---
title: 'Research Scientist - 3D Reconstruction (SfM & SLAM) at SpAItial'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/research-scientist-3d-reconstruction-sfm-slam-spaitial-london-dgx907pgrv08'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-13'
---

# Research Scientist - 3D Reconstruction (SfM & SLAM) at SpAItial

- **Company:** SpAItial
- **Location:** London, United Kingdom
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-08-20
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-13
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/spaitial/95156fda-c473-4c6c-a8e0-c155f4ac34a2

## Job description

SpAItial is pioneering the next generation of World Models, pushing the boundaries of generative AI, computer vision, and the simulation of reality. We are moving beyond 2D pixels to build models that natively understand the physics and geometry of our world. Our mission is to redefine how industries, from robotics and AR/VR to gaming and cinema, generate and interact with physically-grounded 3D environments.

We're seeking a Research Scientist focused on 3D reconstruction. You will advance methods that recover accurate camera poses and geometry from real-world imagery, working with both classical multi-view geometry and state-of-the-art learned reconstructors. The work includes structure-from-motion, bundle adjustment, SLAM, or feed-forward reconstruction, with a focus on robustness, accuracy, and methods that hold up on diverse real-world data.

## Responsibilities

- Design camera pose estimators and 3D reconstructors.
- Build robust SfM and camera tracking pipelines for a variety of input imaging sensors.
- Develop bundle adjusters and nonlinear optimizers, including non-perspective camera formulations.
- Integrate and extend SOTA feed-forward reconstructors (VGGT, DA3, Pi3)
- Advance deep multi-view stereo, learned matching, and monocular depth methods for dense geometry.
- Build evaluation metrics for pose accuracy and reconstruction quality, and drive improvements against public & internal benchmarks.
- Scale reconstruction methods to large, diverse real-world datasets while keeping them reliable and efficient.
- Collaborate with researchers to bring reconstruction advances into production systems.

## Key Qualifications

- PhD in computer vision with a research focus on 3D reconstruction; publications at top venues (CVPR, ICCV, ECCV, NeurIPS).
- Deep understanding of multi-view geometry: camera models, epipolar geometry, triangulation, PnP, etc.
- Strong familiarity with SOTA deep reconstructors (VGGT, DA3, Pi3) and related areas such as deep MVS, learned matching, and monocular depth estimation.
- Hands-on experience with SfM/SLAM systems (COLMAP, ORB-SLAM) and nonlinear least-squares solvers (Ceres).
- Experience shipping production-grade 3D reconstruction systems is a strong plus.
- Strong Python and PyTorch skills.
- Comfortable debugging failure cases on challenging real-world data.

At SpAItial, we are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive workplace. We welcome applications from people of all backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives. We are an equal opportunity employer and ensure all candidates are treated fairly throughout the recruitment process.

## About SpAItial

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: SpAItial builds physically-grounded world models — AI that generates and reasons about the appearance and physics of real and imagined 3D environments.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Seed stage)
- **Headquarters**: London, United Kingdom (also has offices in Germany, United States, Luxembourg)
- **Founded**: 2024 (LinkedIn) / 2025-01-01 (company schema) — likely incorporated in late 2024, publicly launched May 2025
- **Founders**: Matthias Niessner (CEO), Luke Rogers (COO), Ricardo Martin‑Brualla, David Novotný

## Core Business
- **Primary industry/industries**: Spatial AI, 3D generative AI, foundation models, computer graphics
- **Target customers**: Developers, game studios, film/VFX, VR/AR platforms, robotics companies, industrial simulation (B2B); also provides a consumer app for world generation (B2C)
- **Mission or purpose**: “Bridging the virtual and physical – building physics‑consistent, spatio‑temporally grounded AI that understands the 3D world like humans do.”

## Products & Services
- **[Echo (Model Family)](https://spaitial.ai/)**: A series of Spatial Foundation Models (Echo‑1, Echo‑2, Echo HQ) that generate persistent 3D Gaussian Splat worlds from a single image, text prompt, or 360° panorama. Outputs are real‑time explorable and physically plausible.
- **[SpAItial API](https://spaitial.ai/)**: Programmatic access to Echo for agents, tools, simulations, and creative pipelines. Supports async generation, webhooks, and multiple output formats (SPZ, SOG, PLY, collision meshes).
- **[SpAItial App](https://spaitial.ai/)**: A web and desktop application for creating, editing, and sharing worlds generated by Echo. Includes image‑to‑world, text‑to‑world, sculpting, painting, and export tools.
- **Startup Program**: Credits, priority API access, early model access, and direct feedback loops for startups building with spatial AI.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not disclosed (private company)
- **Key Metric**: **Total Funding** — USD 13,000,000 (Seed round, closed June 27, 2025)
- **Notable Investors/Partners**:
  - Lead: Earlybird Venture Capital
  - Participants: Speedinvest
  - Notable angels: Robin Rombach (Black Forest Labs), Victor Riparbelli & Steffen Tjerrild (Synthesia), Christian Stiebner, Edward Grefenstette, Jon Barron, Rahul Garg, Sergej Epp (Sysdig/Palo Alto), Elias Schneider (Codesphere), Paul Whitehead (Zoopla), and others.
- **Growth Signals**:
  - Headcount: 20 employees (+2000% YoY from 1 employee the year prior)
  - Active job postings: 11 (monthly growth +22.2%, quarterly +175%)
  - Strong hiring across research, engineering, and ML infrastructure
  - Launched Echo‑2 in May 2026, Echo HQ in June 2026
  - Opened early access and startup program

