Phd Vision Science Jobs in California (NOW HIRING)

Job Description

As a member of the Connected Experience and Agentic Systems Research lab, you will be part of the Information Displays and Optics team. This role focuses on next generation in-vehicle experiences at the intersection of human visual perception, human machine interface design, and advanced display systems.

You will help shape display UX for automotive applications, with emphasis on head up displays, novel display concepts, display evaluation, driver monitoring informed interfaces, and related perceptual research that can guide future GM products.

In this position, you will work closely with GM internal customers and external partners to turn research insights into testable concepts, prototypes, and high value recommendations for future production systems.

This is a one-of-a-kind position to work do extremely interesting research with a highly talented cross-disciplinary team.

What you'll do

• Lead research and concept development for advanced in-vehicle display experiences, especially head up displays, other display concepts, and related HMI use cases.
• Design and execute studies on human visual perception, usability, workload, situation awareness, distraction, and trust as they relate to display systems and driver interaction.
• Create and evaluate prototypes, experiments, and demonstration systems that make research findings concrete and actionable.
• Translate product needs into clear research questions, success metrics, and design recommendations for future vehicle experiences.
• Provide guidance on product specification definition based on human perception
• Work across design, engineering, sensing, and product teams to refine requirements and identify innovation opportunities.
• Communicate findings clearly through internal presentations, technical documents, and external publications where appropriate.
• Build effective relationships with vendors, research institutes, and advanced technology partners to expand GM capability in display UX and perception driven design.

Required qualifications

• Master's degree in engineering, human factors engineering, vision science, optics, computer science, or a related technical field
• Strong background in human machine interface research and experimental methods
• Strong background in human visual optics, depth perception, and color perception
• Experience in modeling of the human visual system
• Experience designing and running user studies, perceptual experiments, or usability evaluations
• Ability to turn ambiguous product questions into structured research plans and actionable recommendations
• Strong verbal and written communication skills
• Ability to work effectively across multidisciplinary teams while also independently driving projects
• Demonstrated ability to build momentum, overcome barriers, and execute with urgency
• Strong team player with the ability to collaborate effectively across multidisciplinary teams
• Perseverance and patience in working through difficult technical and research challenges
• High achiever with a track record of excellence and impact
• Creative thinker who can generate novel ideas and translate them into actionable research directions

Preferred qualifications

• PhD in engineering, vision science, human factors engineering, optics, or a related field
• Experience with automotive displays, head up displays, driver monitoring, or in-vehicle HMI
• Experience with display evaluation methods to evaluate display characteristics such as legibility, luminance and color contrast, visual comfort, attention, or cognitive load assessment
• Experience prototyping or evaluating interactive concepts for production-oriented systems
• Familiarity with eye tracking, human perception measurement, or multimodal interaction research
• Experience collaborating with design, product, and engineering teams on future concepts and technology transfer
• Track record of publications, patents, or externally visible technical contributions
• Strong evidence of growing technical leadership and influence

GM does not provide immigration-related sponsorship for this role. Do not apply for this role if you will need GM immigration sponsorship now or in the future. This includes direct company sponsorship, entry of GM as the immigration employer of record on a government form, and any work authorization requiring a written submission or other immigration support from the company (e.g., H1-B, OPT, STEM OPT, CPT, TN, J-1, etc). This role is categorized as hybrid. This means the selected candidate is expected to report to a specific location at least 3 times a week {or other frequency dictated by their manager}. This job may be eligible for relocation benefits.

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