Senior Product Digital Twin & 3D Pipeline Lead

Senior Product Digital Twin & 3D Pipeline LeadCTG is seeking to fill a Senior Product Digital Twin & 3D Pipeline Lead position for our client. Location: Morrisville, NC Duration: 12+ months, with possibility for extension Duties: Lead the development of high-fidelity, reusable digital product twins by converting engineering CAD, industrial design, and Color, Material & Finish (CMF) data into production-ready 3D assets. Own the end-to-end CAD-to-creative pipeline, including CAD cleanup, tessellation, retopology, mesh optimization, UV mapping, PBR materials, texturing, and asset validation. Interpret engineering files and manage complex product assemblies, configurations, SKUs, and variants while preserving accurate geometry and design details. Establish standards for 3D geometry, materials, textures, file formats, naming conventions, metadata, version control, and level-of-detail (LOD) requirements. Partner with industrial design and engineering teams to ensure digital assets accurately reflect approved product specifications, colors, materials, and finishes. Prepare validated assets for CGI, Adobe Firefly, ecommerce, motion graphics, interactive experiences, and AI-enabled creative production. Establish quality controls to prevent generative AI workflows from altering critical product characteristics, including geometry, branding, ports, colors, and materials. Develop reusable digital masters supporting product imagery, marketing campaigns, ecommerce, animation, product configurators, interactive 3D, and augmented reality experiences. Define asset intake requirements, quality assurance processes, governance standards, lifecycle management, and reusable production templates. Identify automation opportunities, evaluate emerging technologies, and determine when CAD-derived assets, CGI, generative AI, or hybrid workflows are most appropriate. Train creative teams on standards and best practices for using approved digital product assets. Skills: Expertise in product visualization, digital twins, CGI, and CAD-to-3D production workflows. Proficiency with CAD tools and formats such as Creo, CATIA, SolidWorks, Siemens NX, STEP, IGES, and Parasolid. Experience with professional 3D applications such as Blender, Autodesk Maya, 3ds Max, Cinema 4D, Houdini, or Unreal Engine. Knowledge of Adobe Substance 3D, PBR materials, CMF specifications, and photorealistic rendering. Familiarity with Adobe Firefly, Photoshop, Illustrator, and other Creative Cloud applications. Understanding of modern 3D interchange formats, including USD/OpenUSD, glTF/GLB, and FBX. Knowledge of digital asset management (DAM), product information management (PIM), metadata, and version control. Scripting and workflow automation skills, particularly Python or application-specific scripting, are highly desirable. Strong communication, collaboration, and problem-solving skills. Experience: Approximately 7+ years of experience in product visualization, digital twins, CGI, industrial design visualization, or related 3D production. Demonstrated experience converting engineering-grade CAD into accurate, optimized, production-ready 3D assets, including complex assemblies and product variants. Strong understanding of geometry, tessellation, retopology, UV mapping, texturing, materials, lighting, rendering, and technical optimization. Proven ability to translate CMF specifications into photorealistic digital materials and maintain product accuracy throughout creative production. Experience building scalable, repeatable 3D production pipelines and collaborating with engineering, industrial design, and creative teams. Consumer electronics, automotive, or high-end industrial product visualization experience is highly desirable. Experience with AI-enabled creative production, Adobe Firefly, ecommerce 3D, digital configurators, augmented reality, or real-time product experiences is preferred. Background in workflow automation, asset governance, and lifecycle management is a plus. Education: Bachelor's degree in 3D Design, Industrial Design, Computer Graphics, Digital Media, Engineering, or a related field preferred. Equivalent professional experience and demonstrated expertise in CAD-to-3D workflows and digital asset production will also be considered. Excellent verbal and written English communication skills and the ability to interact professionally with a diverse group are required.