The posting
Overview
Microsoft’s Discovery and Quantum (MDQ) division develops and delivers advanced artificial intelligence (AI), cloud-enabled capabilities, and strategic technologies to help solve the world’s major challenges. From accelerating scientific discovery with advanced AI tools, to pioneering breakthroughs in quantum computing, to advancing robotics and AI capabilities that drive real-world impact, joining MDQ means building the future, partnering with fast-moving innovators, and operating in a high-impact, mission-driven environment.
At Microsoft Robotics within MDQ, we build and deploy technologies that enable people, robots, and AI agents to collaborate and achieve more.
We are building Microsoft’s platform for physical intelligence—an integrated robotics software and AI platform that brings together humans, robots, and agents through robotics AI models, innovative teaming solutions and experiences, physically grounded agentic AI workflows, trustworthy test and evaluation, and real-world customer-focused validation. Built on Microsoft’s core platforms and delivered through and with a global ecosystem of partners and customers, this platform accelerates AI for the physical world and helps robotics solutions move from experimentation to reliable, scaled deployment.
We are hiring a Member of Technical Staff at the Principal level to lead the development of physics-ready 3D asset generation pipelines and integration of reality capture technologies into Microsoft’s robotics simulation infrastructure. This role focuses on bridging the physical and simulated worlds by creating high-fidelity digital representations of real-world environments, objects, and robots. The engineer will build workflows that transform raw sensor data (photogrammetry, LiDAR scans, depth maps) into simulation-ready 3D assets with accurate geometry, material properties, and physics parameters, enabling photorealistic synthetic data generation, digital twin construction, and sim-to-real model validation.
Microsoft's mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. As employees we come together with a growth mindset, innovate to empower others, and collaborate to realize our shared goals. Each day we build on our values of respect, integrity, and accountability to create a culture of inclusion where everyone can thrive at work and beyond.
#MicrosoftRobotics #MDQ
Responsibilities
- Design and build automated pipelines for converting reality capture data (photogrammetry, LiDAR point clouds, depth camera scans, 360-degree imagery) into physics-ready 3D simulation assets with accurate geometry, collision meshes, material properties, and articulation definitions.
- Develop and maintain toolchains for physics-ready 3D asset generation, including mesh optimization, UV unwrapping, PBR material assignment, collision hull generation, mass/inertia parameter estimation, and annotation of semantic and functional properties.
- Integrate reality capture hardware and software workflows (e.g., NeRF, Gaussian splatting, structured light scanning, photogrammetry reconstruction) with the simulation platform’s asset ingestion pipeline.
- Build 3D reconstruction workflows that enable rapid creation of simulation environments from real-world facility scans, supporting robotics deployment planning, testing, and validation.
- Create and maintain asset toolchains supporting industry-standard formats (USD/OpenUSD, glTF, FBX, OBJ) with appropriate physics and simulation metadata for import into robotics simulation engines.
- Develop synthetic data generation pipelines that leverage high-fidelity 3D assets to produce training data for perception, manipulation, and navigation models, including domain-randomized variations of materials, lighting, object placement, and camera viewpoints.
- Collaborate with robotics engineers, ML researchers, and perception scientists to define asset fidelity requirements, validate simulation-to-reality visual and physical accuracy, and iterate on asset quality based on downstream model performance.
- Implement quality assurance and validation workflows for 3D assets, including automated checks for mesh integrity, physics parameter consistency, rendering fidelity, and simulation stability.
- Review code and technical designs to ensure adherence to team standards for 3D pipeline performance, asset management, and data integrity.
- Remain current in 3D reconstruction, neural rendering, and asset generation research, proactively evaluating new techniques (e.g., generative 3D models, neural radiance fields, 3D Gaussian splatting) for integration into the platform.
Qualifications
Required Qualifications:
- Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 8+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or PythonOR equivalent experience.
Other Requirements:
- Ability to meet Microsoft, customer and/or government security screening requirements is required for this role. These requirements include, but are not limited to the following specialized security screenings:Microsoft Cloud Background Check: This position will be required to pass the Microsoft Cloud Background Check upon hire/transfer and every two years thereafter.
Preferred Qualifications:
- Master’s Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 12+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or PythonOR Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 15+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, Java, JavaScript, or Python OR equivalent experience.
- Experience with 3D reconstruction pipelines, photogrammetry, LiDAR processing, or neural scene representation methods (NeRF, 3D Gaussian splatting).
- Proficiency with 3D content creation and processing tools (Blender, Fusion, Maya, Houdini, MeshLab, Open3D, or equivalent).
- Experience with USD/OpenUSD, OBJ, STL, or equivalent 3D interchange formats and their integration with simulation or rendering engines.
- Background in physically based rendering (PBR), material authoring, or real-time graphics pipeline development.
- Experience building synthetic data generation pipelines for training computer vision or perception models.
- Familiarity with robotics simulation platforms (Isaac Sim, Gazebo, MuJoCo, or equivalent) and their asset requirements.
- Understanding of physics parameter estimation, collision geometry optimization, and articulated object modeling for simulation fidelity.
Software Engineering IC6 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $165,600 - $296,400 per year. There is a different range applicable to specific work locations, within the San Francisco Bay area and New York City metropolitan area, and the base pay range for this role in those locations is USD $220,800 - $331,200 per year.
Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation. Find additional benefits and pay information here: https://careers.microsoft.com/us/en/us-corporate-pay
This position will be open for a minimum of 5 days, with applications accepted on an ongoing basis until the position is filled.
Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, citizenship, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, immigration status, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran or military status, race, ethnicity, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by applicable local laws, regulations and ordinances. If you need assistance with religious accommodations and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application process, read more about requesting accommodations.
