PROGRAMMING - SPECIAL PROJECTS

What We Do

The Special Projects team at Epic is responsible for executing high-impact projects that push the envelope to define the future of real-time graphics and gaming technology (The Matrix Awakens, Lumen in the Land of Nanite). In collaboration with the Unreal Engine team, we strive to put our technology and knowledge into the hands of users, empowering developers and content creators with the most powerful suite of real-time tools in the world.

What You'll Do

You will work with our team of applied research programmers at the intersection of computer vision, gameplay agents, natural language processing, and machine learning to create state-of-the-art tools to support game developers in our ecosystem with a focus on bots (trained gameplay agents, intelligent NPCs, companions, world modeling), as well as automation of a number key areas (including moderation, security, and QA testing). You will be responsible for the design, implementation and deployment of production-ready machine learning models that can be integrated in our ecosystem.

In this role, you will

• Create and deliver production-ready, scalable and high-quality machine learning models and associated algorithms that can make actions in game environments
• Critically assess the effectiveness of such models and make recommendations for the ongoing roadmap
• Methodically understand and assess the effectiveness of new data channels and support collection/creation of new ones

What we're looking for

• PhD in Computer Science, Mathematics or related field, or 3+ years of relevant industry experience
• Experience creating / applying machine learning algorithms for action modeling of bots behavior, vision-based or language-instructed, and deploying them as production-level systems in-game
• Expert, hands-on knowledge of:
  • Deep learning, incl. but not limited to applications in the gaming industry
  • Foundational models and vision and/or language, especially vision-language-action models, reinforcement learning agents, incl. local deployment and model post-training of open weights models
  • Reinforcement learning, incl. experience with agentic systems, reward design, policy optimisation, evaluation, and building scalable training environments for agents
  • Python and associated ML tools/frameworks (numpy, scipy, sklearn, pytorch)
• Experience with working collaboratively with other developers, following a flexible/agile/lean approach

This role is open to multiple locations across North America & Europe (including NYC).

Pay Transparency Information

The expected annual base pay range(s) for this position are detailed below. Each base pay range is relevant only for individuals who are residents of or will be expected to work within the specified locale. Compensation varies based on a variety of factors, which include (but aren’t limited to) things such as skills and competencies, qualifications, knowledge, and experience. In addition to base pay, most employees are eligible to participate in Epic’s generous benefit plans and discretionary incentive programs (subject to the terms of those plans or programs).