Employee Spotlight #24: Jorg Doku, Former Research Engineer at Google

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Jorg Doku is a graduate of Cornell University with prior experience working as a research engineer at Facebook AI Research and Google Brain. He recently leads Doku Consultancy, which offers engineering guidance to early-stage firms in machine learning.

Former Google Research Engineer Jorg Doku.

Frederick Daso: What was your journey to becoming a Research Engineer at Google?

Jorg Doku: I've always considered computers to be fascinating. The summer after fifth grade, I stumbled onto an online game design forum and began programming. I've continued ever since. I became interested in robotics in college, worked in a few research laboratories, and ultimately decided that I wanted to pursue artificial intelligence.

Daso: There's a lot of conventional career advice about being a successful Research Engineer, but are there any unorthodox lessons you've learned through experience or been taught through mentorship that more of your fellow research engineers should know?

Doku: Certainly! From what I've observed, the highest order bit is engineering productivity. How productive are you in designing, debugging, or prototyping? And so, counterintuitively, one way to become a better research engineer is to become a better engineer in general.

Daso: What's the toughest project (professionally or personally) that you worked on as a research engineer or in general? What were the most important lessons you learned from that project?

Doku: Building a transpiler for the PyTorch codebase to support heterogeneous hardware was the most challenging project I've ever worked on. The most crucial lesson I learned was the value of being a self-motivated, voracious learner when tackling initiatives that scope beyond my prior expertise.

Daso: Who are some of the most inspirational people you've gotten to work with during your career in tech? (This is an opportunity for you to explicitly shout out awesome people who you've worked with and positively shaped your career!)

Doku: Jeff Johnson from Facebook AI Research is among the most inspiring individuals I've ever met. His world-class technical skill has always astounded me.

Daso: How would you define your company's culture, and how does it create an environment where you can do your best work?

Doku: The culture is one of radical transparency. It encourages open and honest dialogue, allowing the best thinking to prevail.

Daso: What are the most important skills you've had to develop in your job, and what specific projects or assignments did you work to develop each core skill?

Doku: The most important skill I've developed is effective communication. Learning this has made me magnitudes more effective in working with teams. In my consulting work with a half-dozen early-stage firms, effective communication became vital for me to master.

Daso: What's one interesting thing (non-work related) that more people should know about you?

Doku: I'm passionate about dance, opera, and wine tasting.

Daso: What's something you want to accomplish in your career that you haven't yet? What motivates you to get there?

Doku: One day, I hope to build a successful technology business. The personal growth needed to accomplish that is what motivates me.

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