Senior Staff Research Engineer, 3D Gaussian Splat Coding

Senior Staff Research Engineer, 3D Gaussian Splatting

About Ofinno: 
Ofinno is a leading research and development lab headquartered in Reston, Virginia, specializing in advancing communication and media standards. Our team’s innovative work has led to significant contributions to technologies such as 5G cellular, Wi-Fi, and media compression. Ofinno holds strategic partnerships and licensing agreements with several of the world’s leading technology companies that use such technologies. At Ofinno, we foster an environment of collaboration and excellence, where researchers can focus on delivering breakthroughs that shape the future of technology. 

Position Overview:
As a Senior Staff Research Engineer in the Advanced Media Lab, you will serve as the technical owner for our 3D Gaussian Splatting (3DGS) coding direction. You will set research direction with cross-team impact, turning 3DGS coding ideas into reproducible evidence, standards-ready proposals (as applicable), and patentable inventions. This role is hands-on and execution-driven, bridging research and implementation to deliver measurable gains in compression efficiency, quality, and runtime complexity.

Key Responsibilities:
As a Senior Staff Research Engineer in 3D Gaussian Splatting, you will:

• Own 3DGS coding technical direction end-to-end, from research framing to reproducible prototypes and proposal-ready evidence.
• Design and evaluate novel coding tools for 3DGS representations (e.g., geometry/attribute representation, parameter quantization, entropy modeling, structure/cluster coding, streaming and progressive refinement).
• Establish rigorous experimental methodology and benchmarking (rate-distortion, quality metrics, complexity/latency/memory), including ablations and reproducibility practices.
• Collaborate cross-team to remove blockers, integrate tool interactions, and improve shared infrastructure (pipelines, scripts, datasets, configurations, regression tests).
• Drive external-facing technical output as needed: author technical proposals, defend results, and align test conditions/baselines with partners or standards groups.
• Invent and develop patentable solutions that improve efficiency and/or complexity, and support the full IP process - from invention disclosure through filing.
• Mentor and multiply team output through code reviews, technical coaching, and onboarding others to 3DGS coding methodology and best practices.

Qualifications:
Minimum:

• M.S. (EE/CS or related) with 7+ years of relevant research and/or product experience in compression, 3D/graphics/vision, and/or learned representations.
• Prior delegate or active contributor experience in MPEG, with focus on immersive media and/or 3D representation coding.
• Deep understanding of compression fundamentals and strong expertise in at least one of: 3D representations, neural rendering, point clouds, or view synthesis pipelines.
• Hands-on experience with MPEG V-PCC and/or G-PCC implementations and/or tool development.
• Proven ability to act as an architect/tech stack owner: make sound technical decisions, set direction, and drive execution through measurable outcomes.
• Strong implementation skills: C/C++ for performance-critical prototypes and pipelines; Python for experimentation is a plus.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to represent the company in standards meetings and industry events.
• Track record of technical impact through peer-reviewed publications, patents, and/or standards contributions.

Preferred:

• Ph.D. (EE/CS or related) with 7+ years of relevant research and/or product experience in compression, 3D/graphics/vision, and/or learned representations.
• Hands-on experience in point cloud / volumetric / neural representation coding workflows and evaluation (datasets, metrics, streaming constraints).
• Familiarity with the patent filing process and collaborating with patent attorneys.