General Motors

Staff Graphics Engineer, Rendering (Simulation)

General Motors • $160K — $246K *
Sunnyvale, CA 94087In-Person
Aerospace & Defense
5 - 7 years of experience
Reposted Today
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Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • BS, MS, or PhD in Computer Science, Computer Graphics, Engineering, or equivalent experience.
  • 7+ years of professional C++ development experience, focusing on performance optimization.
  • Significant experience with GPU programming using CUDA, OptiX, Vulkan, or similar.
  • Proven track record in rendering systems or performance-critical real-time graphics software.
  • Strong understanding of data structures and algorithms relevant to rendering.

Responsibilities

  • Design and implement systems for managing and rendering large-scale 3D scenes.
  • Optimize GPU memory management and texture pipelines for complex scenes.
  • Architect and extend the sensor simulation pipeline for new sensor modalities.
  • Improve ray tracing performance through various optimizations.
  • Enable real-time rendering for low-latency workloads.
  • Contribute to the USD scene ingestion and material translation pipeline.
  • Drive architectural improvements across the codebase.

Benefits

  • Variety of health and wellbeing benefit programs including medical, dental, and vision.
  • Retirement savings plan and life insurance options.
  • Paid vacation and holidays, along with tuition assistance programs.
  • Employee assistance programs and GM vehicle discounts.
  • Opportunity to participate in a company vehicle evaluation program.
Full Job Description

Job Description

Staff Graphics Engineer — Rendering (Simulation)
Remote: This role is open to a fully remote position or hybrid with one of our offices if preferred.

Role Overview
As a Staff Graphics Engineer on the Rendering team, you will push the visual and physical fidelity of a GPU-accelerated, physically-based sensor simulator used to generate synthetic data — cameras, LiDAR, radar, and depth sensors — for autonomous vehicle development and validation. This is a deep graphics role: you will own and advance the light transport, materials, atmosphere, and sensor-imaging pipelines that determine how realistic our rendered output is. Your work directly affects the quality of the synthetic data that AV perception and planning teams train and validate against, where physical accuracy is not a "nice to have" but the entire point.
We render with NVIDIA OptiX and CUDA, evaluate physically-based materials through NVIDIA MDL, and produce spectrally-derived, radiometrically-grounded imagery. We're looking for someone with a genuine graphics background — the kind of engineer who has implemented a BRDF from a paper, debugged energy loss in a microfacet model, and cares about the difference between physically plausible and physically correct.

About the Team
The Rendering team builds the physically-based rendering core of our sensor simulation platform. We own the full path from scene and material ingestion through GPU ray tracing, atmospheric and volumetric rendering, sensor image formation, and post-processing. Our stack includes C++ (17/20), CUDA, NVIDIA OptiX, NVIDIA MDL, OpenUSD, and ROS. We care about light transport correctness, radiometric accuracy, performance on real production scenes, and clean, maintainable architecture.

What You'll Do
  • Advance the light transport in our OptiX-based renderer — improving sampling, multi-bounce indirect illumination, and overall path tracing fidelity while keeping it tractable for large-scale, time-stepped simulation.
  • Own and extend physically-based materials through our NVIDIA MDL integration — microfacet BRDFs, layered and coat materials, and correct energy conservation in OptiX closest-hit evaluation.
  • Develop our spectral and radiometric pipeline — wavelength-dependent sky and material response, spectral-to-XYZ-to-RGB conversion, and physically-grounded units from scene radiance through to sensor output.
  • Push the atmosphere and volumetrics — the spectral sky model (Prague Sky Model), volumetric clouds (multi-layer, multi-scattering, phase functions, aerial perspective), participating media, and fog.
  • Improve camera image formation — the GPU ISP (demosaic, tone mapping, exposure/EV100, auto white balance via correlated color temperature), and physically-based lens and sensor effects such as motion blur, rolling shutter, lens distortion, and sensor noise.
  • Design and tune sampling and denoising strategies — importance sampling, blue-noise and stratified sampling, MIS, and spatial/temporal denoising that reduce variance without compromising physical accuracy.
  • Profile and optimize the per-frame GPU pipeline — OptiX launches, BVH (GAS/IAS) construction, material uploads, and denoising — to render more geometry and richer materials within budget.
  • Contribute to the OpenUSD scene and material pipeline and collaborate with adjacent teams to plumb new lighting, weather, and sensor parameters end-to-end.
  • Uphold high standards through technical design documents, code review, reference-image regression testing, and mentorship of other engineers.
What You Must Have
  • BS, MS, or PhD in Computer Science, Computer Graphics, or equivalent experience.
  • 8+ years of professional software engineering experience, with a substantial portion focused on real-time or physically-based rendering.
  • Deep, hands-on graphics expertise: physically-based rendering, BRDF / microfacet theory, Monte Carlo path tracing, importance sampling, and light transport. You can read a SIGGRAPH paper and turn it into correct, performant shader code.
  • Strong C++ skills (modern C++17/20), including performance optimization, memory management, and clean API and system design in a large codebase.
  • Significant GPU programming experience — CUDA and/or a ray tracing API (OptiX, DXR, Vulkan RT) — with a real understanding of GPU architecture and execution.
  • Solid grounding in the math of rendering: linear algebra, sampling and probability, radiometry, and color science.
  • Experience profiling and optimizing GPU rendering workloads (e.g., Nsight) on real, complex scenes.
  • Strong communication and collaboration skills, and a track record of driving technical design across teams.
  • Movie industry experience background
Bonus Points
  • Experience implementing or extending a production renderer, game engine rendering core, offline/path-tracing renderer, or commercial graphics product.
  • Experience with NVIDIA MDL, OSL, or other physically-based material systems.
  • Experience with OptiX specifically, or other GPU ray tracing / BVH-based pipelines.
  • Spectral rendering, atmospheric scattering models (Prague, Hosek-Wilkie, Bruneton), or volumetric cloud rendering (Schneider/Nubis-style ray marching, Hillaire multi-scattering).
  • Camera and sensor imaging: ISP pipelines, sensor noise modeling, lens distortion, motion blur, rolling shutter, exposure and white balance.
  • Experience with OpenUSD scene description and asset pipelines.
  • Familiarity with ROS and integrating rendering output into robotics / AV data stacks.
  • Experience enabling rendering for machine learning workloads — synthetic data generation, reinforcement learning environments, or closed-loop simulation.
  • Contributions to open-source rendering, graphics, or simulation projects, or relevant publications.

