RESEARCH & DEV ENGINEER II

Duke Careers • Durham, NC

1d • $66,587 - $100,880

About The Position

The Suthana Lab seeks a highly skilled Research & Development Engineer to design, develop, and integrate immersive virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR) platforms and synchronized wearable technology systems for neuroscience and health-related research. This role focuses on building the software content, experimental environments, and technical infrastructure that support advanced neuroscience studies, including ecologically valid and real-time interactive paradigms. The Research & Development Engineer will work closely with neuroscientists, engineers, clinicians, and creative collaborators to translate scientific concepts into deployable VR/AR content and robust multimodal technology platforms. The position requires strong expertise in real-time software development, hardware synchronization, and interdisciplinary collaboration at the intersection of engineering, neuroscience, and digital media.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Engineering, Computer Science, Biomedical Engineering, Game Design, or a related technical field, or equivalent professional experience.
• Demonstrated expertise developing VR/AR applications using Unity and/or Unreal Engine.
• Strong programming skills in C#, C++, and/or Python.
• Experience integrating and synchronizing multiple hardware devices in real-time systems.
• Ability to work independently while collaborating effectively within interdisciplinary teams.
• Strong communication and technical documentation skills.

Nice To Haves

• Experience developing VR/AR platforms for health, neuroscience, or research-oriented applications.
• Familiarity with wearable sensing technologies, including eye tracking, inertial measurement units, motion capture, or physiological monitoring.
• Experience with multimodal data synchronization and real-time streaming systems.
• Prior collaboration with artists or designers on interactive digital content.
• Familiarity with version control systems (e.g., Git) and reproducible software development workflows.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement immersive VR/AR applications using Unity and/or Unreal Engine to support neuroscience and health research.
• Develop interactive tasks, environments, and game-based content optimized for experimental control, modularity, and reproducibility.
• Translate high-level scientific goals into functional VR/AR paradigms in collaboration with research teams.
• Maintain and extend reusable software frameworks for rapid prototyping and deployment across studies.
• Develop and maintain pipelines for integrating head-mounted displays (HMDs) with wearable and peripheral devices, including eye tracking, motion capture, physiological sensors, and neural interfaces.
• Implement precise time synchronization, triggering, and logging across software and hardware systems.
• Support real-time data streaming and offline alignment of multimodal data sources to ensure accurate temporal correspondence.
• Write clean, modular, and well-documented code in C#, C++, Python, or related languages.
• Develop internal tools for experiment control, device communication, calibration, and data management.
• Contribute to shared codebases using version control and software engineering best practices.
• Support testing, validation, and documentation of software and hardware platforms.
• Collaborate with scientists, engineers, artists, and designers to create visually compelling and scientifically grounded interactive content.
• Participate in iterative design and rapid prototyping cycles to refine experimental platforms.
• Support adaptation of VR/AR content across virtual, augmented, and mixed-reality modalities.

Benefits

• Duke provides comprehensive and competitive medical and dental care programs, generous retirement benefits, and a wide array of family- friendly and cultural programs to eligible team members.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level