3D Software Engineer

Pencil is a venture-backed AI-first 3D product design and commerce platform.

We enable brands to create, produce and sell consumer goods in one end to end ecosystem. We launched in December 2023, with jewelry as our initial focus, and have seen strong early growth.

We are a small engineering team building systems for 3D model generation that allow complex designs to be created with AI and then refined by the user into production-ready outputs. A core part of the challenge is making these systems feel fast, intuitive, and reliable in a real design workflow.

We are looking for a senior 3D engineer to join us and take on a high level of ownership across the product.

What you will work on:

• Building interactive 3D modeling/design tools in the browser using React and WebGL / Three.js
• Designing and improving systems for generating and modifying 3D geometry
• Solving performance challenges around rendering complex meshes
• Developing AI-driven workflows for creating and editing designs
• Improving UX for creative tools where precision and responsiveness matter
• Contributing to overall system design, performance, and developer experience

What we are looking for:

You enjoy building products and have worked on systems where user interaction is critical, such as design tools, games, or similar applications.

You are experienced across the stack, including Python, React, Node, and TypeScript, and are comfortable working across different parts of the system as needed.

You have strong product intuition and care about how things feel to the end user.

You are able to work effectively in a fast-moving environment with limited structure and can make progress without heavy oversight.

You are thoughtful about tradeoffs, especially when balancing product quality, speed, and engineering effort, and you know when to move quickly versus when to step back and clarify requirements.

You take initiative in improving code quality, developer experience, and product details.

You use LLMs effectively in your development workflow, not just to move faster, but to produce well-structured, production-ready code grounded in solid engineering principles and thoughtful design.

You communicate clearly and are comfortable giving and receiving feedback.

Your skillset should include:

• Strong experience building and maintaining production-grade web applications, with an understanding of what it takes to ship, scale, and support real users
• Experience with 3D graphics, geometry, or rendering
• Familiarity with Three.js, WebGL, CAD tools, or game engines
• Strong understanding of modern development workflows and tooling
• Experience working with AI or LLM-driven systems

Application Submission Requirement

To be considered for this role your application must include a small written response answering the following question:

"Tell us about a technically challenging bug that you were proud of solving"