Technical Designer (Unreal Engine) – Mixed Reality Design

At Microsoft, we have bold ambitions: Empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. To accomplish this, the Mixed Reality Design and UX Research team is looking for divergent thinkers and makers who explore and learn by making, obsess over every degree, pixel, word, and sound wave, and bring their curiosity and passion to re-imaging the relationship between people and technology. In 2015, we launched HoloLens, the world’s first spatial computing device and platform, with the mission of empowering people to transform their world. In 2021, we continue that journey with the core belief that mixed reality can bring people closer and help them go further.

Microsoft’s Mixed Reality Design and UX Research team is looking for a customer-focused technical designer with creative and technical expertise in 3D design, prototyping, and coding, and the curiosity, creativity, empathy, and engineering passion to define the spatial future of computing. This role requires expertise with the Unreal engine.

As a Technical Designer, you will be focused on bringing our core product experience to life through prototypes, iteration, validation, and final production. Using Unreal, you will work with our interdisciplinary team to turn customer insights into transformative experiences and the design patterns that unify Microsoft’s mixed reality software, hardware, and services. You’ll explore and demonstrate the path ahead for Microsoft’s MR products with both quick demos and, later, highly refined MR experiences.

In this role, you will combine the technical expertise of a game engineer with the focus of an interaction designer and the rapid approach of a prototyper. You will bring your unique perspective to our insights-based process as we seek new ways that technology and our platform can empower people and groups to transform the world. You’ll lead by making in our highly collaborative, cross-disciplinary environment, where we test early, test often, and tirelessly push for the best. You’ll bring your creative and technical expertise to be a bridge between design and engineering, and utilize your hands-on skills to develop the design intent through prototyping and iterative refinement, all the way from concept to completion. There is no bigger opportunity than defining the foundation of mixed reality computing, communication, and creativity with our team, and we cannot wait to see what you will bring!

Responsibilities

As a Technical Designer you will have the following responsibilities:

• Collaborate with product design, user research, and engineering to create interactive prototypes that explore innovative design concepts, act as reference for customer research, and bring ideas from pre-production to production.
• Take the best of those prototypes to final coding, and help release as Unreal-based open-source components, samples, and mixed-reality apps
• Actively bridge design and engineering, advising design teams on engineering constraints and advising engineering teams on design intent and capturing the desired feel of an experience. Seek inclusive and divergent feedback from peers and leads to iteratively improve product experience

• Contribute to broad, shared understanding of experiential and technical factors across all disciplines.
• Collaborate across disciplines to solve deep experiential and technical problems and drive incredible final experiences
• Stay on top of the latest insights and design practices across software, web, gaming, and AR/VR industries
• Be a positive, creative, and technical leader on the team

Qualifications

Required:

• 3-5 years of experience as a front-end Unreal engineer or creative technologist prototyping UX or building shipping experiences in Unreal, and equivalent game engines (Unity, web, mobile, etc.)
• Front-end development skills with a focus on interaction design, animation, performance, or immersive experiences
• Experience prototyping for MR experiences
• Degree in computer science, 3D design, interaction or equivalent industry experience

• Able to build, maintain, and debug production-quality C++ code
• Strong proficiency in mathematics (linear algebra, trigonometry)
• Expert-level experience with the Unreal Engine; experience with other 3D engines
• Working knowledge of modern app and web UI frameworks
• Experience building or consuming APIs and familiarity with web and cloud infrastructure

• A good understanding of interaction and user experience design best practices and workflows. Able to add value in design-thinking discussions.
• Track-record of evangelism and helping others (published guidance/documentation, social-media, hackathons, presentations)
• Fundamental understanding of Interaction Design, 3D design, technical art, and gameplay
• Create rapid prototypes to demonstrate the functionality of your design

Preferred

• Expertise with Mixed Reality Toolkit (MRTK)
• Connecting Cloud Services (Azure, AWS) – leveraging the power of the Cloud through service integration (PlayFab, Xbox Live services)
• Designed a service for an experience-based product that has shipped
• Storyteller – proficient in storyboarding to showcase the end-to-end user experience
• Designed a User Interface in a Virtual or Augmented Reality product that has shipped
• Motion, 3D design, or technical art skills: you bring a refined aesthetic sense to your experiences
• Experience transforming raw input from sensors into enjoyable experiences
• Product design skills: you translate user needs and customer insights into interaction and UD design.

Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran status, race, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by applicable laws, regulations and ordinances.

Benefits/perks listed below may vary depending on the nature of your employment with Microsoft and the country where you work.