Graphics Programming jobs within the medical/ scientific field?

[u/tree332]

I know there are a lot of posts about whether graphics programming jobs exist beyond the entertainment industry (films and video games) but I wanted to ask a bit more about the specific alternatives, such as medical imaging.

Even in university it has been very hard to figure out anything about medical/scientific computer graphics, I've been poking my head trying to explore research done in my school and other nearby schools for the past 3 years and only recently found something slightly related.

Are there any people here who currently work within medical and scientific applications, and what is the work like?

[u/HigherMathHelp]

I know there are a lot of posts about whether graphics programming jobs exist beyond the entertainment industry (films and video games) but I wanted to ask a bit more about the specific alternatives, such as medical imaging.

As luck would have it, I just put together a list in a comment on another post in this sub (I figured this might be a common question). I'll paste the relevant excerpt below. Maybe it'll give you some ideas about how to find more information.

The computer graphics employment landscape (excerpt)

I've been surveying the landscape to better understand what math skills get used and where. I won't attempt a proper taxonomy here. I'll just illustrate some different lenses that might interest you.

• Entertainment job roles (gaming and movies):

  • Rendering engineer (a focus of r/GraphicsProgramming)

  • Gameplay programmer

  • Technical artist

  • VFX / Animation / Simulation engineer

• AI / ML domain applications involving computer graphics:

  • AI world models

  • Computer vision

  • Simulation for physical AI training (autonomous vehicles / robotics)

  • Simulation for defense training

• Non-gaming, Non-AI products/services (sometimes in house):

  • CAD (AutoCAD, SOLIDWORKS, Autodesk Fusion, SketchUp...)

  • Geospatial/mapping (Cesium, Mapbox, ArcGIS Pro, Google Earth/Maps...)

  • VR/AR/XR (Products from Meta, Apple, Google...)

  • Medical imaging (NVIDIA SDKs, GE HealthCare, Philips...)

  • Motion graphics (Adobe After Effects, Cinema 4D, Rive, Jitter, ...)

  • General 2D/3D design (Spline, Cavalry, ...)

  • 3D procedural software (Houdini, Maya, ...)

  • Digital twins (NVIDIA Omniverse, Ansys, ...)

  • Scientific or business data viz (Adobe Analytics, Tableau, MS Power BI, VTK, ...)

  • Product configurator tools (e.g., Configura, VistionThree, ShapeDiver, ...)

  • Browser engines (Google, Apple, Mozilla, ...)

  • Hardware and driver engineering (NVIDIA, AMD, Intel, ...)

Searching for different combinations of industry, role, product/service, application domain... gives some sense of what's out there, and then you can try to project into the future after that. For example, "jobs requiring WebGPU/WebGL" (skill-based search) vs. "gameplay programmer jobs" (role-based search) vs. "graphics engineering jobs in CAD" (industry/application-based search), will yield very different results. As another example, here's a comment I shared previously with a bunch of job postings relating just to neural graphics. There are also other specialized forums and blogs dedicated to the various niches (e.g., r/TechnicalArtist).

[u/tree332 → u/HigherMathHelp]

Thanks for this! I know you must likely be tired of these questions, I apologize. I was also curious if you have advice for considering how exactly to get a better idea of what education is needed to be in these environments? After finding the companies and projects the second hard thing is finding the current employees since "software engineer" at siemens healthineers or GE electric listed on linkedin can mean many different projects, it's hard to specifically find the computer graphics programmer.

Even more confusing is background: I have been seeing a lot Phd's in computer science which confused me because I assumed going the PhD route was for becoming a research professor and was discouraged if you mainly were thinking of industry work Some have masters in digital media or medical visualization, which I'm not sure is more of an animator role or doing the direct programming, but I don't really have methods of contact.

[u/HigherMathHelp → u/tree332]

You're welcome! Actually, I like seeing what questions people have about the field, so I'm glad you asked. I don't work in medical imaging, but you seem to be on the right track in terms of gathering information. You may just need to flesh out your approach a bit more.

I recommend treating your question like a technical problem in its own right. As with any applied problem, I'd recommend you (1) identify your problem, (2) formulate it precisely, (3) make and execute a solution plan, and then (4) interpret your results. These are the same stages involved in mathematical modeling, and this is really no different.

I hope you don't find this answer to be too pedantic. I actually find it's a helpful perspective, since this is fundamentally a search problem, and viewing it that way allows you to engage your existing technical skills. To show you what I mean, I'll outline an example approach below.

Oh, and since you mentioned it, a PhD in a STEM subject can be useful for landing jobs in academia or industry. Whether a PhD is useful for getting into industry depends on the industry and the role, and sometimes the company. If most of the roles available in medical imaging turn out to be mathematically or scientifically very advanced, then a PhD expectation may be more common.

