Design Technologist III, Robotics Simulation

We are looking for a Sr. Design Technologist to join the Robotics Simulation team at Amazon Robotics. This is a hybrid design-and-technology role for someone who lives at the intersection of 3D content creation and pipeline engineering, and who can turn CAD and other source assets into simulation-ready USD content with high visual and physics fidelity.

The day-to-day work is grounded in traditional 3D craft and pipelines: CAD conversion, geometry cleanup and optimization, USD authoring and composition, material and look development, and format interop. As a Design Technologist you bring the design sensibility (materials, lighting, look, and asset quality) together with the technical skill to build the tools and pipelines that produce that content at scale. A portion of the role involves bringing emerging techniques (Gaussian Splatting, neural reconstruction, generative and LLM-orchestrated 3D) into production workflows as they mature.

At the DT III level, this role also owns the design and technical direction of parts of the team's 3D asset pipeline, sets asset standards, and mentors junior technical artists and engineers on USD and geometry best practices.

Key job responsibilities
Convert CAD assemblies (for example SolidWorks) into simulation-ready USD assets with clean geometry, correct materials, colliders, and articulation.
Perform and automate geometry cleanup and optimization: tessellation, culling of non-visible geometry, mesh simplification, UVs, and level-of-detail (LOD) generation.
Author and compose USD assets using references, payloads, and variants so that different consumers load only what they need.
Develop materials, shading, and lighting so assets render consistently and read correctly across renderers and simulators.
Build and harden the tools and pipelines that produce this content, with clear per-stage feedback and validation against asset quality gates.
Integrate emerging 3D techniques (Gaussian Splatting, neural reconstruction, generative 3D, LLM-orchestrated scene building) into production workflows as they become viable.
Collaborate with Applied Scientists and SDEs so assets meet downstream training and simulation requirements, iterating on collision geometry and asset fidelity based on feedback.
Set and advocate for 3D asset standards, and mentor junior technical artists and engineers on USD and geometry processing.

About the team
The Robotics Simulation team is a multidisciplinary group of SDEs, Applied Scientists, and Technical Artists at Amazon Robotics. We build the simulation infrastructure that powers Physical AI development, from photorealistic synthetic data to GPU-accelerated training environments. Our tools let robots be designed, trained, and validated in simulation before physical hardware exists. Design Technologists are the bridge between 3D craft and the engineering pipeline: without simulation-ready 3D content, nothing downstream (policy training, synthetic data, sim-to-real transfer) can function.

This role works alongside Applied Scientists building robot learning pipelines and SDEs building the pipeline's engineering core. Your assets and tools are the foundation their work runs on: when collision geometry is wrong, policies fail; when visual fidelity is off, sim-to-real transfer breaks.

Basic Qualifications

- 6+ years of front-end technologist, engineer, or UX prototyper experience
- Have an available online portfolio
- Have coding samples in front end programming languages
- Experience developing visually polished, engaging, and highly fluid UX prototypes
- Experience collaborating with UX, Product, and technical partners
- Design and/or engineering background (for example BA, BFA, BS, or equivalent experience).
- Proficiency in one or more scripting or programming languages used for 3D tooling (for example Python, and shader or engine languages).
- Working knowledge of Universal Scene Description (USD): composition, references, payloads, variants, and programmatic authoring.
- Hands-on experience taking CAD or other source assets and turning them into clean, renderable, real-time or simulation-ready 3D content.
- Understanding of 3D fundamentals: mesh topology, tessellation, UVs, materials and PBR, colliders, and LOD.
- Experience with digital content creation and 3D tools (for example Maya, Houdini, Substance, or similar) and with 3D engines (for example Unreal, Unity, or a web engine such as Three.js).
- Able to write prototype and pipeline code that an SDE can understand and productionize, and to work with engineering teams on handoff.
- Track record of owning a 3D asset pipeline or workflow and setting quality standards.

Preferred Qualifications

- Knowledge of databases and AWS database services: ElasticSearch, Redshift, DynamoDB
- Experience with machine learning (ML) tools and methods
- Experience with CAD-to-simulation or CAD-to-USD workflows (SolidWorks to USD/URDF, articulation and joint authoring, collider generation).
- Experience with NVIDIA Omniverse and Isaac Sim, or other physics simulators (MuJoCo, PhysX).
- Experience with geometry-processing tools or libraries (Trimesh, Open3D, PyMeshLab, or similar) for mesh repair, decimation, and convex decomposition.
- Experience with emerging 3D techniques: Gaussian Splatting, NeRFs, or generative/LLM-orchestrated 3D content creation.
- Experience building look-development and lighting workflows, and matching real-time output to path-traced references.
- Experience mentoring technical artists or engineers and driving asset standards across a team.

Amazon is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of protected veteran status, disability, or other legally protected status.

Our inclusive culture empowers Amazonians to deliver the best results for our customers. If you have a disability and need a workplace accommodation or adjustment during the application and hiring process, including support for the interview or onboarding process, please visit https://amazon.jobs/content/en/how-we-hire/accommodations for more information. If the country/region you’re applying in isn’t listed, please contact your Recruiting Partner.

The base salary range for this position is listed below. Your Amazon package will include sign-on payments and restricted stock units (RSUs). Final compensation will be determined based on factors including experience, qualifications, and location. Amazon also offers comprehensive benefits including health insurance (medical, dental, vision, prescription, Basic Life & AD&D insurance and option for Supplemental life plans, EAP, Mental Health Support, Medical Advice Line, Flexible Spending Accounts, Adoption and Surrogacy Reimbursement coverage), 401(k) matching, paid time off, and parental leave. Learn more about our benefits at https://amazon.jobs/en/benefits.

USA, WA, Bellevue - 154,200.00 - 208,600.00 USD annually