Apple’s Technology Development Group is hiring for over 100 open roles in AR/VR development – and the tech giant is specifically looking for game developers to join its teams.
As we revealed last week, Apple acqui-hired two of Playdeo’s founders, Jack Schulze and Timo Arnall, for their pioneering work on mixed reality games Avo and Mystery Coast.
Bloomberg has suggested previously that Apple will enter the AR/VR space with a dedicated device sometime next year, but there are already hints at what’s to come on Apple’s recruitment site: a flurry of new AR/VR roles, many posted in the last month, show a range of new positions in AR/VR engineering, design and prototyping.
“Apple’s Technology Development Group is seeking developers skilled in building high performance interactive 3D simulation software,” the job specs read, which offer potential candidates the chance to “craft future products” at Apple.
Successful applicants will be “trailblazing the new medium of AR/VR”, and many would ideally come with “2+ years of experience developing games, ideally on multiple platforms”, say the job descriptions.
Unity and Unreal are also namechecked in several roles, and others require developers with experience in “connected experiences in a 3D mixed-reality world”, a “degree in Interaction Design, Game Design, Computer Science, or equivalent”, “familiarity with 3D graphics APIs or game engines,” and “experience developing 3D or AR/VR applications or games”.
Apple’s AR/VR division also invites developers with experience in “the film or games industries”, “visual effects, video games or CG research” and proficiency in “mathematics for 3D games” to apply for the roles.
The work is split geographically between different teams. AR/VR-related hardware work mostly takes place in Cupertino, Newport Beach and San Diego, while roles in the ‘software and services’ and ‘machine learning and AI’ parts of the business are spread wider, across Cupertino, Culver City, Seattle, Boulder, London, Munich, Stockholm and Paris.
Apple has been pushing augmented reality as a big part of its future since the introduction of ARKit in 2017. “I think AR is a profound technology that will affect everything,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said recently. “Imagine suddenly being able to teach with AR and demonstrate things that way. Or medically, and so on. Like I said, we are really going to look back and think about how we once lived without AR.”
