I had the great opportunity of interning at HP Labs during my Junior year summer, and it was (in its own way) the kind of R&D haven that you describe. My team was comprised purely of PhD scientists, many of them former Xerox Parc exiles from down the road. Brilliant, wonderful people who could spend decades as engineers and researchers and be appreciated for their technical contributions.
It definitely had to deal with the corporate mandates, but (at least in my team) the team manager was a player/manager (MIT PhD who could do EE, ME, and CS) who was quite deft at managing the politics.
I imagine the place is being slowly eroded, especially given how poorly the company has been doing as of late, which is really a shame and I wish I were in a position to do something about it.
It definitely had to deal with the corporate mandates, but (at least in my team) the team manager was a player/manager (MIT PhD who could do EE, ME, and CS) who was quite deft at managing the politics.
I imagine the place is being slowly eroded, especially given how poorly the company has been doing as of late, which is really a shame and I wish I were in a position to do something about it.