Overview

Within the Chief Scientist team, our advanced development group creates technologies to help people with disabilities. At Microsoft we have demonstrated translation of sign language to synthesized voice using Kinect, using wireless beacons and 3d soundscapes to guide visually impaired people, and enabled a quadriplegic person using only eye movement to drive a wheelchair and speak through a speech synthesizer. We need motivated software developers & hardware hackers to design and build end-to end systems based on combining off the shelf sensors and augmented reality technologies with advanced software libraries. Microsoft has excellent personal and family benefits. You will have the ability to stretch yourself through the projects you work on as well as through the collegiate atmosphere of continuous learning. Tuition credits of up to $10,000 per year for accredited institutions support your continuing education. Microsoft has a culture of giving, matching your cash or time donation to eligible charities up to $15,000 per year: a benefit that resulted in over $140M in charitable donations in 2016 alone.

Responsibilities

  • Develop end-to-end systems that help people with disabilities. Such systems are composed of real-time robotic-like motion control systems, audio and video signal capture and processing, inference and decision making, speech and natural language processing, and new user interfaces, especially those driven by touch, depth sensing, haptics, etc.
  • Find, integrate, and adapt software libraries and hardware sensors into a coherent system. This will include integrating, porting, or rewriting libraries and algorithms written in diverse programming languages and environments.
  • Explore new user experiences for people with limited senses and limited mobility.

Qualifications

  • 7+ years of experience in designing and developing software and hardware-software systems is required.
  • 5+ years of experience programming in C/C++ OR C#
  • 5+ years of experience designing and shipping applications with emphasis on interaction design, user interface development and universal design.
  • Proven track record of driving design and features across multiple groups.
  • Proven track record of designing, implementing and shipping simple and elegant user interfaces that deliver a high value user experience.
  • Ability to quickly prototype, iterate and validate multiple user experience mockups for user experience testing and validation Experience across multiple software languages such as C, C++, C#, Python, and Javascript is required.
  • Experience integrating disparate systems, such as calling C++ libraries from Python or using RPC protocols between C and C# is desired.
  • Experience working in a distributed software engineering team including code review, branching strategies, pull requests, and git is desired.
  • Proven team player.
  • Passion for developing technologies that empower people with disabilities.
  • Bachelor degree in engineering, physics, or computer science is required. Masters degree or similar experience is desired.
  • Experience with and design and implementations systems involving one or more of the following is a plus.
    • Computer Vision
    • Computational Photography
    • Machine learning
    • Manipulatio and Inverse kinematics

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. If you need assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application or the recruiting process, please send a request to askstaff@microsoft.com.