Oculus VR is adding more than 100 jobs as it plots its augmented reality expansion
But the company is currently on one the likes of which we haven’t seen before.
The Oculus Rift maker has over 100 positions listed on its careers page across a range of fields right now. Thirty-one of these listings are for roles at Oculus Research, the Redmond-based division of the company dedicated to long-term study of the future of VR in all areas. Notable jobs include an “AR Incubation Lead” to head up a team that will “build AR technology that opens the path to everyday use for a billion people,” and a “Silicon Systems Architect” to “drive the development of our next-generation Si compute platform.”
There’s a reason Research is going on a hiring spree. At the Oculus Connect 3 conference earlier this month, chief scientist Michael Abrash spoke of many areas of VR technology that he expects will improve in the next five years, making it clear that there’s plenty of work to be done. On top of the hires, Oculus recently put out a call for research in several fields with a $250,000 grant on offer.
Many of the other listings are in “Software Engineering” and ‘Hardware Engineering,” which are largely split between its headquarters in Menlo Park and offices in Seattle. Oculus spokesperson Brandon Boone told UploadVR in an email that the Software team builds the “core technology which powers the Rift” as well as software for Gear VR and “future devices”. More obviously, the Hardware team works on “successful builds, prototypes, ideation, and final Oculus Hardware products.”
Boone teased that there was “more coming in the near future,” too.
“Specifically, we are hiring a range of talent across Engineering, Design, Operations, and Content. A majority of our needs are in engineering in the following areas: Hardware (Optical, Electrical, and Mechanical), Computer Vision, Platform and Applications Software,” he wrote. “These positions will scale our Product teams (Menlo Park and Seattle), Research Labs (Redmond, WA) and recently expanded international operations locations in APAC (Shanghai) and EMEA (Cork, London, and Zurich).”
His mention of the Irish city Cork also refers to Oculus’ acquisition of low power LED display company InfiniLED, which was announced this month. Combine all of that with the $500 million that the company is investing in VR content, and it is clear that money is no object in the company’s quest for better VR.
This post first appeared on UploadVR.
