Principal Software Engineer (Graphics)

Cadence Design Systems, Inc.; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Cadence Design Systems, Inc. is seeking a Principal/Lead Software Engineer for Graphics to design, develop, and maintain graphics capabilities for MSC Apex and related engineering software platforms.

You will own graphics workflows, rendering integration, visualization components, and performance improvements in engineering desktop applications. Collaborate with senior engineers, architects, product teams, and QA to deliver reliable, maintainable graphics functionality.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science or related engineering discipline.
• 10+ years of software engineering delivering desktop applications, preferably in engineering/CAD/CAE or graphics.
• Strong C++ in production-quality desktop apps.
• Experience with graphics components integrating with geometry kernels and rendering services.
• Experience with VTK/OpenGL/OpenSceneGraph/DirectX/Vulkan or equivalent rendering frameworks.
• Understanding of scene graphs, rendering pipelines, and large-model visualization.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and maintain graphics and visualization capabilities for engineering desktop applications.
• Implement rendering, model display, view manipulation, selection, and visualization workflows.
• Work with graphics frameworks, rendering pipelines, and visualization libraries to meet product requirements.
• Analyze and resolve graphics defects, performance bottlenecks, and memory issues.
• Collaborate with architects and engineers on design direction and take ownership of components.
• Support code reviews, test planning, and integration; provide guidance to junior engineers.

Skills

C++

Graphics programming

Rendering pipelines

GPU performance

Large-model visualization

Education

Bachelor’s or Master’s in Computer Science/Engineering

Tools

VTK

Ogre

OpenGL

DirectX

Vulkan

HOOPS

OpenSceneGraph

RenderDoc

NVIDIA Nsight

Job description

HOME CHINA

SHANGHAI

Full time

R56781

At Cadence, we hire and develop leaders and innovators who want to make an impact on the world of technology.

Position Summary We are seeking a Principal/Lead Software Engineer for Graphics to design, develop, and maintain graphics-related capabilities for MSC Apex and related engineering software platforms. This role is focused on hands-on implementation and technical ownership of graphics workflows, rendering integration, visualization components, and performance improvements. The successful candidate will collaborate with senior engineers, architects, product teams, and QA to deliver reliable, maintainable, and user-friendly graphics functionality for engineering desktop applications.

Key Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and maintain graphics and visualization capabilities for engineering desktop applications, with emphasis on reliability, usability, performance, and maintainability.
• Implement graphics features related to rendering, model display, selection, interaction, view manipulation, annotation, color mapping, and visualization workflows.
• Work with graphics frameworks, rendering pipelines, and visualization libraries to support product requirements and improve user workflows.
• Analyze and resolve graphics defects, rendering issues, performance bottlenecks, memory problems, and platform-specific visualization behavior.
• Collaborate with architects and principal engineers on design direction while taking ownership of assigned components and feature implementation.
• Support code reviews, technical discussions, test planning, and integration activities for graphics-related features.
• Provide technical guidance to junior engineers when needed, while continuing to contribute as a hands-on developer.

Required Qualifications Education

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Mechanical Engineering, Computational Engineering, Computer-Aided Engineering, Applied Mathematics, or a related engineering discipline.

Required Qualifications Experience

• 10+ years of software engineering experience delivering commercial or enterprise desktop applications, preferably in engineering, CAD/CAE, scientific visualization, or graphics-intensive software domains.
• Strong experience developing graphics or visualization features, including rendering workflows, interactive model display, view manipulation, selection, highlighting, annotations, and graphics performance improvements.
• Strong hands-on experience with C++ in production-quality desktop application development.
• Experience implementing graphics components that integrate with geometry kernels, rendering services, data models, visualization pipelines, and product workflows.
• Experience with graphics and visualization technologies such as VTK, Ogre, OpenGL, DirectX, Vulkan, HOOPS, OpenSceneGraph, or equivalent rendering frameworks used in engineering applications.
• Understanding of scene graphs, rendering pipelines, mesh visualization, camera/view transformations, picking/selection, clipping, transparency, lighting, materials, and large-model visualization concepts.
• Experience diagnosing graphics defects, rendering artifacts, UI responsiveness issues, memory leaks, threading problems, and performance bottlenecks in complex desktop applications.
• Experience with Windows desktop application development and graphics behavior across different hardware and display configurations.
• Experience optimizing rendering performance for large engineering models, including level-of-detail strategies, batching, culling, GPU resource management, and frame-rate analysis.

Technical Skills

• Strong proficiency in C++ for graphics-enabled engineering software development.
• Hands-on experience with graphics programming concepts such as rendering pipelines, scene graphs, model display, camera/view transformations, picking, selection, highlighting, clipping, transparency, lighting, materials, and display updates.
• Experience with visualization and rendering technologies such as VTK, Ogre, OpenGL, DirectX, Vulkan, HOOPS, OpenSceneGraph, or comparable graphics infrastructure.
• Knowledge of mesh and geometry visualization, tessellation, finite element model display, contour plots, scalar/vector field visualization, annotations, color maps, and engineering post-processing workflows.
• Experience optimizing rendering performance for large-scale engineering models, including level-of-detail, batching, frustum/occlusion culling, GPU memory usage, draw-call reduction, and frame-rate analysis.
• Strong debugging skills using tools such as Visual Studio Debugger, WinDbg, GDB, LLDB, crash dump analysis, stack traces, graphics debuggers, logging frameworks, and diagnostic instrumentation.
• Experience with memory, performance, and graphics diagnostics using tools such as Valgrind, AddressSanitizer, ThreadSanitizer, Intel VTune, Windows Performance Analyzer, Linux perf, RenderDoc, NVIDIA Nsight, AMD Radeon GPU Profiler, or similar profiling tools.
• Familiarity with automated testing strategies for graphics components, including regression testing, image comparison, performance validation, and platform/hardware compatibility testing.

Soft Skills

• Strong communication and collaboration skills.
• Problem-solving and analytical thinking.
• Ability to work independently and in a team environment.

N/A We’re doing work that matters. Help us solve what others can’t.

Equal Employment Opportunity Policy:

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Cadence plays a critical role in creating the technologies that modern life depends on. We are a global electronic design automation company, providing software, hardware, and intellectual property to design advanced semiconductor chips that enable our customers create revolutionary products and experiences.

Thanks to the outstanding caliber of the Cadence team and the empowering culture that we have cultivated for over 25 years, Cadence continues to be recognized by Fortune Magazine as one of the 100 Best Companies to Work For. Our shared passion for solving the world’s toughest technical challenges, our dedication to pushing the limits of the industry, and our drive to do meaningful work differentiates the people of Cadence.

Cadence is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, sex, age, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, status as a veteran, basis of disability, or any other protected class.

Cadence is committed to creating a diverse environment and is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, sex, age, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, status as a veteran, basis of disability, or any other protected class.