Founding Rendering Engineer

📍 NYC — Open to Relocation

💼 Full-time or Contract-to-hire

💸 Competitive salary + equity — based on experience

About our Company

We’re a small team of engineers, creatives, and researchers building new kinds of interactive experiences powered by AI. We’re launching The Interface: a platform for expressive, real-time characters that people can talk to and explore shared worlds alongside. It’s a mix of entertainment and social.

We just wrapped up YC (S25) and raised a sizeable seed round from top investors. Max (CEO) studied MechE at MIT, previously led AI initiatives at McKinsey; Peyton (CTO) is an MIT CS grad and former quant at Citadel. We’re setting up in NYC — a hacker house-style space — and moving quickly toward launch.

About the Role

We’re looking for a Founding Rendering Engineer to bring our characters and worlds to life in real time with technical artistry. This role blends engineering and creativity: you’ll be building hyperrealistic, expressive characters today, while laying the foundation for immersive scenes and environments to come.

You’ll be the first hire dedicated to rendering and 3D systems, working with relevant tools (e.g. Unreal, Unity, or similar) to craft visuals that feel alive, responsive, and deeply engaging. This is a role for someone who wants to push the limits of real-time graphics and help define how users experience interactive AI.

What You’ll Do

• Build and refine expressive, real-time characters (faces, bodies, animations)
• Develop and optimize rendering pipelines, shaders, and animation systems
• Implement lip-syncing and real-time voice-driven facial/body animation
• Prototype and experiment with new visual techniques and workflows
• Collaborate with AI engineers to tightly integrate visuals with behavior and personality
• Help define the visual identity and polish of The Interface

You Might Be a Fit If You

• Have 3–6+ years of experience in 3D rendering, graphics, or technical art
• Are highly skilled with relevant tools (e.g. Unreal, Unity, or similar )
• Have experience with hyperrealistic or stylized rendering pipelines for games, film, or immersive media
• Understand facial rigs, lip-syncing, animation, shaders, or motion capture
• Are excited by real-time, interactive visuals — pushing beyond offline rendering
• Thrive in fast-moving, experimental environments with lots of creative ownership

Why Join Us

• You’ll be one of the first 5 team members
• You’ll work directly with the founders (MIT backgrounds, bias to action)
• We just raised a sizeable seed round and are backed by top investors
• You’ll own the visual layer of our product — the characters and worlds users engage with
• We’re building an entertainment product and want to have fun doing it
• You’ll have real influence over what we build and how we grow