Experience

• 

  Microsoft

  • Innovation Strategist

    • Jan 2024 - Present

    I am back at Microsoft Research to do more fun / big things

  • Engineering Group Manager

    • Nov 2021 - Dec 2023

    Founder, Product Leader of Watch ForWatch For is a large-scale, low-cost, highly-programmable safety / content processing platform serving many of Microsoft’s largest platforms (e.g., Xbox, LinkedIn, Game Studios, Bing, Flip). Watch For processes billions of content (images, videos, live streams, text, audio) every month and powers experiences with a reach of hundreds of millions of users.I managed a cross-functional team of researchers, engineers, and product managers. Xbox acquired the Watch For team from Microsoft Research in conjunction with the acquisition of Two Hat Security, where I was part of the M&A team. Since joining Xbox, Watch For increased its customer base by 50% every six months and served 25+ Microsoft teams as of Dec ‘23. Watch For runs across thousands of cores and generated millions in Azure Compute Revenue. At Xbox, Watch For was also used for game certification and testing.

  • Senior Principal Research Manager

    • Sep 2021 - Dec 2023

    Since joining Microsoft Research, I have mainly focused on intrapreneurial efforts – developing new ideas, building them out through startup-like incubations and leading them to business impact. The projects I founded and built have been used across Microsoft platforms including Xbox, Bing, Azure, Windows, Game Studios, LinkedIn, MSN, Mixer, Flip, and Office.Most recently, I founded Watch For, built the platform, and led its operations with a team of researchers, engineers, and product managers. Watch For was a large-scale service directly operated out of Microsoft Research, until its acquisition by Xbox. It was one of the flagship projects at MSR.https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/people/lenin/

  • Principal Research Manager

    • Sep 2020 - Aug 2021

    * High Performing Talent Recognition (2021)

  • Principal Researcher

    • Sep 2017 - Aug 2020

    * Grand Prize Winner, Microsoft OneWeek Hackathon (among 18,000 participants)* Garage Favorite Award, Microsoft Redmond Science Fair* Individual Performance Award

  • Senior Researcher

    • Sep 2014 - Aug 2017

    * Microsoft LabOne (Bench/HiPo) Program 2015 (awarded to top 1% high performing employees across the entire company)* Microsoft Research Redmond Rockstar Award 2017 (Rockstar award recognizes an individual who has made outstanding engineering or research contributions to Microsoft and the external research community during the early part of her or his career)* Microsoft Research Redmond Exemplary Collaboration Award 2017 for Torch* Individual Performance Award* ACM SIGMOBILE Research Highlight

• 

  Microsoft

  • Bengaluru Area, India

  • Assistant Researcher, Microsoft Research

    • Aug 2006 - Jul 2008
    • Bengaluru Area, India

• 

  Microsoft

  • Redmond, Washington, United States

  • Research Intern, Microsoft Research

    • May 2005 - Jul 2005
    • Redmond, Washington, United States

    * One of eight undergraduates from India to intern at Microsoft Research in Redmond as part of the MSR India Intern Program 2005