Director of Engineering, Simulation & Rendering

About the Role Before an autonomous vehicle navigates a busy intersection, before a robot learns to pick and place in a warehouse, before any Physical AI system is trusted in the real world, it has to prove itself in ours. Parallel Domain builds the platform that validates the next generation of autonomous systems in high-fidelity virtual environments. Our simulation core and rendering pipeline are how that platform earns its credibility with customers. The current stack is rooted in real-time game engine technology, and we're evolving it to incorporate scene reconstruction (gaussian splatting, NeRFs), neural rendering, and diffusion-based techniques. Leading this evolution is central to where the team is going. We're hiring a Director of Engineering to lead our Simulation & Graphics organization. Reporting to the VP of Engineering, you'll own the technical direction for two pods totaling roughly 10–15 people: a simulation and rendering pod focused on the engine and runtime, and a content and technical-art pod focused on world-building, assets, and tooling. You'll set strategy, hire and grow high-performing teams, and partner across engineering, ML, product, and customer-facing functions on cross-cutting initiatives that expand what our customers can do with the platform. Responsibilities Set technical direction. Own the multi-quarter roadmap for simulation, rendering, and content. Translate company-level objectives into a sequenced plan, and make the prioritization calls when the team can't do everything at once. Guide technical evolution. Lead the team through the next phase of the platform—incorporating scene reconstruction, neural rendering, and ML-powered content techniques alongside the existing real-time engine stack—without losing sight of the production system our customers rely on today. Manage and develop the team. Hire when you need to, level up the team you have, and create the conditions where strong technical contributors do their best work. Drive cross-functional execution. Partner with leaders across ML, platform, SDK, QA, and product to ship coherent, end-to-end capabilities. Own the operating cadence: planning, dependency management, and release readiness. Stay close to the engineering. You won't be writing production code, but you'll review architecture, weigh in on hard tradeoffs, and have informed opinions about the work. Recruit and close. Be the front door for senior candidates and the closer on the highest-priority hires. Top-tier rendering, simulation, and graphics talent is hard to find and expensive to mis-hire. Required Qualifications Leadership track record. 10+ years of engineering experience with at least 5 years leading technical teams, including managing senior individual contributors and ideally other managers. Domain expertise. A track record of delivering at the intersection of real-time rendering, simulation, or related graphics-heavy domains: video games, computer animation, VFX, virtual production, autonomous simulation, or similar. Experience leading change. You've taken a team through significant technical change—an engine upgrade, a re-architecture, a tools migration, a shift in content paradigm—and you understand the human side as well as the technical side. Technical judgment. You can hold your own in a discussion about renderer architecture, asset pipelines, GPU performance, and the tradeoffs between fidelity, performance, and authoring cost. Communication. You can explain a thorny tradeoff to a non-technical executive in five sentences and write a roadmap the team actually uses. Artistic sensibility. A real feel for what makes a scene look right, and the ability to speak that language with the artists and engineers building it. Preferred Qualifications Unreal Engine. Hands-on background and an opinionated view on its strengths and limitations. Modern rendering techniques. Familiarity with reconstruction-based methods (gaussian splatting, NeRFs), neural rendering, or diffusion-based content generation. C++ depth. Track record of leading C++-heavy codebases. Our engineering team works primarily in C++. Adjacent fields. Direct exposure to machine learning, computer vision, or autonomous systems. Cloud infrastructure. Experience with cloud-scale infrastructure for rendering and simulation. What Makes a Great Candidate You think like a builder. You're opinionated about the craft of rendering and simulation but undogmatic about the tools. You hire people stronger than you, give them room to operate, and take pride in the team's results. You communicate clearly and manage with respect. Base pay range of $200,000–$250,000 USD/CAD, depending on skills, qualifications, experience, and location. This role is based in the San Francisco Bay Area or Vancouver, BC, with hybrid expectations.