Pipeline Engineer (Graphics/3D)

About World Labs World Labs is a frontier AI research and product company advancing spatial intelligence, the next frontier beyond large language models. Co-founded by Dr. Fei-Fei Li, Justin Johnson and Ben Mildenhall, the company is pioneering world models that perceive, generate, reason, and interact with virtual and physical worlds.

The company’s flagship product, Marble, transforms text, images, and video into fully navigable 3D worlds, unlocking applications across gaming, film, architecture, robotics, and immersive digital experiences. Backed by leading investors and with over $1B raised, World Labs is assembling a world-class team at the intersection of AI research and real-world deployment.

Role Overview We are building a production-grade web application for 3D Gaussian Splat scene generation, editing, and publishing, and we’re looking for a Pipeline Engineer to help integrate cutting-edge research features and make them reliable, debuggable, and delightful to use.

This is a high-ownership, fullstack-but-backend-heavy role that sits between R&D and frontend. You will work end-to-end across graphics/ML algorithms, backend services, and frontend UI — turning proof-of-concepts into shipped features that users can rely on. The ideal candidate enjoys making complex, messy systems work smoothly in production and improving them continuously based on both internal testing and external user feedback.

Key Responsibilities

• Bridge research and product by working closely with both graphics/computer vision researchers and frontend engineers to ship usable features.

• Turn standalone Python scripts into clean, production-ready systems with clear inputs, outputs, validations, and failure modes.

• Develop backend services, APIs, and tooling that expose complex 3D workflows in a reliable and scalable way.

• Assist in integrations across the 3D ecosystem, including asset import/export and format conversion with common DCC tools.

Ideal Candidate Profile

• You have a strong pipeline mindset, with experience turning scripts into production systems with clear inputs, outputs, validations, and failure modes.

• You enjoy building tools and infrastructure that enable others, and you take pride in making complex systems understandable and usable.

• You have fluency in the 3D ecosystem, including familiarity with 3D algorithms, DCC tools and common 3D file formats, sufficient to design integrations and debug workflow issues.

Minimum Qualifications

• Strong proficiency in Python, including packaging, typing, tooling, debugging, and performance profiling.

• Strong literacy in core 3D graphics and computer vision concepts, such as transforms, cameras, coordinate systems, rendering, and visual artifact debugging.

• Demonstrated experience taking prototypes to production, including refactoring, testing, CI/CD, versioned artifacts, and reproducibility.

• Solid backend fundamentals, including HTTP APIs, FastAPI (or similar frameworks), async/concurrency basics, cloud deployment, and service reliability.

Strongly Preferred / Nice-to-Haves

• Experience with photogrammetry, 3D reconstruction, or Gaussian splat rendering pipelines.

• Hands-on experience with DCC tools such as Blender, Maya, Houdini, Unreal, or Unity.

• Familiarity with the GPU stack (CUDA, PyTorch), batch/queue systems, and containerization (Docker, Kubernetes).

• Frontend adjacency, with comfort collaborating on React-based parameter plumbing and UX for technical controls.

• Experience with production pipelines at VFX, animation, or gaming studios.

• A production support mindset, including willingness to iterate on documentation, tutorials, and error messages to improve usability and reduce misuse.

Example Projects You Might Work On

• Packaging ML and 3D Python pipelines into GPU-backed FastAPI services with request validation, reproducible outputs, and well-defined request/response schemas.

• Designing parameter schemas and defaults that map cleanly from frontend controls to backend APIs and internal pipeline configurations.

• Integrating import/export workflows with popular DCC tools (e.g., Blender, Maya, Houdini, Unity, Unreal, USD), identifying workflow friction, and producing lightweight documentation, tutorials, and example code/scripts to help users succeed.

Who You Are

• Fearless Innovator: We need people who thrive on challenges and aren't afraid to tackle the impossible.

• Resilient Builder: Impacting Large World Models isn't a sprint; it's a marathon with hurdles. We're looking for builders who can weather the storms of groundbreaking research and come out stronger.

• Mission-Driven Mindset: Everything we do is in service of creating the best spatially intelligent AI systems, and using them to empower people.

• Collaborative Spirit: We're building something bigger than any one person. We need team players who can harness the power of collective intelligence.

We're hiring the brightest minds from around the globe to bring diverse perspectives to our cutting-edge work. If you're ready to work on technology that will reshape how machines perceive and interact with the world - then World Labs is your launchpad. Join us, and let's make history together.

Logistics: Location: This role is based in San Francisco, California; we work in-person in the office 5 days a week. Visa sponsorship: We sponsor visas. While we can't guarantee success for every candidate or role, if you're the right fit, we're committed to working through the visa process together. Benefits: We offer generous health, dental, vision and 401K benefits, flexible PTO, paid parental leave, and relocation support as needed.

Equal Employment Opportunity World Labs is an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected under applicable law. We welcome all qualified applicants and are committed to providing reasonable accommodations throughout the hiring process upon request.