Compensation

The compensation information is a good faith estimate only. It is based on what a successful applicant might be paidin accordance withapplicable state laws. The compensation may not be representative for positionslocatedoutside of New York, Colorado, California, or Washington.

  • The salary range for this role is $160,200 to $246,300. The actual base salary a successful candidate will be offered within this range will vary based on factors relevant to the position.

  • Bonus Potential: An incentivepayprogram offers payouts based on company performance, job level, and individual performance.

Benefits

  • GM offers a variety of health and wellbeing benefit programs.Benefit options include medical, dental, vision, Health Savings Account, Flexible Spending Accounts, retirement savings plan, sickness and accident benefits, life insurance, paid vacation & holidays, tuitionassistanceprograms, employeeassistanceprogram, GM vehicle discounts and more.

Company Vehicle

  • "Upon successful completion of a motor vehicle report review, you will be eligible toparticipatein a company vehicle evaluation program, through which you will be assigned a General Motors vehicle to drive and evaluate. Note: program participantsare required topurchase/lease a qualifying GM vehicle every four years unless one of a limited number of exceptions applies.

About General Motors

General Motors Company engages in the manufacture and sale of cars and trucks in the United States, China, Brazil, Germany, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Italy. It offers sedans, crossovers, sport utility vehicles, pick-up trucks, coupes, sports/convertibles and hybrid vehicles, hatchbacks/wagons, and vans, as well as mini cars in India. The company also provides parts and accessories, such as iPod and MP3 compatibility, mobility accessories, performance parts, AC parts and services, and merchandise. In addition, it offers vehicle safety, security, and information services. The company provides used vehicles. It offers its products through dealers and distributors. General Motors Company was formerly known as NGMCO, Inc. and changed its name to General Motors Company in July 2009. The company was incorporated in 2009 and is based in Detroit, Michigan. It operates manufacturing facilities in India, the United States, and Canada. General Motors Company operates as a subsidiary of the United States Department of The Treasury. General Motors led global vehicle sales for 77 consecutive years from 1931 through 2007, longer than any other automaker, and is currently among the world's largest automakers by vehicle unit sales. General Motors acts in most countries outside the USA via wholly-owned subsidiaries but operates in China through 10 joint ventures. GM's OnStar subsidiary provides vehicle safety, security, and information services. In 2009, General Motors shed several brands, closing Saturn, Pontiac, and Hummer, and emerged from a government-backed Chapter 11 reorganization. In 2010, GM made an initial public offering IPOs to date and returned to profitability later that year.

General Motors Careers

Join the dynamic team at General Motors, a global leader in automotive innovation and technology. At General Motors, we offer unparalleled job opportunities that propel your career forward while contributing to a legacy of engineering excellence.

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Embark on a career with General Motors to drive the future of mobility. Our team is dedicated to redefining the automotive landscape through innovation and leadership in electric vehicles and sustainable solutions. By joining us, you will be part of a culture that values diversity, teamwork, and continuous professional growth.

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As part of our global workforce, you will collaborate with talented individuals who are passionate about shaping the future of transportation. General Motors offers a variety of career paths in engineering, design, IT, marketing, and more. With over 155,000 employees worldwide, our network provides expansive opportunities for networking and professional development.

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Start your career journey with a General Motors internship, where you can apply your academic knowledge to real-world projects. Our internships provide a robust foundation in the automotive industry, with mentorship from experienced leaders. Full-time employees enjoy a wealth of benefits, including comprehensive health care, retirement plans, and performance bonuses, ensuring that your hard work is rewarded.

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Learn more about General Motors
Size
157,000 employees
Market Cap
$46.9 billion
Industry
Manufacturing & Automotive
Net Income
$6.4 billion
Founded
1908
5 Year Trend
-3.2%
Revenue
$122.4 billion
NASDAQ
GM
* Ladders Estimates

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