Principal Applied Scientist

The opportunity
At Unity, we’re shaping the future of real-time 3D development by enabling creators to harness intelligent, autonomous systems. As we expand our next-generation agentic AI—adaptive, goal-driven, and capable of reasoning about complex environments—we’re investing in research that pushes how large models perceive and understand 3D worlds.

We’re looking for a Principal Applied Scientist to lead this work. In this role, you'll focus on advancing multimodal LLMs, strengthening spatial reasoning, and building world models that help creators author rich, interactive experiences. Your research will directly influence how agentic systems are built inside the Unity engine and how developers bring their ideas to life through more intuitive AI-driven workflows.

This role is ideal for someone excited to explore new frontiers in multimodal modeling, grounded reasoning, and AI-assisted content creation.

What you'll be doing

• Drive initiatives to improve spatial reasoning in large models, including understanding scene layouts, object relationships, navigation, and 3D dynamics.

• Develop and refine world modeling approaches that allow AI systems to build, maintain, and reason over structured representations of complex game environments.

• Advance multimodal LLM architectures that integrate text, vision, and spatial signals to support agentic game authoring and interactive creation tools.

• Prototype new AI-assisted workflows, such as natural-language scene editing, spatial instruction following, or agent behavior specification.

• Collaborate with engineering and product teams to translate research innovations into production-ready features and tools.

• Define evaluation strategies and benchmarks grounded in real game-development scenarios to ensure models are robust, reliable, and performant.

• Contribute to the long-term vision for Unity’s agentic AI ecosystem, balancing usability, scalability, and creator empowerment.

• Mentor scientists and engineers while fostering a collaborative, innovative, and inclusive technical culture.

What we're looking for

• Advanced degree (MS or Ph.D.) in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Robotics, or a related field - or equivalent practical experience.

• Deep expertise in multimodal LLMs, spatial reasoning, world models, or closely related areas.

• Proven track record of research impact, through publications or applied contributions to production systems.

• Hands-on experience building and evaluating large models, particularly those grounded in perception or environment-based reasoning.

• Proficiency in Python and experience with modern ML frameworks such as PyTorch or TensorFlow.

• Strong understanding of environment-agent interaction, simulation frameworks, or embodied AI.

• Ability to translate research ideas into high-quality, practical systems.

• Excellent communication skills and experience collaborating with cross-functional teams including engineers, designers, and product managers.

You might also have

• Experience integrating AI research into game engines or real-time simulations.

• Familiarity with Unity or other 3D engines.

• Background in reinforcement learning, planning, or agentic systems.

• Experience working with multimodal datasets or synthetic data pipelines.

• Passion for empowering creators and improving the AI-assisted authoring experience.

Additional information

• International relocation support is not available for this position

Life at Unity
We offer a wide range of benefits designed to support employees' well-being and work-life balance. You can read more about them on our career page.

Unity [NYSE: U] is the leading platform to create and grow games and interactive experiences. Creators, ranging from game developers to artists, architects, automotive designers, infrastructure experts, filmmakers, and more, use Unity to bring their imaginations to life across multiple platforms, from mobile, PC, and console, to spatial computing.

As of the third quarter of 2024, more than 70% of the top 1,000 mobile games were made with Unity, and in 2024, Made with Unity applications had an average of 3.7 billion downloads per month. For more information, please visit Unity.

Unity is a proud equal opportunity employer. We are committed to fostering an inclusive, innovative environment and celebrate our employees across age, race, color, ancestry, national origin, religion, disability, sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, or any other protected status in accordance with applicable law. Our differences are strengths that enable us to support the growing and evolving needs of our customers, partners, and collaborators. If you have a disability that means there are preparations or accommodations we can make to help ensure you have a comfortable and positive interview experience, please fill out this form to let us know.

Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

This position requires the incumbent to have a sufficient knowledge of English to have professional verbal and written exchanges in this language since the performance of the duties related to this position requires frequent and regular communication with colleagues and partners located worldwide and whose common language is English.

Headhunters and recruitment agencies may not submit resumes/CVs through this Web site or directly to managers. Unity does not accept unsolicited headhunter and agency resumes. Unity will not pay fees to any third-party agency or company that does not have a signed agreement with Unity.

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*Note: Certain locations require a good faith disclosure of the base salary range for the role. The actual salary for the successful candidate may differ based on location, experience, and other job-related factors.

Gross pay salary
$188,000—$358,000 USD