Director, Advanced Development Audio (FRL Research)

Employer

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 Research (FRL Research) brings together a world-class team of researchers, developers, and engineers to create the future of augmented and virtual reality, which together will become as universal and essential as smartphones and personal computers are today. And just as personal computers have done over the past 45 years, AR and VR will ultimately change everything about how we work, play, and connect.

The FRL Research Audio team aims to fundamentally transform the human experience through audio innovation. We are creating virtual sound that is perceptually indistinguishable from reality and redefining human hearing. We research and invent technologies related to sound capture, acoustic scene understanding, psychoacoustics, hearing, sound propagation, audio rendering, the hardware breakthroughs necessary to power these technologies, and much more. The discoveries we make inform immersive and ubiquitous AR and VR products across Facebook, supporting meaningful connections to the world and people across AR, mobile, VR, wearable devices, and beyond.

We’re seeking an experienced Advanced Development Director to drive incubation of audio technologies from applied research through to product innovation, leading a team of researchers, developers, and engineers.

Responsibilities
  • Lead the advanced development (incubation) efforts within the audio team: set vision, mission and long-term strategy for the effort, make strategic and operational decisions, ensure execution against the goals and timelines.
  • Lead cross-functional collaboration with product teams to tech transfer new audio technologies and features to products on the roadmap.
  • Communicate strategy, project objectives and reasoning to broad audiences across the scientific, engineering and executive leadership, managing partner engagement and building future opportunities.
  • Provide leadership and oversight through different phases of the project including applied research through to technology transfer to product, identification/quantification/analysis of opportunity, planning of timelines, budget, partners, hiring, project execution, and preparation for productization.
  • Develop and lead AR/VR technology development projects that break new ground and define categories at the intersection of acoustics, hearing and signal processing algorithms with hardware and software co-design.
Minimum Qualification
  • 7+ years of leadership experience driving high risk, high reward projects, including managing a team of managers, communicating at an executive level, seeking and hiring world class talent and working through extended project management teams to manage contracts and IP.
  • M.S. or Ph.D. in scientific or engineering discipline or equivalent experience.
  • 7+ years of experience leading teams in scientific/engineering product development.
  • Demonstrated leadership experience in developing hardware and software technologies into research or consumer products in time-bound and multi-partner initiatives.
  • 5+ years of experience collaborating and fostering relationships with partner teams, working with all levels of management and individual contributors internally and externally.
  • Demonstrated experience thinking strategically and executing methodically in an entrepreneurial environment.
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.