Rendering Engineer

Career Area:

Job Description:

Your Work Shapes the World at Caterpillar Inc.

When you join Caterpillar, you're joining a global team who cares not just about the work we do – but also about each other.  We are the makers, problem solvers, and future world builders who are creating stronger, more sustainable communities. We don't just talk about progress and innovation here – we make it happen, with our customers, where we work and live. Together, we are building a better world, so we can all enjoy living in it.

Help Build the Future of Caterpillar – Be Part of What's Next in Autonomous Construction Sites

At Caterpillar, technology always has a purpose, which is to solve our customers' toughest challenges. Construction autonomy is one of the most complex challenges in applied AI, and at Caterpillar, advancements in physical AI, simulation, sensing, and edge computing are turning things that once felt impossible—intelligent machines operating in dynamic jobsites—into reality.

Role Definition:

The Rendering Engineer will design and implement high-fidelity, real-time rendering and sensor simulation capabilities for digital twins, autonomous machines, robotics, and virtual jobsite environments.

The role will combine strong software engineering, computer graphics, GPU programming, and simulation expertise to create scalable rendering pipelines and physically grounded camera, LiDAR, and radar outputs for visualization, perception development, synthetic data, and validation.

Responsibilities:

• Design and develop real-time rendering pipelines for digital twin, machine, environment, and jobsite simulation applications.
• Implement physically based rendering, ray tracing, materials, lighting, weather, atmospheric effects, and scene optimization using Unreal Engine and NVIDIA Omniverse RTX.
• Develop and integrate camera, LiDAR, radar, depth, segmentation, and other sensor rendering capabilities for autonomy and perception workflows.
• Build shaders and GPU-accelerated features using HLSL, GLSL, CUDA, Vulkan, DirectX, OpenGL, or comparable graphics technologies.
• Create reusable rendering services, plugins, extensions, APIs, tools, and asset processing workflows using C++ and Python.
• Optimize CPU and GPU performance, memory usage, frame time, throughput, latency, and visual fidelity for interactive and headless workloads.
• Support USD-based scene composition, asset validation, material conversion, level-of-detail strategies, and rendering interoperability.
• Partner with perception engineers to define sensor outputs, calibration parameters, ground-truth data, synthetic data annotations, and fidelity requirements.
• Partner with simulation, physics, scenario, digital twin, and platform engineers to integrate rendering capabilities into end-to-end workflows.
• Develop automated image and sensor-output validation, regression testing, performance benchmarks, and visual quality checks.
• Support distributed or cloud-based rendering and simulation execution across GPU-enabled environments.
• Investigate and resolve rendering defects, numerical issues, performance bottlenecks, driver issues, and integration problems.
• Document rendering architecture, sensor models, interfaces, performance characteristics, assumptions, and validation methods.

Qualifications

• Strong software engineering experience in computer graphics, rendering engines, simulation, visualization, game engines, or sensor simulation.
• Advanced C++ skills and working proficiency in Python.
• Hands-on experience with Unreal Engine 5, NVIDIA Omniverse RTX, Unity, or comparable real-time rendering platforms.
• Experience with GPU programming, shader development, ray tracing, rendering pipelines, OpenGL, Vulkan, DirectX, HLSL, GLSL, or CUDA.
• Knowledge of physically based rendering, materials, lighting, camera models, image formation, coordinate systems, and numerical methods.
• Experience with camera, LiDAR, radar, depth, segmentation, synthetic data, or perception sensor simulation is strongly preferred.
• Knowledge of USD, PhysX, asset pipelines, scene graphs, level-of-detail, geometry processing, and performance profiling is preferred.
• Experience with Linux, Docker, CI/CD, automated testing, GPU environments, and cloud or distributed execution.
• Ability to collaborate with perception, autonomy, simulation, digital twin, platform, and QA teams.
• Strong debugging, performance analysis, systems integration, and technical communication skills.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Computer Graphics, Robotics, or a related discipline; master's degree preferred.
• Typically 5+ years of software engineering experience in rendering, simulation, visualization, or graphics-intensive systems.

Additional Details:

• This position requires the candidate to work full-time at the Irving, TX office (Dallas)
• Domestic relocation assistance is available for this position.
• Visa sponsorship is available with this position.

Summary Pay Range:

Compensation and benefits offered may vary depending on multiple individualized factors, job level, market location, job-related knowledge, skills, individual performance and experience. Please note that salary is only one component of total compensation at Caterpillar. 

Benefits:

Subject to plan eligibility, terms, and guidelines. This is a summary list of benefits.

• Medical, dental, and vision benefits*

• Paid time off plan (Vacation, Holidays, Volunteer, etc.)*

• 401(k) savings plans*

• Health Savings Account (HSA)*

• Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs)*

• Health Lifestyle Programs*

• Employee Assistance Program*

• Voluntary Benefits and Employee Discounts*

• Career Development*

• Incentive bonus*

• Disability benefits

• Life Insurance

• Parental leave

• Adoption benefits

• Tuition Reimbursement

* These benefits also apply to part-time employees

Posting Dates:

Any offer of employment is conditioned upon the successful completion of a drug screen.

Caterpillar is an Equal Opportunity Employer, Including Veterans and Individuals with Disabilities.  Qualified applicants of any age are encouraged to apply.

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