Industry Job Opportunities

Microsoft

Position Type: Full-time
Location: Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom

We believe there's a massive opportunity for disrupting cloud storage, and for the last few years we've been building two storage technologies that seek to disrupt different parts of the cloud storage landscape: Project HSD (for high-IOPS workloads), and Project Silica (for long-lived cold data).

In both projects we are building the storage from media all the way up the storage stack to the cloud service user API. This means solving hard problems in physics, optics, and machine learning — both teams include researchers in these areas — but also unique research opportunities and challenges for systems research. Clean-slate design for the cloud means co-designing and optimizing the entire hardware/software stack to achieve the best cost/performance. Among other things, we are rethinking key-value stores, scheduling of resources ranging from robots to lasers to machine learning chips, new algorithms for media management, and much more. All this is driven by a data-driven approach based on the workload demands of our partners in Azure and Exchange.

We have several Researcher positions for systems students, typically for fresh Ph.D.s or with equivalent industrial experience, open in both projects.

Research Residency: Intelligent Optical Systems Design

Responsibilities

The program will enhance specialist and cross-disciplinary skills. If you are a computer scientist with a background in systems, you should expect to learn about the physics and optics that will underpin any deployment of an optical system in a datacentre. If you are an optical scientist, you can expect to advance in your own field and learn how cutting-edge machine learning and computer science are applied to system design.

Qualifications

All candidates must have enthusiasm to learn new skills outside their main field and must be able to demonstrate the ability and humility to work in a highly collaborative and interdisciplinary environment. Candidates from all disciplines will need experience beyond a bachelor’s degree. For example, you may have completed, or be on track to complete, a relevant PhD or other postgraduate qualification, or have industrial experience. Beyond these core attributes, there are skills which are desirable for each discipline. Candidates are not expected to have specialist skills in more than one of the following areas.

Optics & Photonics

The successful candidate must be skilled and bring a strong background in at least one of the following areas:

  • Photonics and optoelectronics.
  • Free space optics, for example microscopy and imaging.
  • Optical transmission systems and networks.
  • Photonic integrated devices.
  • Digital signal processing.
  • Using femtosecond lasers technology to modify materials.
  • Quantum optics and physics.

Machine learning

  • Interest in solving real world high-impact problems in new domains using machine learning.
  • Knowledge of deep learning. Problem areas include (but are not limited to): computer vision, signal processing, sequential design, reinforcement learning for system control.
  • Experience with current deep learning frameworks (e.g., PyTorch and TensorFlow) is preferable.
  • Software engineering skills for development.

Computer systems

  • Research or implementation experience in distributed systems, networking, or storage systems. Examples include but are not restricted to: designing a network or storage protocol, simulation or measurement of large systems or building microprocessor-based control systems.
  • Demonstrable aptitude for solving computing research problems with software implementation.
  • Capability for rapid and accurate development in, for example, C, C++, or C#.

Industrial design

  • Industrial or other practical experience in design.
  • Demonstrable aptitude for mechanical and automated systems.
  • CAD skills (e.g., SolidWorks, Rhino, etc.) and show experience of rapid prototyping and production of high-quality demonstrators (physical, animated, etc.).

Electronic engineering

  • Theoretical electronic circuit and electronic systems knowledge in analogue and digital electronics, for example: component-level filter and amplifier design, FPGA programming, control theory, sampling theory and signal processing.
  • Demonstrable practical electronic design, construction and debugging skills.
  • Ability to undertake design from simulation to working prototype.
How to Apply

Apply through our residency program in Intelligent Optical Systems Design – this combines the advantages of a post-doctoral research position (deep focussed research on a single project) with the opportunity to interact and learn from researchers in other fields and other projects.

Please fell free to reach out to Ioan Stefanovici <Ioan.Stefanovici@microsoft.com>, Dushyanth Narayanan <dnarayan@microsoft.com>, or Andromachi Chatzieleftheriou <anchatzi@microsoft.com> for more information.

 

Senior Researcher

Microsoft Research Cambridge (UK) is searching for an exceptional applicant for a Senior Researcher role in storage systems within a multi-disciplinary team developing Holographic optical storage for the cloud. The ideal candidate will hold a PhD with appropriate post PhD experience gained in research or an industrial setting.

Responsibilities

The Researcher will work closely with other team members to innovate and drive the system design of a rack-scale cloud storage system built on holographic storage media. This will require workload analysis of Microsoft cloud workloads; storage stack design and data layout; and simulation of the design space using hardware models from our state-of-the-art hardware measurement platforms. The researcher will have access to workloads from our internal product partners, and will work with experts in storage, hardware design, and optical holography.

Qualifications
  • A PhD in Computer Science or Electrical Engineering and at least 2+ years post-doctoral work in the field of cloud storage/distributed systems/system simulation.
  • A strong publication record relevant to cloud storage.
  • Experience in storage workload tracing, analysis, and modelling.
  • Experience in system-level simulation using discrete-event simulation.
  • Experience in storage software design including designing storage stacks for novel hardware, data layout, and log-structured techniques.
  • Experience in hardware systems design at the rack level.
How to Apply

Please apply through the job's information page. Please fell free to reach out to Ioan Stefanovici <Ioan.Stefanovici@microsoft.com>, Dushyanth Narayanan <dnarayan@microsoft.com>, or Andromachi Chatzieleftheriou <anchatzi@microsoft.com> for more information.

 

Equal Opportunity Statement

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.