Simulation Pipeline Technical Artist - Special Projects (Jeff Lind)

Play a role in bringing Apple technology to the world. We are looking for a hardworking, dedicated, and results-oriented 3D Tech Artist. You would join a team building world simulations. Apple is where individual imaginations gather together, committing to the values that lead to great work. Every new product we build, service we create, or Apple Store experience we deliver is the result of us making each other's ideas stronger. That happens because every one of us shares a belief that we can make something wonderful and share it with the world, changing lives for the better. It's the diversity of our people and their thinking that inspires the innovation that runs through everything we do. When we bring everybody in, we can do the best work of our lives. Here, you'll do more than join something - you'll add something. As a Simulation Pipeline Technical Artist in the Special Projects Simulation group, you will have an opportunity to be part of an innovation-focused organization within Apple that is developing simulations and generating synthetic data. You will be able to work on highly ambitious and impactful simulation projects enabling AI/ML-based products and features. Our ideal team member brings experience with video game and film techniques, but is also fearless when it comes to trying new things and is willing to iterate on ideas. We value team members who can quickly prototype, iterating all the way to high-quality implementations that can scale. We always value team members who can collaborate effectively with cross-functional teams across the organization.Develop pipelines and generation tools for 3D assets for world simulations. Bring video game and film techniques to our pipeline to optimizing quality and size for multiple use-cases, retaining flexibility and potentially multiple versions of assets for different purposes. Develop tools and systems which enable procedural and agentic systems to utilize assets. Develop tools for artists to work more effectively Assist in bringing new materials generation techniques into our pipeline. Manage our asset library, establishing and enforcing conventions and standards, making the library easily usable by humans and agentic systems. Develop techniques to generate new content, scale our asset libraries with variation, manage our assets, and broaden our simulation scope.At least 5 years of experience working as a Technical Artist in video games, animation, and/or VFX Strong Python skills for data creation and manipulation Experience building pipelines and processes to generate images and outputs by marshaling data through multiple DCCs with custom code Strong experience with USD format, tools and APIs. The best candidates will help us use this key technology in better ways. Experienced Maya user Experience with Maya, Houdini, or other DCC programming APIs. Proven track record of innovating new tools and techniques to speed up artist workflow and efficiency Strong understanding of shading, lighting, texturing and materialsStrong familiarity with digital sculpting, modeling, and command of mesh topology. Experience with lighting: especially procedural systems. Experience creating shaders Experience with procedural materials, Substance Designer or similar C++ programming experience