Principal Research & Design Engineer

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.

• 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

• 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, technical requirements, and implemented prototypes

• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to explain technical work to researchers, engineers, workshop staff, leadership, and non-technical collaborators

• Willingness to work on-site in a hands-on Technology Center environment

• Hands-on experience using, supporting, or programming CNC equipment, including CNC mills, routers, lathes, waterjets, or related subtractive manufacturing tools

• Familiarity with CAD/CAM workflows, manufacturing software, machine setup, tooling, feeds and speeds, workholding, or fabrication planning

• Experience with Autodesk products such as Fusion, Inventor, AutoCAD, Revit, Forma, or related design and manufacturing tools

• Experience with robotics, additive manufacturing, industrial automation, machine monitoring, PLCs, IoT systems, or sensor-based instrumentation

• Experience with computer vision, predictive maintenance, scheduling optimization, process monitoring, quality inspection, or human-machine interfaces

• Experience deploying AI or ML models in physical environments, including edge devices, embedded systems, cameras, sensors, or workshop/factory infrastructure

• Familiarity with protocols and systems such as MQTT, OPC-UA, ROS, serial communication, machine telemetry, or industrial data platforms

• Experience working in multidisciplinary research environments where software, hardware, design, fabrication, and operations intersect

• Prior experience in manufacturing, operations, architecture, engineering, construction, industrialized construction, robotics, or advanced making environments

About Autodesk

Welcome to Autodesk! Amazing things are created every day with our software – from the greenest buildings and cleanest cars to the smartest factories and biggest hit movies. We help innovators turn their ideas into reality, transforming not only how things are made, but what can be made.

We take great pride in our culture here at Autodesk – it’s at the core of everything we do. Our culture guides the way we work and treat each other, informs how we connect with customers and partners, and defines how we show up in the world.

When you’re an Autodesker, you can do meaningful work that helps build a better world designed and made for all. Ready to shape the world and your future? Join us!

Benefits

From health and financial benefits to time away and everyday wellness, we give Autodeskers the best, so they can do their best work. Learn more about our benefits in the U.S. by visiting https://benefits.autodesk.com/

Equal Employment Opportunity

At Autodesk, we're building a diverse workplace and an inclusive culture to give more people the chance to imagine, design, and make a better world. Autodesk is proud to be an equal opportunity employer and considers all qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status or any other legally protected characteristic. We also consider for employment all qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with applicable law.

Belonging

We take pride in cultivating a culture of belonging where everyone can thrive. Learn more here: https://www.autodesk.com/company/global-belonging

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