Senior Researcher

Overview
We are the Azure for Operators (AFO) research team in the Strategic Missions and Technology (SMT) division of Microsoft. We pursue research and develop disruptive technology in distributed systems, mobile systems, network verification, security, wide-area networking, wireless networking, AI (Artificial Intelligence) & ML (Machine Learning) to bring the power of the cloud to the telecommunications industry.
We build working systems, engage with academia, publish scientific papers, publish software for the research community, and deploy cutting-edge technologies to Azure and our customers. Individuals in our group have published in top academic conferences including:

• ACM (Association for Computing Machinery) SIGCOMM (Special Interest Group on Data Communication),
• ACM MobiCom (International Conference on Mobile Computing and Networking)
• ACM MobiSys (International Conference on Mobile Systems, Applications, and Services)
• ACM SOSP (Symposium on Operating Systems Principles)
• USENIX (Advanced Computing Systems Association) NSDI (Symposium on Networked Systems Design and Implementation)
• USENIX OSDI (Operating Systems Design and Implementation)
• IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) Security & Privacy
• USENIX Security.

We have had massive impact on the Azure Network by productizing research technologies including Software Defined Networking, Hardware-accelerated Datapath, and Network Verification. We were previously the Mobility and Networking Research group in MSR (Microsoft Research).
We are looking to hire a Senior Researcher to join our team. We provide a nurturing environment to support passionate researchers and engineers in technology innovation. We seek candidates excelling in deep thinking research, advanced development, and fast-paced entrepreneurial execution. In this role, you will have the opportunity to work with researchers and engineers at Microsoft to push forward research agendas to impact businesses and be a team player in a collaborative and supportive environment. Applicants should be fluent in the relevant state-of-the-art research with outstanding programming skills and demonstrate experience in experimentation and implementation.
We firmly believe in building and fostering a diverse and inclusive work environment. We practice open communication and respectful dialogue. We support multiple social and career building opportunities in our team.
Responsibilities

• Develop systems, networking, and/or security solutions that extend the state of the art in cloud-scale systems.
• Implement and evaluate prototypes using simulations, small-scale testbeds and large-scale production environments.
• Collaborate closely with team members on developing systems from prototyping to production level. Work closely with Azure engineering teams to drive scalable implementations.

Examples of more specific responsibilities include:

• Advancing the use of mm-wave wireless for 5G and 6G
• Design, implement and evaluate novel solutions for improving network protocols, traffic management and/or verification on wide-area networks.
• Implement prototypes of centralized traffic managers that can scale to large cloud networks.
• Extend a trusted execution environment (e.g., Intel SGX (Software Guard Extensions), AMD (Advanced Micro Devices) SEV (Secure Encrypted Virtualization)) to a hardware accelerator, such as an FPGA (Field-Programmable Gate Array) or a GPU (Graphics Processing Unit).
• Optimize cellular RAN (Radio Access Network) behavior using AI/ML techniques.
• Use LLMs (Large Language Models) to improve diagnosability of network systems.
• Extend container-orchestration systems to adaptively schedule workloads across clouds and edges and support high-performance container networking.

Qualifications
Required/Minimum Qualifications

• Doctorate in Computer Science or a related technical field.
  • OR equivalent experience.
• Experience with one or more general purpose programming languages such as C#, C/C++, Rust, Scala, or Python.

Other requirements:
Ability 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:

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

Additional or Preferred Qualifications

• Experience (academic or work related) in one or more areas of computer science.
• Experience contributing to research communities and/or efforts, such as publishing papers at conferences and/or community testbeds.
• Should be able to take initiative, but also work well as part of a team.
• Excellent critical thinking and communication skills.

Research Sciences IC4 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $112,000 - $218,400 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 $145,800 - $238,600 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
Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran status, race, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by applicable laws, regulations and ordinances. We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements. If you need assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application or the recruiting process, please send a request via the Accommodation request form.
Benefits/perks listed below may vary depending on the nature of your employment with Microsoft and the country where you work.