Staff Machine Learning Engineer

Why Sony Interactive Entertainment? Sony Interactive Entertainment isn’t just the Best Place to Play — it’s also the Best Place to Work. Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) is the company behind the PlayStation brand. As a subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation, we’re part of a proud legacy of innovation and excellence. SIE is a dynamic technology company, delivering cutting-edge hardware and network services to more than 100 million people and an entertainment leader, home to some of the most beloved and recognizable intellectual properties (IP) in the world. Our role at SIE is to create and nurture the experiences under the PlayStation brand, a name synonymous with entertainment excellence and creativity.

Role Description: We are looking for an independent, dedicated Staff Machine Learning Engineer to join Visual Computing Group (VCG) and contribute to redefining the world of game play and live streaming via advanced R&D. VCG’s mission is to design and deploy advanced neural networks and machine learning (ML) for game rendering and streaming systems of SIE that exceed the state-of-the-art in runtime efficiency, visual quality and latency.

What you’ll be doing:

• Develop and improve core generative models for graphics and video processing for a variety of applications, such as live video streaming, game rendering, etc.
• Research and prototyping of new methods for graphics or video enhancement, and data generation pipelines from generative models
• Collaborate with team members on drafting publications and patent submissions
• Participate and assist the team in core R&D work with other teams within Sony Interactive Entertainment

What we’re looking for:

• PhD or MSc in Computer Science, Electronic Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Computer Graphics or a related field, or equivalent skills evidenced by work experience in the specific domain of the post
• 7+ years of experience in demonstrable research experience in industry or academia
• Strong background in: TensorFlow or PyTorch; Python and packages/libraries related to computer vision or graphics; evidenced by the development of advanced applications in image/video/graphics processing or computer vision (minimum 7 years)
• Evidence of leading technical developments by several publications in top-tier conferences like CVPR, ECCV, ICCV, SIGGRAPH or similar
• Solid background in one or more of the following:
• (i) neural network architectures, evidenced (for example) by knowledge of how to formulate and test advanced loss functions in neural network design;
• (ii) design and test of advanced convolutional, recurrent, transformer-based, diffusion-based or other neural network architectures in a task-specific manner;
• (iii) some experience in training, validation and evaluation of deep neural network models on large datasets, evidenced by experience in using Python libraries like HDF5 or similar

Desired qualifications:

• Publications, e.g. in top-tier conferences and journals: IEEE Transactions on Image Processing, IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems for Video Technology, conferences like IEEE CVPR/ICCV/ECCV, NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, or similar
• Some theoretical understanding of the graphics pipeline, including coordinate transformations between frames of reference, PBR materials, rasterization, lighting, and ray tracing
• Experience in image processing theory and methods, evidenced by the development of practical designs in this area
• Some experience with 3D engines such as Unreal or Unity; in particular, generation of datasets, extraction of G-buffers, motion vectors, etc.

Benefits:

• Discretionary bonus opportunity
• Hybrid Working (within Flexmodes)
• Private Medical Insurance
• Dental Scheme
• 25 days holiday per year
• On Site Gym
• Subsidised Café
• Free soft drinks
• On site bar
• Access to cycle garage and showers

Please note, Sony Interactive Entertainment conducts background checks at the offer stage for all new employees (which may include criminal background checks for some roles) and will need to process personal information to support these checks.

Equal Opportunity Statement: Sony is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All persons will receive consideration for employment without regard to gender (including gender identity, gender expression and gender reassignment), race (including colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin), religion or belief, marital or civil partnership status, disability, age, sexual orientation, pregnancy, maternity or parental status, trade union membership or membership in any other legally protected category. We strive to create an inclusive environment, empower employees and embrace diversity. We encourage everyone to respond. Sony Interactive Entertainment is a Fair Chance employer and qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records will be considered for employment.