Senior 3D Generalist, Product Visualization (Contract)

San Mateo, California, United States- Full-time

Skydio is the leading US drone company and the world leader in autonomous flight, the key technology for the future of drones and aerial mobility. The Skydio team combines deep expertise in artificial intelligence, best-in-class hardware and software product development, operational excellence, and customer obsession to empower a broader, more diverse audience of drone users, from utility inspectors to first responders, soldiers in battlefield scenarios, and beyond.

About the role:

Skydio is looking for a highly skilled Senior 3D Generalist to join our Brand Creative team for a full-time, three-month contract. This role will support the development of product imagery, illustrations, animations, and interactive 3D assets for our annual user conference keynote and other high-priority brand and product-launch initiatives. You will report to the Senior 3D Art Director and Creative Director and collaborate closely with designers, animators, product marketers, engineers, and other cross-functional partners. This is a hands-on production role for someone who can take projects from prepared product CAD through final, polished visual deliverables. You should be equally comfortable cleaning and preparing complex product geometry, building physically accurate materials, lighting photorealistic scenes, animating product features, compositing final imagery, and optimizing assets for real-time web experiences.

Employment Type: Full-time, 3-month contract
Work Authorization: We welcome every qualified candidate who is eligible to work in The United States to apply. However, at this time, Skydio does not currently offer employment-based work permits or visa sponsorship for this role.
Location: U.S. Remote or hybrid/onsite at our HQ in San Mateo, California.

What You'll Do:

Create highly photorealistic product renderings, illustrations, and animations for keynote presentations, product launches, marketing campaigns, web experiences, decks, manuals, and other brand communications.
Work from engineering and industrial-design CAD models to create production-ready visualization assets in Blender.
Prepare complex CAD-derived geometry through tessellation, topology cleanup, normal correction, mesh organization, material separation, UV creation, and scene optimization.
Preserve the accuracy, construction, proportions, materials, and fit and finish of Skydio hardware throughout the visualization process.
Build realistic, physically based materials using Blender and Adobe Substance 3D Painter.
Create studio-quality lighting that accurately communicates product form, surface finish, scale, and industrial-design details.
Produce both clean studio imagery and environmental or conceptual scenes showing Skydio products in use.
Create product animations that demonstrate assembly, operation, movement, workflows, features, and product interactions.
Composite and finish rendered imagery primarily in Adobe Photoshop, with occasional motion graphics and compositing work in Adobe After Effects.
Adapt product assets for multiple output formats, resolutions, aspect ratios, and campaign needs.
Prepare optimized real-time 3D assets for interactive product viewers, web experiences, and augmented-reality applications.
Export and validate assets in formats such as glTF and GLB for implementation in three.js and related browser-based experiences.
Optimize real-time assets through efficient topology, UV layouts, texture atlases, baked maps, level-of-detail strategies, texture compression, and thoughtful polygon and material budgets.
Maintain organized scenes, materials, textures, naming conventions, and file structures that can be shared and reused across the broader creative team.
Collaborate closely with creative leadership, incorporate feedback quickly, and deliver polished work on compressed production timelines.

Types of Deliverables:

Photorealistic product renderings
Product-launch and keynote imagery
Technical and illustrative product visuals
Product feature and assembly animations
Conceptual product artwork
Environmental and in-situ product visualizations
Product UI and hardware interaction visuals
Web-optimized glTF and GLB assets
Interactive 3D product-viewer assets
Augmented-reality-ready product assets
Presentation, campaign, manual, and website graphics

What Makes You a Good Fit:

A portfolio demonstrating exceptional photorealistic visualization of consumer electronics, industrial products, automotive products, robotics, or other hard-surface products.
Advanced proficiency in Blender, including modeling, scene organization, shading, lighting, rendering, and animation.
Strong experience creating realistic hard-surface materials in Adobe Substance 3D Painter.
Excellent command of product lighting, composition, color, materials, and visual storytelling.
Experience converting engineering or industrial-design CAD data into clean, efficient, production-ready 3D assets.
A strong understanding of common CAD-to-DCC challenges, including dense tessellation, poor topology, shading artifacts, duplicate geometry, inconsistent normals, complex assemblies, and large datasets.
Strong compositing and image-finishing skills in Adobe Photoshop.
Working knowledge of Adobe After Effects for animation finishing, compositing, and motion-graphics integration.
Ability to match real-world product materials and finishes accurately, including plastics, coated metals, machined components, glass, optical surfaces, fabrics, and soft goods.
Experience balancing physical accuracy with the visual clarity required for marketing and brand communication.
Ability to work efficiently across multiple deliverable types while maintaining a consistently high level of craft.
Strong organizational skills and experience working with shared production assets, versioning, naming standards, and structured file systems.
Ability to receive direction from creative leadership, communicate progress clearly, and respond constructively to feedback.
Comfort working in a fast-paced environment with evolving priorities and deadline-driven launch work.

Primary Tools:

Blender
Adobe Substance 3D Painter
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe After Effects
Adobe Creative Cloud
glTF and GLB asset workflows
Photogrammetry capture and asset creation workflows
three.js familiarity or equivalent web-based 3D experience

Portfolio Requirements:

Please include a portfolio or reel demonstrating:

Photorealistic hard-surface product rendering
Lighting and material-development skills
CAD-derived product visualization
Product animation or motion work
Examples of real-time, interactive, or web-optimized 3D assets, when available
A brief description of your individual responsibilities for collaborative projects

Compensation: This is a temporary independent contractor (1099) position with an initial contract duration of three (3) months, with the potential to extend or evolve based on business needs and mutual fit. The hourly rate range for this contract is $80.00–$90.00* per hour and will vary based on factors including skill level, relevant experience, proficiencies, transferable knowledge, and geographic location. This position is not eligible for company-sponsored benefits. As an independent contractor, the individual is solely responsible for maintaining any required liability insurance, other applicable insurance coverage, benefits, and for the payment of all applicable federal, state, and local taxes. We consider qualified applicants consistent with applicable law. Background checks will be conducted in accordance with legal requirements. This contract position is subject to applicable federal, state, and local laws, as well as the terms of the contractor agreement.

*Compensation for certain positions may vary based on location.

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At Skydio we believe that diversity drives innovation. We have created a multidisciplinary environment that embraces the power of diverse perspectives to create elegant solutions for complex problems. We are committed to growing our network of people, programs, and resources to nurture an inclusive culture.

Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, protected veteran status, or other characteristics protected by federal, state or local anti-discrimination laws.

For positions located in the United States of America, Skydio, Inc. uses E-Verify to confirm employment eligibility. To learn more about E-Verify, including your rights and responsibilities, please visit https://www.e-verify.gov/