Technical Artist, Simulation

Fauna Robotics (Headquarters: New York, NY)

Computer Graphics Simulation Real-time Rendering Offline Rendering Shaders Asset Optimization Unity Unreal Engine Blender Maya C++ Python Graphics APIs Synthetic Data ML Robotics Isaac Sim MuJoCo Procedural Content Generation HRI Technical Artist AI Engineer Design

Company: Fauna Robotics is a New York-based startup devoted to the mission of developing safe, intelligent, human-centric robots that live, work, and play by our sides. We offer equity ownership, health benefits (Medical, Dental, Vision), and the opportunity to work on groundbreaking robotics technology in a collaborative and innovative environment.

Role: We are seeking a Technical Artist to develop and optimize graphics pipelines, asset generation workflows, and visualization tools to support the development of our robots. This role sits at the intersection of real-time graphics, simulation, and robotics, with a primary focus on contributing to the internal tools used to develop intelligent robot behaviors. You will work closely with engineers and scientists to ensure that both internal simulation environments and robotic visual interfaces meet high standards of performance, realism, and clarity.

Key Responsibilities:
- Design, develop, and optimize real-time and offline rendering pipelines to support robot development tools (such as simulation and visualization systems).
- Support machine learning efforts to generate synthetic training data and realistic simulated environments.
- Build asset generation and processing pipelines, enabling efficient creation and management of 3D assets, primarily for simulation environments.
- Secondary responsibilities may include supporting user interface graphics development, including visualization tools to help engineers and operators monitor robot state, sensor data, and system performance in real-time as well as real-time graphical experiences presented to users interacting with the robots themselves.

Required Skills & Qualifications:
- Experience: 3+ years of professional software development experience.
- Education: Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Graphics, Computer Science, Game Development, or a related field – or equivalent practical experience.
- Technical Expertise: Proficiency in real-time rendering techniques, shader programming, and asset optimization for real-time engines (Unity, Unreal, or custom engines). Proficiency with 3D graphics tools such as Blender or Maya, and programmatic control of their rendering pipelines. Experience building tools and pipelines for asset creation, import/export, and optimization. Strong programming skills in C++ and Python, and experience integrating graphics systems into larger software stacks. Familiarity with modern graphics APIs. Strong foundational understanding of 3D math, transformations, and rendering pipelines.

Nice-to-have Skills:
- Experience with robot simulation environments (NVIDIA Isaac Sim, MuJoCo, or similar).
- Experience with procedural content generation techniques for environments and assets.
- Familiarity with robot perception systems, including how graphics pipelines can support synthetic data generation for machine learning training.
- Understanding of character rigging, animation blending, and procedural animation systems.
- Knowledge of human-robot interaction principles and how visual feedback can enhance intuitive interaction.