XR Camera and Machine Vision Engineer Graduate (PICO) – 2026 Start (PhD)

Bytedance; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 123,000 - 223,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, and vision insurance

401(k) with company match

Paid parental leave

Short-term and long-term disability

Life insurance

Wellbeing benefits

10 paid holidays per year

10 paid sick days per year

Paid Personal Time

Job summary

ByteDance's Pico division in San Jose invites a PhD‑level candidate to join our VR/AR vision team. You will advance power‑ and compute‑efficient machine vision for edge devices and contribute to next‑generation cameras and see‑through experiences.

You will collaborate across hardware and software disciplines, prototype real systems, and optimize perception models with real‑world data, aiming for robust, scalable solutions in enterprise applications.

Qualifications

• PhD in a technical field completed or near completion.
• Experience with cameras/optical image sensors and CV on real images.
• Hands-on hardware experience: PCB, FPGA, sensor bring-up, embedded.
• Strong Python and C/C++ programming skills.
• Proactive, self-motivated, strong communication in a multidisciplinary team.

Responsibilities

• Develop power- and computationally efficient machine vision perception systems.
• Camera system level HW and SW development.
• Design experiments and test platforms for visual performance evaluation.
• Optimize perception algorithms for edge devices with HW/SW architecture.
• Define specs for next generation VR/MR/AR cameras and see-through experiences.

Skills

PhD in EE/CS

Camera/vision experience

Hardware prototyping

Python

C/C++

Proactive communication

Education

PhD in EE/ECE/CS

Tools

PCB design

FPGA

Embedded hardware

Job description

Responsibilities About Team:

PICO is a leading VR/AR platform with independent innovation and R&D capabilities, focusing on VR all-in-one technology. PICO is committed to offering immersive and interactive VR experiences to our customers, including providing tailor‑made solutions for our enterprise clients in the fields of education and healthcare.

We are looking for talented individuals to join our team. As a graduate, you will get opportunities to pursue bold ideas, tackle complex challenges, and unlock limitless growth.

Successful candidates must be able to commit to an onboarding date by the end of the year. Please state your availability and graduation date clearly in your resume.

Responsibilities

• Develop power & computational efficient machine vision perception systems.
• Camera system level HW and SW development.
• Design experiments and test platforms for visual performance evaluation.
• Optimize machine vision algorithm/framework for edge devices with efficient HW/SW architecture.
• Define specs for next generation VR/MR/AR cameras and see-through experiences.

Qualifications Minimum Qualifications

• Individuals who are completing or have recently completed a PhD in EE, ECE, CS, Applied Physics, or a related technical discipline.
• Direct experience with cameras / optical image sensors and computer vision on real images — CMOS/CIS, event cameras, computational imaging, or camera-based perception.
• Hands‑on hardware: physically built and prototype real systems (PCB, FPGA, sensor/optical front‑end bring‑up, embedded).
• Modern ML/vision: research‑level computer vision, efficient perception, or foundation models, with real understanding of what modern models need from the input data.
• Strong programming: Python and C/C (Matlab a plus).
• Proactive, self‑motivated, strong communication in a fast‑paced, highly multidisciplinary team.

Preferred Qualifications

• Work at the hardware–algorithm intersection: sensor‑algorithm co-design, near‑/in‑sensor compute, event cameras, computational imaging, efficient/edge perception.
• Fluency leveraging VLM/LLM/foundation models to build or accelerate perception systems.
• Low‑power/edge deployment, power‑performance modeling, or AI‑accelerator‑aware model design.
• 3D computer vision / reconstruction; image‑processing pipeline development.

Job Information

【For Pay Transparency】Compensation Description (Annually)

The base salary range for this position in the selected city is $122574 – $223200 annually.

Compensation may vary outside of this range depending on a number of factors, including a candidate’s qualifications, skills, competencies and experience, and location. Base pay is one part of the Total Package that is provided to compensate and recognize employees for their work, and this role may be eligible for additional discretionary bonuses/incentives, and restricted stock units.

Benefits may vary depending on the nature of employment and the country work location.

• medical, dental, and vision insurance
• a 401(k) savings plan with company match
• paid parental leave
• short-term and long-term disability coverage
• life insurance
• wellbeing benefits
• among others
• 10 paid holidays per year
• 10 paid sick days per year
• 17 days of Paid Personal Time (prorated upon hire with increasing accruals by tenure)

The Company reserves the right to modify or change these benefits programs at any time, with or without notice.

For Los Angeles County (unincorporated) Candidates:

Qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment in accordance with all federal, state, and local laws including the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers and the California Fair Chance Act. Our company believes that criminal history may have a direct, adverse and negative relationship on the following job duties, potentially resulting in the withdrawal of the conditional offer of employment:

• Interacting and occasionally having unsupervised contact with internal/external clients and/or colleagues;
• Appropriately handling and managing confidential information including proprietary and trade secret information and access to information technology systems; and
• Exercising sound judgment.

About Pico

Founded in April 2015, Pico is a VR company committed to developing immersive and interactive VR experiences for people around the world. Pico also provides tailor‑made solutions for our enterprise clients in the fields of education and healthcare.

Why Join ByteDance

Inspiring creativity is at the core of ByteDance’s mission. Our innovative products are built to help people authentically express themselves, discover and connect — and our global, diverse teams make that possible. Together, we create value for our communities, inspire creativity and enrich life – a mission we work towards every day.

As ByteDancers, we strive to do great things with great people. We lead with curiosity, humility, and a desire to make impact in a rapidly growing tech company. By constantly iterating and fostering an “Always Day 1” mindset, we achieve meaningful breakthroughs for ourselves, our Company, and our users. When we create and grow together, the possibilities are limitless. Join us.

Diversity & Inclusion

ByteDance is committed to creating an inclusive space where employees are valued for their skills, experiences, and unique perspectives. Our platform connects people from across the globe and so does our workplace. At ByteDance, our mission is to inspire creativity and enrich life. To achieve that goal, we are committed to celebrating our diverse voices and to creating an environment that reflects the many communities we reach. We are passionate about this and hope you are too.

Reasonable Accommodation

ByteDance is committed to providing reasonable accommodations in our recruitment processes for candidates with disabilities, pregnancy, sincerely held religious beliefs or other reasons protected by applicable laws. If you need assistance or a reasonable accommodation, please reach out to us at https://tinyurl.com/RA-request