## Competitive Advantages
- **Spatial Foundation Models (SFMs)**: Unlike LLMs, image, or video models, SFMs operate natively in 3D physical space, capturing geometry, materiality, and physics — enabling true spatial reasoning and physically consistent generation.
- **World‑class founding team**: Deep expertise from academia (TU Munich), big tech (Google, Meta), and scaled startups (Synthesia, Cazoo). Includes pioneers in generative 3D (GRAF, VoxGRAF, X‑Fields).
- **Real‑time, persistent 3D worlds**: Outputs are not just images or videos but fully explorable Gaussian Splat environments that can be edited, exported, and shared.
- **Strong investor backing**: $13M seed from top European VCs and influential angel investors validates the technology and vision.

## Strategic Focus
- **Model scaling**: Improving core model capabilities (Echo‑2, Echo HQ) for richer geometry, sharper detail, and stability.
- **Developer ecosystem**: Building out the API, documentation, and startup program to attract developers and partners.
- **Industry partnerships**: Piloting technology across gaming, film, CAD, VR/AR, and robotics — collaborating with leading organizations.
- **Talent acquisition**: Growing the team aggressively across research, engineering, and infrastructure.

## Why Work Here
- **Cutting‑edge research**: Work on frontier AI problems at the intersection of computer vision, graphics, and 3D generative models. Publishable research encouraged.
- **Strong team**: Colleagues from Meta, Google, TU Munich, Synthesia, and top labs. Low ego, high output.
- **Early stage impact**: Join at 20 people — your work directly shapes the product, culture, and direction of the company.
- **Global, hybrid‑friendly**: Headquarters in London with presence in Munich (Germany), New York (US), and Luxembourg. Mix of in‑person and remote collaboration.
- **Open roles** (as of mid‑2026): Research Scientist (3D Diffusion, World Models), Research Engineer (Graphics, World Models), ML Infrastructure Engineer — 11 active postings.
- **Perks**: Not publicly detailed, but seed‑stage startup typically offers equity, flexible time off, and direct access to founders.
- **Culture**: Described as “research meets real‑world application” — a blend of academic rigor and product‑focused execution.

## Sources
1. [spaitial.ai](https://spaitial.ai/) – Company homepage, product overview, API docs, blog
2. [spaitial.ai/about](https://spaitial.ai/about) – About page, mission, team, funding announcement
3. [spaitial.ai/careers](https://spaitial.ai/careers) – Careers page, open roles
4. [spaitial.ai/blog/announcing-spaitial](https://spaitial.ai/blog/announcing-spaitial) – Launch blog post with detailed team, funding, and vision
5. [LinkedIn – SpAItial AI](https://uk.linkedin.com/company/spaitial-ai) – Employee count, funding, headcount growth, open roles, talent sources

## Other roles at SpAItial

- [Technical Artist](https://feeny.ai/job/technical-artist-spaitial-london-kdgkjp9c2nx6) — London, United Kingdom
- [Business Operations Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/business-operations-manager-spaitial-london-fwsemcnhjvws) — London, United Kingdom
- [Research Scientist - Robot Learning (VLA / WAM)](https://feeny.ai/job/research-scientist-robot-learning-vla-wam-spaitial-london-97ghdtvn8cmv) — London, United Kingdom
- [Machine Learning Systems & Infrastructure Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/machine-learning-systems-infrastructure-engineer-spaitial-london-yg2ny2hqnfkr) — London, United Kingdom
- [Machine Learning & Cloud Infra Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/machine-learning-cloud-infra-engineer-spaitial-london-p5w3sxeysvq7) — London, United Kingdom
- [Research Scientist - 3D Diffusion](https://feeny.ai/job/research-scientist-3d-diffusion-spaitial-london-f21y5vjxxmzm) — London, United Kingdom
- [Research Engineer - 3D World Models](https://feeny.ai/job/research-engineer-3d-world-models-spaitial-london-68tajf2mpe9t) — London, United Kingdom
- [Research Engineer - Graphics](https://feeny.ai/job/research-engineer-graphics-spaitial-london-scfpn9d65rd2) — London, United Kingdom
- [Research Scientist - World Models](https://feeny.ai/job/research-scientist-world-models-spaitial-london-txvdt70j5zfj) — London, United Kingdom