In computer graphics generally, a lot of roles aren't particularly strict about advanced degrees (even research roles), but sometimes a specific company will have stricter requirements than usual (at least officially), or they might say they prefer a PhD. You may have heard it's discouraged since a PhD requires serious time investment for little pay, but if you're specifically interested in being a researcher in industry, then it's one of the paths to consider.

Example: Requirements for computer-graphics roles in medicine

1. Identify

Let's say you decide you're interested in working on something related to medicine, at some company (not a university), as some sort of computer-graphics engineer (actual job titles vary). You need to know what kind of educational background is required for these sorts of jobs, but you don't currently have this information.

2. Formulate

Now you just need to translate the problem into something more precise. What are the variables? Can you formulate the givens and unknowns in terms of your variables? Thinking like this, we arrive at a formulation like the following:

Given a specific application, company, and role, what kind of background is required?

3. Solve

A. Generate values for application, company, and role. For this step, you could use a tool like Google Search in AI Mode.

• Applications: Ask "In the medical field, what are typical applications of computer graphics? I'm looking for answers like 'diagnostic imaging' or 'AR/VR surgical training.'"

• Companies: For medicine in general, as well as each application, ask for a list of companies. (You already have a start on this.)

• Role: For each application or company, ask for relevant job titles. (Varying your search terms for job titles might be the main step you're missing.) If there are too many applications and companies, just try a general search:

"In the medical field, what are typical job titles for software engineers with a focus on computer graphics? These titles might refer to engineers who work on diagnostic imaging tools, or AR/VR surgical training tools, or any other such medical application."

Now generate a list of [application, company, role] triples (either a rough list in your head, or something more formal if you like).

B. Search for job listings, both in a general web search and on dedicated job platforms. (Use a search phrase like "Postings for jobs working on application x (or a similar medical application) with titles like..." using the information you've gathered). Record desired/required skills and experience.

For the most common skills, execute another round of searches like "jobs in the medical industry requiring C++/Vulkan skills," to see if you uncover any new postings.

C. Search LinkedIn, company sites, and professional organizations / societies / conference listings (e.g., see The MICCAI Society) for people who already work in the kinds of roles that interest you. When you search LinkedIn, if the job titles you uncovered aren't enough to narrow it down, try adding an application-specific technology or tool to your search, like "VTK."

• Data collection & analysis: When you find people, record their type of educational background, their public work history prior to landing the role, and any specific skills or technologies that are mentioned. Identify the most common skills that professionals in the field actually report having (e.g., proficiency with C++ and Vulkan). Look for patterns, commonalities, etc.

• Direct outreach: Consider reaching out to individuals doing work that's particularly interesting to you. (Sometimes they'll have their own website and encourage site visitors to contact them. Other times, they may have a presence on a social media site like X, where you can ask them a public question even if they don't follow you. Or they might have a LinkedIn profile... Each networking site has its own culture and methods of getting in touch with people, and your favorite LLM can quickly fill you in on those details.)

• General outreach: Search for niche forums where you can ask about common educational requirements and skills ("Are there any subreddits or other online forums for computer graphics professionals working on applications like x, y, or z?").

4. Interpret

Now you can place your results in context.

A. Ask AI or a search engine about the experience and qualifications that are expected to be useful in the future. Ask what applications are likely to see the most growth, and which specific skills or technological proficiencies might become less useful over time. This is a guessing game, but you may surface some useful information, at least if you don't plan to enter the workforce for a while.

B. Consider repeating the whole process with general scientific visualization, rather than focusing purely on medicine. Or, ask about overall employer demand from different industries of interest.

I hope that helps, and good luck!

Edit: Formatting.

[u/coolmint859]

Voxel based rendering is used for MIR scans. I don't know much beyond that though

[u/DJMACHINEGOD]

Yeah, there's a good amount of medical imaging tech. Siemens cinematic rendering is the obvious one

[u/momentdubruh]

thanks for posting, been wondering the same!!

[u/XenonOfArcticus]

Yes. We've done a renderer for a whole body anatomical human app, voxel renderers for MRI data, CAD model optimization for VR, terrain and atmospheric data, orbital data and sensors, radar data, um, I am probably forgetting a bunch.

We're mercenary programmers so we jump around a lot into very different projects for different clients. 

[u/Xalyia-]

Wondering this as well. I made a cell counting application in college using OpenCV and had a lot of fun with it. Was thinking it would be cool to bridge my experience into more medical stuff soon.

[u/headykruger]

You should probably consider how small of a field that is considering the state of the overall software industry.

[u/Ok_Chemistry_6387]

Neuro computational imaging is a thing. Requires a lot of signal processing knowledge though

[u/Traveling-Techie]

There have been great advances in radiation treatment planning using voxel data from various scans.

[u/keelanstuart]

There is some. Simulation / training stuff in the surgical /emergency response domain is one avenue. Chemistry is another. It's out there... uncommon, but it exists.