01Owns
Placement and anchoring
Implements raycast-based placement, plane detection and anchors so objects stay put as the user walks around.
Hire · Augmented reality
Hire AR Developers
Senior augmented reality engineers who join your product team to own spatial features: anchoring content convincingly, keeping tracking stable and fitting rich 3D into a phone’s power envelope. Shortlisted candidates have been paid to build a placement flow, optimise a heavy model and diagnose tracking loss.
Paid placement-and-tracking exercise
Senior engineers and above
Hands-on with ARKit and ARCore
On your team
What an AR developer owns on your team.
02Owns
Scene understanding
Uses depth, scene meshes, occlusion and light estimation where devices support them, with graceful fallbacks where they do not.
03Owns
Tracking quality
Detects limited tracking states, coaches users towards better lighting and texture, and relocalises after interruptions.
04Owns
3D asset pipeline
Sets polygon and texture budgets, converts to USDZ and glTF, and automates compression and level of detail.
05Owns
Performance and heat
Profiles GPU and CPU time, watches thermal state and scales effects down before the device throttles.
What separates AR engineers from 3D hobbyists
Getting a model onto a table in a demo is easy. Keeping it stable in a dim living room, on a glossy floor, after a phone call interrupts the session, is the actual job. Ask candidates how they handled limited tracking and relocalisation in a shipped app; specifics about coaching overlays and session restore matter more than a reel of renders.
Vetting
Skills we test before an AR developer joins.
01Tested
ARKit and RealityKit
World tracking configuration, scene reconstruction on LiDAR devices, entity-component systems and Reality Composer Pro assets.
02Tested
ARCore
Session configuration, the Depth API, Geospatial API with VPS and Cloud Anchors for shared experiences.
03Tested
Engine-based AR
Unity AR Foundation or similar for one codebase across ARKit and ARCore, including when its abstractions leak.
04Tested
3D maths
Coordinate spaces, transforms, quaternions and raycasting without guessing at matrix order.
05Tested
Rendering budgets
Draw calls, physically based materials on mobile GPUs, baked lighting and shader cost.
06Tested
WebXR awareness
Knows what browser-based AR can and cannot do today, and when a no-install web experience beats a native app.
Work sample
How the AR developer work sample runs.
- 01Step 1
Build a placement flow
The candidate builds tap-to-place with plane detection, scale and rotation gestures and an onboarding coach, on a paid day rate.
- 02Step 2
Slim a heavy model
They receive an oversized 3D asset and reduce polygons, textures and draw calls while keeping it visually acceptable.
- 03Step 3
Diagnose tracking loss
Given recordings of drifting content, they explain the causes and the changes to configuration or UX that would help.
- 04Step 4
Choose native, engine or web
A discussion of a brief where they recommend ARKit, ARCore, an engine or WebXR and defend the choice.
Levels
AR Developers: what changes at each level.
01Level 1
Senior
Delivers AR features on one or both platforms within an agreed architecture and asset budget.
02Level 2
Lead
Owns the AR stack choice, asset pipeline standards, device support matrix and performance targets.
03Level 3
Spatial computing architect
Plans shared and persistent experiences, geospatial anchoring and how AR work could extend to headsets.
Senior, lead or spatial architect
Choose a senior when the AR feature is defined and the stack is settled. A lead is worth it when you are still choosing between native, engine and web, or when asset handling has become ad hoc. An architect suits products that need shared sessions, location-based anchors or a path to headsets.
Other options
When to hire someone other than an AR developer.
01Consider
A full game in AR
If AR is a mode within a larger game with progression and economies, start with a game developer.
Open register02Consider
A camera feature, not 3D
Barcode scanning or simple image capture needs a native iOS or Android developer, not an AR specialist.
Open register03Consider
Vision models rather than AR
If the hard part is recognising objects or people in images, a data scientist with computer vision experience fits better.
Open registerAssets decide performance
Most AR performance problems start in the asset pipeline: models exported straight from design tools with millions of polygons and uncompressed 4K textures. A senior AR developer sets budgets, automates conversion to USDZ or glTF and pushes back on art that will overheat the phone.
That is why our exercise hands candidates a deliberately oversized model.
Agreeing a device floor early
In the first week, write down the oldest iPhone and Android device you will support and what degrades on each, such as occlusion or LiDAR-based meshing. Then have the new engineer measure one current scene on that oldest device. Decisions about effects and asset quality follow from that number rather than from a flagship test phone.
FAQ
Questions to resolve before the build.
01Should we build AR natively or in Unity?
Native ARKit and ARCore give the newest platform features first and integrate cleanly with an existing app. An engine helps when the content is game-like or you need one codebase for both platforms. A lead can map your brief to one or the other.
02Can AR run in a browser without an app?
Partly. WebXR works in some Android browsers, and Apple supports Quick Look for USDZ models, but capabilities differ by platform. For marketing experiences a web approach can be enough; for persistent or complex features native usually wins.
03Why does our AR app get hot and slow down?
Camera capture, tracking and rendering run together and stress both CPU and GPU. Heavy models, real-time shadows and high frame rates add heat. Our engineers measure thermal state and reduce load before the operating system throttles the app.
Works alongside
Roles an AR developer works best alongside.
01Pair with
iOS developers
Integrate AR views into the wider Swift app, from navigation to purchase flows.
Open register02Pair with
Game developers
Bring engine expertise, shaders and interaction design when the experience is playful or highly animated.
Open register03Pair with
UI/UX designers
Design coaching overlays, spatial affordances and accessible alternatives for users who cannot use the camera.
Open registerProduct delivery
Need the whole product built instead?
Primary sources
References behind this page
Dated official documentation, standards, and research that support the factual claims on this page.
- 01Apple Developer Documentation: ARKit
Reference for world tracking, scene reconstruction and anchors on iOS.
- 02Google ARCore developer documentation
Guides for ARCore sessions, Depth and Geospatial APIs.
How to read this page
Scope, cost and timeline figures are planning guidance until confirmed in a written proposal. Diagrams and screens are illustrations, not client deliverables, and source-code rights and handover follow the signed agreement. See the delivery process and the full disclaimer.
Next decision
Turn the brief into an accepted product scope.
Define outcomes, constraints, evidence, rights and handover before delivery begins.
Commercial rights, repositories, environments, documentation, acceptance and handover remain contract-defined.