Job Description

Facebook's mission is to give people the power to build community and bring the world closer together. Through our family of apps and services, we're building a different kind of company that connects billions of people around the world, gives them ways to share what matters most to them, and helps bring people closer together. Whether we're creating new products or helping a small business expand its reach, people at Facebook are builders at heart. Our global teams are constantly iterating, solving problems, and working together to empower people around the world to build community and connect in meaningful ways. Together, we can help people build stronger communities - we're just getting started.

Facebook Reality Labs has embarked on a mission to build the next computing platform in augmented and virtual reality systems. Our goals are to eliminate distance, reduce cognitive load and help people become more productive, replace physical objects, and give people the tools to feel more connected anytime and anywhere. We believe that a key component of this mission is to improve and enhance human hearing, including listening in challenging environments and telepresence. We are looking for an exceptional Research Scientist to join our growing interdisciplinary team, working to prototype solutions to difficult problems at the intersection of hearing, hearing impairment, auditory perception, spatial audio, and signal processing.We are engaging in a long-term project to use state of the art behavioral capture techniques to examine how people communicate, both unassisted and assisted with devices that can alter the sound field (and consequently intelligibility and behavior). The long-term goal here is to use behavioral, biosignal, and physical sensor data to enable our superhuman hearing devices to make the best choices about what sounds we need to enhance and what sounds we need to suppress to maximize the intelligibility of speech in noisy backgrounds. This full-time position is well suited for someone with a strong background in auditory perception, neuroscience, or speech communication with an interest and experience in researching and implementing powerful and novel techniques in auditory attention. In this position you will jump in to solve novel problems, partnering with interdisciplinary teams, and employing vision and creativity to see beyond what traditional audio devices are capable of and take full advantage of what AR/VR has to offer in terms of enabling and enhancing communication. The role includes programming/coding to make workable MATLAB and Python real-time demonstrations of new concepts.

Responsibilities

• Plan and execute a research roadmap focused on next generation auditory attention inference algorithms, source selection methods, techniques and systems using AR/VR technology.
• Lead basic and applied research projects from concept to proof of experience.
• Research and develop novel algorithms and techniques, measure performance, carry out analysis.
• Collaborate closely with both the research and product teams to develop, test, and deploy new technologies.
• Research and develop novel algorithms and techniques, measure performance, carry out analysis.
• Closely collaborate with the interdisciplinary audio team, providing creative solutions to difficult problems.
• Mentor graduate student interns and collaborate with external academic groups to advance our research goals.
  

Minimum Qualification

• Currently has, or is in the process of obtaining a PhD in Experimental Psychology, Neuroscience, Acoustics, Computer Science, or a related field.
• 2+ years experience with data analysis, especially behavioral monitoring.
• 2+ years experience with scientific programming languages such as MATLAB, Python (PyTorch), C++, or similar.
• Experience constructing audio-domain proof-of-concept and system performance evaluations.
• Must obtain work authorization in country of employment at the time of hire, and maintain ongoing work authorization during employment.
  

Preferred Qualification

• Proven track record of innovation as demonstrated by products shipped, publications and/or patents.
• Expertise in audio signal processing, machine learning, and/or auditory perception.
• A background in motion tracking, eye tracking, behavioral monitoring and signal analysis.
• Foundation in classical statistics and/or machine learning approaches.
• Experience with acoustic systems.
  

Facebook is proud to be an Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action employer. We do not discriminate based upon race, religion, color, national origin, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, transgender status, sexual stereotypes, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics. We also consider qualified applicants with criminal histories, consistent with applicable federal, state and local law. Facebook is committed to providing reasonable accommodations for candidates with disabilities in our recruiting process. If you need any assistance or accommodations due to a disability, please let us know at accommodations-ext@fb.com.