Principal Research & Design Engineer

Responsibilities

• Lead applied research projects focused on using AI to improve workshop operations, fabrication workflows, and design-to-make systems
• Identify high-impact operational problems across the Technology Center, including machine scheduling, utilization, training, maintenance, safety, documentation, and project execution
• Design, prototype, and validate AI-enabled tools, workflows, dashboards, agents, data pipelines, and decision-support systems for physical workshop environments
• Work with data from machines, sensors, job queues, CAM workflows, maintenance logs, user activity, project documentation, and other operational systems
• Develop and evaluate AI and machine learning approaches, including generative AI, computer vision, optimization, predictive analytics, natural language interfaces, and edge AI where appropriate
• Collaborate closely with Workshop Specialists, Research and Design Engineers, Autodesk Researchers, residents, product teams, and external partners to translate operational needs into well-scoped research experiments
• Conduct hands-on experimentation in the Technology Center using fabrication equipment and workshop infrastructure, including CNC machines, robotics, additive manufacturing systems, and related tools
• Help define safe, practical, and responsible uses of AI in shared workshop and research environments
• Build robust, testable prototypes that can be deployed and evaluated in real-world operational contexts, not only demonstrated in controlled settings
• Analyze results and communicate findings clearly through visualizations, written reports, presentations, demonstrations, and working prototypes
• Contribute to Autodesk Research's broader understanding of how AI will reshape the future of design, manufacturing, construction, and making
• Stay current with advances in applied AI, manufacturing informatics, industrial automation, digital fabrication, human-machine interaction, and operational intelligence

Requirements

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Robotics, Data Science, Manufacturing, Architecture, Industrial Design, Operations Research, or a related technical field, or equivalent professional experience
• Significant professional experience applying AI, machine learning, data science, automation, or computational systems to practical, real-world problems
• Strong programming skills and experience working with data pipelines, APIs, databases, machine learning frameworks, or cloud-based AI services
• Experience designing experiments, building prototypes, and evaluating technical systems in ambiguous or emerging problem spaces
• Comfort working with physical systems, hardware, sensors, machines, or workshop/lab environments
• Ability to translate complex operational challenges into research questions, tec

Benefits

Additional Information

Job Requisition ID # 26WD98879 Position Overview The work we do at Autodesk touches nearly every person on the planet. By creating software tools for making buildings, machines, products, infrastructure, and the latest movies and games, we empower some of the most creative people in the world to solve problems that matter. As a Principal Research and Design Engineer, AI Operations at the Autodesk Technology Center in Boston, you will lead applied research at the intersection of artificial intelligence, advanced fabrication, and real-world workshop operations. This role bridges the digital and physical worlds: you will identify operational challenges in a working technology center, develop AI-enabled systems to address them, and validate those systems through hands-on experimentation with people, machines, materials, and data. The Autodesk Technology Centers catalyze new possibilities for design and make through the power of connection. We bring together researchers, customers, residents, start-ups, academic collaborators, and industry leaders to speculate, test, and demonstrate what the future of making could become. The Technology Center Workshops are physical environments with advanced fabrication capabilities, including CNC equipment, robotics, additive manufacturing, electronics, wood, metal, composites, and project assembly spaces. In this role, you will focus on how AI can improve the operations of advanced design-and-make environments. This may include machine utilization, workflow planning, job scheduling, safety and training systems, documentation, predictive maintenance, quality control, fabrication intelligence, and data-informed decision-making across workshop environments. The ideal candidate has strong experience applying AI, machine learning, data systems, or computational methods to real-world operational problems, along with a genuine interest in physical making. Experience working with CNC equipment, CAM workflows, robotics, digital fabrication, or manufacturing environments is highly valuable. This is a hands-on research role for someone who can move between strategy, code, data, equipment, and the shop floor.

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