Careers

Life at Yahoo Labs

Yahoo Labs serves as Yahoo’s research arm–its incubator for bold new ideas and laboratory for rigorous experimentation. Yahoo Labs applies its scientific findings in powering products for Yahoo’s users and enhancing value for its partners and advertisers. Our forward-looking innovation also helps position Yahoo as an industry and scientific thought leader.

The Labs mainly comprises research scientists who hold PhDs in computer science or related fields. Additionally, there are many research engineers at the Labs, half of whom also have PhDs and the other half, Master's degrees. A handful of postdocs and visiting scientists also work at Yahoo Labs. In the summer, the Labs’ numbers swell as the intern program gets underway with doctoral candidates from some of the best universities in the world.

At Yahoo Labs

  • We cover the spectrum from use-inspired foundational research to applied science
  • We anticipate and invent technology-based opportunities
  • We create technology that is used by hundreds of millions of customers every day
  • We provide scientific insights on the company’s key growth areas: mobile, video, native advertising, and social
  • We explore fundamental computational, social, and economic phenomena
  • We work extremely closely with our software development organizations
  • We are leaders in the international scientific research community
  • We work closely with the world’s leading universities

 

Current Openings

Research Scientists

Research scientists at Yahoo Labs come from all over the world and are experts in a wide range of computer science and some social science disciplines. Many of Yahoo’s most significant questions are worked on and answered by our researchers in tandem with our engineering and product partners. While working to innovate for critical Yahoo products and platforms, the scientists at Yahoo Labs are able to explore external academic-style pursuits and we publish our best work at top conferences and in journals. Many of our scientists serve in very prominent positions in world-leading scientific organizations and with the best conferences in their fields. Labs researchers balance their internal and external interests so that each complements the other, and interweave applied work that impacts products on relatively short timelines with longer-term, high-risk/high-reward research.  

Research Engineers

Research engineers (RE’s) work closely with research scientists at the Labs to develop systems that advance the business and strategic interests of Yahoo. RE’s also work closely with product engineers to make sure software coming from the Labs integrates seamlessly within the existing Yahoo ecosystem. RE’s are driven by curiosity, a need to push the envelope of computer science, and write software that touches over a billion lives.  

Postdocs

We offer a small number of opportunities for new PhD graduates who are research scientists in training. These opportunities allow new scientists to learn side-by-side with experienced and successful leaders in their fields, and grow in influence and research success, in an environment where their work can rapidly influence products and users. Generally our postdocs work with us for two years and then move on to tenure-track positions in academia or other industrial research jobs, with the occasional successful postdoc becoming a regular research scientist at Yahoo Labs.  

Internships

The Yahoo Labs Internship Program is all about creating a positive experience for students. It is a chance for them to showcase their talents, develop new skills, and to get a sense for what it’s really like to work in a leading industrial research lab and to be at Yahoo. The program also gives hiring managers the opportunity to evaluate interns, as well as the intern’s work skills for possible future recruiting. Objectives include developing an internal and external presence for Labs interns; research program evaluation for continual improvement to ensure the program meets the expectations and goals of the students; and to identify potential recruits for Labs.