Artificial Intelligence Research and Development

RightNow Labs

The RightNow Labs team at RightNow Technologies is currently fairly small. This requires each member to hold a wide range of skills that complement those of the other members. At least a Masters of Science degree is required of all group members. The diverse group currently holds advanced degrees in Psychology, Computer Science, Math, and Physics.

In addition to a rigorous academic background, group members must also be excellent programmers. Their programming skills are evaluated independently of their research ability, and all members of the software development team must be first-rate C programmers able to work as part of a team on large-scale software projects. Knowledge of SQL, HTML, and Javascript are also required. C++, Java, Python, PHP, and XML competence are very helpful. Experience producing production quality code is a must; research coding too often overlooks algorithmic complexity, scalability, and maintainability issues that would destroy a product in the field.

Research areas nominally within the domain of RightNow Labs include—but are not limited to—Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, Computational Linguistics, Information Retrieval, and Data Mining. Qualified applicants must be capable and have interest in several of these areas.

While they do work as a team, each group member must also be self-motivated. However, strong egos are strictly forbidden. Our goal is to use our collaborative research skills to make the best commercial product, not approach problems from an ideological perspective.

Most software releases have each individual responsible for at least one full feature or technique, which usually requires interacting with both RightNow Labs members and other members of the software development staff. It is the responsibility of the individual to make sure all aspects of that feature development are complete and on time for the release. High code quality is expected, and the author is responsible for correcting all bugs. Additionally, all group members are encouraged to lead author at least one academic paper per year and write patents when appropriate—all within a tight commercial software development release schedule.

RightNow Technologies has a very informal corporate culture; however, RightNow is strongly business- and customer-oriented. Consequently, all software developers are expected to occasionally interact with our customers, both in person and by phone, and all projects must have a clear business purpose. Thus, strong communication skills are essential, as is the ability to focus on company goals.

If you think you meet these criteria and are interested in working at a great company in the wonderful northern Rockies, check out our employment site.