Principal Rendering Engineer

Roblox; San Mateo (CA); On-site; USD 295,000 - 345,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity compensation

Benefits package

Job summary

Roblox is seeking a Rendering Engineer in San Mateo, CA to advance our in-house rendering engine. You will tackle high‑fidelity, cross‑device graphics challenges and contribute to a dynamic, scalable graphics pipeline.

The role requires deep expertise in C++, shading languages, and real‑time rendering with 6+ years of experience, plus familiarity with GPU APIs. Office-based role with equity and benefits.

Qualifications

• Proficiency in C++ and shading languages.
• Strong knowledge of 3D math and graphics algorithms.
• Experience with OpenGL, DirectX and similar GPU APIs.
• Ability to reason about code performance and memory consumption.
• 6+ years of real-time rendering experience.
• Interest in creating innovative rendering techniques.
• Passion for state-of-the-art rendering research.
• Mobile or console development experience.

Responsibilities

• Investigate and implement rendering techniques to make Roblox graphics more immersive.
• Learn about our community and work with technical artists to understand creators' needs.
• Help improve the performance and stability of our game engine.
• Collaborate with other engineering and art teams.
• Take ownership of a project throughout its full lifecycle.

Skills

C++

Shading languages

3D math

GPU APIs (OpenGL/DirectX)

Performance analysis

6+ years real-time rendering

Mobile/console development

Job description

Every day, tens of millions of people come to Roblox to explore, create, play, learn, and connect with friends in 3D immersive digital experiences– all created by our global community of developers and creators.

At Roblox, we’re building the tools and platform that empower our community to bring any experience that they can imagine to life. Our vision is to reimagine the way people come together, from anywhere in the world, and on any device.We’re on a mission to connect a billion people with optimism and civility, and looking for amazing talent to help us get there.

A career at Roblox means you’ll be working to shape the future of human interaction, solving unique technical challenges at scale, and helping to create safer, more civil shared experiences for everyone.

Join some of the best Graphics Engineers in the world supporting the largest immersive 3D streaming environment deployed across console, desktop, mobile, and VR.

• Scalability: Roblox provides a platform that guarantees to the creators that their games will always and automatically run on different devices, with cross-platform play and minimal load times.
• Compatibility: Roblox games and assets made in the past, are still working today. Rendering has to have an eye to the past, and an eye to the future…
• Community: Roblox games are made by creators of all experience levels, from professionals who earn their living on the platform to kids who are learning to program using Roblox!

As a Rendering Engineer, you will solve difficult challenges, while continuing to build a high-speed, completely dynamic environments connected on all devices.

Many established rendering techniques do not trivially apply to our platform - novel solutions are needed as we push Roblox towards higher targets of visual fidelity. Even the simpler visuals we support on low‑power devices are enabled by some creative rendering ideas, often centered around caching, incremental computation and graceful degradation.

All of this is based on an in‑house rendering engine built from the ground up, supporting DirectX 9/11, OpenGL, GNM, Metal, and Vulkan GAPI's. We have a powerful need for top‑notch, low‑level and high‑level graphics work.

You Will:

• Help investigate and implement rendering techniques to make ROBLOX graphics more immersive and expressive
• Learn about our community and work with technical artists to understand the present and future needs of our creators
• Help improve the performance and stability of our game engine
• Work with other engineering and art teams
• Take ownership of a project throughout its full lifecycle

You Have:

• Knowledge of C++ and shading languages
• Knowledge of 3D math and computer graphics related algorithms
• Knowledge of one or more GPU APIs (OpenGL, DirectX and similar)
• The ability to reason about code performance and memory consumption
• 6+ years experience in real‑time rendering
• Interest in creating creative rendering techniques
• Passion about the state‑of‑the‑art in rendering research
• Mobile or console development experience

For roles that are based at our headquarters in San Mateo, CA: The starting base pay for this position is as shown below. The actual base pay is dependent upon a variety of job‑related factors such as professional background, training, work experience, location, business needs and market demand. Therefore, in some circumstances, the actual salary could fall outside of this expected range. This pay range is subject to change and may be modified in the future. All full‑time employees are also eligible for equity compensation and for benefits as described on this page.

Annual Salary Range$295,250—$345,040 USD

Roles that are based in an office are onsite Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, with optional presence on Monday and Friday (unless otherwise noted).

Roblox provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws. Roblox also provides reasonable accommodations to candidates with qualifying disabilities or religious beliefs during the recruiting process.

For US based roles only, please note the Company may not be able to employ candidates for this role who have United States work authorization related to certain U.S. visa categories, or support future H-1B sponsorship at this time.