I’ve been eager to share this update for a while now. It’s a professional life update with many personal elements intertwined.

A few months before finishing my fellowship at the Technion, I started questioning my trajectory. I was happy with many aspects of my work (I love research), but some things didn’t feel right anymore. I knew I had a researcher’s passion, but I couldn’t shake off the question: Where do I belong? Where can I make the most impact? This wasn’t just about academia versus industry; it was a fundamental life question. Where do I want to call home? Where do I see my kids growing up, and what kind of dad do I want to be? What do I want my days to look like?

Like any good researcher, I began with a thorough literature review. I emailed everyone I could think of to schedule zoom meetings and asked tough questions about their professional happiness, work-life balance, research opportunities, fulfillment, and impact.

In January, a few months after the traumatic events of October 7th that shook every Israeli, I still wasn’t ready to make a decision. Many things I thought I knew crumbled before my eyes. I decided it wasn’t the right time to make such a big decision and took some time off. However, the break didn’t last long because I’m not one to sit still.

I moved on to the next phase and started sending my CV to both academic and industry positions. I figured this would give me a glimpse into the future through the recruitment process. I went on countless interviews and continued to ask hard questions. Some things became clearer: my future would be outside of Israel and in a research role in industry. It was a complex set of constraints, not a simple optimization problem. I wasn’t sure if I was converging to a local minimum, so the path forward was still unclear.

But then, I met the Roblox Research team, and it was obvious. It wasn’t any particular answer to a question; it was the shared core set of values. It was that feeling of “I think I belong here.” It was the late-night chats with the recruiter that felt so natural. It was listening to Morgan McGuire (Chief Scientist) and learning about the future of research at Roblox—it was exactly what I was looking for. It was the interviews with the hiring manager, Victor Zordan, that ended so quickly because we had so much in common (what are the odds of finding another mechanical engineer who moved into 3D research?). It was their emphasis on the responsibility of having a product that reaches so many young minds. It was how they valued their creator community. It was the interviews with the research team and realizing we shared the same approach to research. Even though I’m a scientist, I couldn’t shake the feeling of kismet from the time I hosted Derek on the podcast when he first mentioned Roblox. Everything felt like it was just, meant to be. Dream-job level meant to be. Luckily, everything aligned and clicked.

I am thrilled to share that I will be joining Roblox as a Research Scientist this summer.

I will write more about Roblox and the incredible research they (we) do in a later post, but for now, I’m very excited to be calling Roblox and the Bay Area my new home soon.