and data accuracy. About the Israel Innovation Lab: The Israel Lab is following a new innovation model which was launched in the U.S. last year. Its goal is to provide an environment and framework which foster the creation of new, highly disruptive products and technologies. While existing incubations and product groups typically target a 2-5 years timeframe, the Labs target a 5-10 years horizon and focus on ground-breaking, paradigm-shifting technologies and business-models. For example, technologies or products which re-invent information display or change the future of search and advertizing. The Israel Lab funnels ideas from across the ILDC (Microsoft Israel Development Center), Microsoft and even the outside world. It exposes its activities and incubates many of them publicly to test their viability in a viral way (go to http://labs.live.com for an example). The Labs encourage a dynamic, highly speculative and experiential research and development process. Small (4-5 people) teams are allowed to form and re-form, to move from applied research to implementation and back and to diverge into uncharted waters which may hold even greater promise. The small size of the teams coupled with the BIG-BET nature of the projects forces extremely versatile skills - research, design, creativity, and implementation are expected from each team member in addition to tight teamwork and collaboration. The Israel Innovation Lab collaborates with other Labs across Microsoft by sharing best practices, technology insights and in some cases teaming up on specific projects. Ultimately - the goal of the Lab is to bring a few of its projects to the point of "irrefutability". This is a point where a product group sees the value of the technology or product and wants to "acquire it" for full-fledged incubation, similar to the existing ILDC incubations. Because of the long-term, speculative nature of the Labs, we expect a very high failure rate, but that's exactly what we need in order to unleash the type of ground-breaking, bold bets we envision. With these Labs - we have created an environment that will allow our innovative and creative employees to dream up and propose new ideas, with no limits on subject, scope or focus. The propositions bearing the most merit will be launched as new incubations within the Innovation Labs and will receive an environment that will support the inventor from idea to fruition. The Innovation Labs are hiring bright and experienced software design engineers to take part in this exciting endeavor. Successful candidates are extremely innovative professionals, with a high degree of agility and resourcefulness. Good teamwork skills and the ability to dream and dare are crucial to the success of this role.   Back to Current Opportunities