Principal Graphics Engineer

Parallelz · Austin, TX · 2 mo ago

RemoteRemoteEngineeringFull-time

About The Role

We are seeking a passionate and resilient Principal Graphics Engineer to own a foundational piece of our infrastructure: the rendering and runtime layer that lets unmodified mobile apps execute and stream pixel-perfect, low-latency experiences to any browser. You will spend your time deep in graphics pipelines, shaders, GPU compositing, frame timing, and the cross-stack interactions between Android/Linux graphics, browser engines, and WebGL/WebGPU. The role demands first-principles thinking, an instinct for getting to the root of difficult problems, and the maturity to ship performance-critical code that holds up at scale.

What You'll Do

Own the design, implementation, and evolution of our graphics and rendering stack across native (Android/Linux) and web (WebGL, WebGPU) targets
Write efficient, maintainable, performance-critical C/C++ for system-level and rendering components, with hard requirements on frame budgets, memory, and latency
Profile and tune the full pipeline: CPU/GPU bottlenecks, shader cost, texture and buffer management, compositor interactions, and end-to-end streaming latency
Investigate and resolve faults in complex environments, tracing issues from the browser engine down through the runtime to the OS, kernel, and graphics driver
Drive upgrades to the underlying platforms (AOSP versions, browser engines, GLES/WebGPU evolution) while keeping the system stable and shippable
Partner with other teams to define and implement robust testing strategies for rendering correctness, performance regressions, and cross-device fidelity
Operate as a senior independent contributor: scope your own work, drive it to completion, and communicate clearly with a small, high-trust team
Work natively with AI coding agents and tooling (Claude Code, Cursor, agentic workflows, custom internal agents) to accelerate research, prototyping, code generation, debugging, and review, treating these tools as a junior pair you direct and verify, not a passenger

Requirements

Strong systems programming foundation: C/C++ proficiency on performance-critical, low-level codebases, with deep familiarity with Linux and OS-level internals
Deep experience with one or more real-time graphics stacks: OpenGL ES, WebGL, WebGPU, Vulkan, Metal, or DirectX, including shader programming, GPU memory and pipeline optimization, and frame/latency budgeting
Track record of owning complex, multi-component graphics or systems products end-to-end, from research prototype through production at scale
Daily fluency with AI coding agents and LLM tooling, with a clear bias toward verifying and pushing back on AI output rather than accepting it
A "dig until it bleeds" investigative instinct: the drive to understand every layer of the system
Strong written communication and a self-directed working style suited to a small, senior, high-trust team

We'd Love to See Depth In Two Or More Of The Following

Browser engine internals (Chromium/Blink, Gecko, WebKit), particularly the graphics, compositor, or rendering subsystems
Game engine internals, real-time renderers, or GPU compute frameworks
Android internals and custom AOSP development (kernel, HAL, SurfaceFlinger, System Services, GMS, Android Build System)
Android/Linux graphics stack (EGL, Gralloc, DRM/KMS, Mesa) and graphics driver work
Web platform technologies: WebAssembly, WebRTC, and the surrounding browser security/sandboxing model
Containers and virtualization (LXC, namespaces, cgroups) and their interaction with hardware-accelerated graphics
Real-time network and socket programming, including low-latency streaming protocols and frame pacing
Linux device driver programming

Nice-to-Haves