Portrait of Joe Lang
Open to new opportunities

Joe Lang

Senior Software Engineer & Technical Lead

Real-Time Systems • AI • Scalable Solutions

I take ambiguous, technically demanding problems from first investigation through production — across real-time systems, AI integration, and infrastructure — and build solutions that scale.

AI-powered conversation simulation demo AR portal effect overlaying a colorful landscape into a room Remote AR video-call demo on a laptop screen 3D character turntable render test AR character overlay demo by a fireplace Oculus Launchpad 2018 Recipient title card for NeuroExplorer VR Medical staff walking a hospital hallway in a VR lecture scene Smart City Futures Edmonton VR flythrough with score UI

Open To New Opportunities

NYC, New York

10+ Years Experience
25+ Projects & Case Studies
6 Industries Shipped In
About

Practical, scalable solutions to real business problems

I'm a Senior Software Engineer and Technical Lead who builds practical, scalable solutions to real business problems.

My background is rooted in real-time 3D, Unity, C++, C#, XR, and immersive technology, but I'm not defined by a particular engine, platform, or domain. I approach engineering pragmatically: understand the problem, identify the constraints that matter, choose the right technology, and get a reliable solution into people's hands.

I've worked across client architecture, AI integration, real-time communication, developer tooling, CI/CD, systems integration, and production infrastructure. I'm comfortable moving between unfamiliar problems, collaborating across disciplines, and taking projects from early prototypes through production and scale.

I do my best work in fast-moving environments where engineers are expected to take ownership, make sound technical decisions, and turn ambiguous business needs into systems that are maintainable, scalable, and useful.

What I Do

Where I add value

Systems Architecture

Designing systems that scale from early prototype through production, with maintainability built in from the start.

Real-Time Systems

Game engines, WebRTC streaming, audio and video pipelines, networking, and low-latency application design.

AI Integration

LLMs, speech-to-text, text-to-speech, conversational AI, and production AI pipelines running under real-time constraints.

Developer Productivity

CI/CD, automation, internal tooling, debugging, and observability for fast-moving engineering teams.

Technical Leadership

Architecture decisions, mentoring, cross-functional collaboration, and end-to-end project ownership.

Featured Engineering Work

Problems I've solved in production

Case studies from my most recent roles — architecting AI systems at Mursion, and leading the Unity SDK at Leia Inc.

AI Systems & Real-Time Integration — Mursion

Architected an On-Demand AI Simulation Platform
On-demand AI-driven simulation product
Problem

Mursion's simulation platform was built entirely around live, human-led sessions. To expand into true 24/7 on-demand delivery, the business needed an architecture that could run realistic simulations autonomously — without displacing the existing human-led product.

Constraints

The experience had to stay responsive enough to feel conversational, integrate with existing 3D avatar and scenario content, and ship alongside a live product the business still depended on.

My Contribution

Working closely with an AI engineer, I architected and built the integration layer that connects Deepgram speech-to-text, OpenAI reasoning, ElevenLabs voice synthesis, automated simulation logic, and responsive 3D avatars into one production system. I led the technical work required to run that pipeline at low enough latency to operate without a live facilitator.

Impact

Created a new 24/7 delivery model alongside Mursion's human-led simulations. AI simulations became the standard experience used in sales demonstrations and grew into a core product offering delivered to customers globally.

Technologies
Unity3DNode.jsTypeScriptOpenAIDeepgramElevenLabsLiveKitSystems Architecture
Diagnosed and Cut ~1.5s of AI Response Latency
Reduced-latency AI avatar response pipeline
Problem

On-demand simulations had a significant latency gap between a user finishing speaking and the AI avatar responding, which broke conversational flow and undermined the sense of immersion the product depends on.

Constraints

The delay had no single obvious owner — it was distributed across the speech, AI, and avatar layers — and any fix had to hold up in a live production pipeline rather than a lab benchmark.

My Contribution

I analyzed timestamped logs across the pipeline to isolate a 1.2-second delay caused by Voice Activity Detection settings. I first optimized that to 0.5 seconds, then migrated the speech-to-text stack to Deepgram Flux to take advantage of integrated VAD rather than carrying our own detection step.

Impact

Cut total response time by roughly 1.5 seconds, producing a consistently more responsive and conversational simulation experience for end users.

Technologies
Speech-to-TextDeepgram FluxVoice Activity DetectionPerformance ProfilingObservability
Closed a WCAG Accessibility Gap Across a Streaming Boundary
Keyboard-accessible simulation streaming
Problem

Mursion's streaming architecture created a browser security boundary that prevented keyboard input from reaching the simulation, blocking keyboard-only navigation entirely and leaving a significant accessibility gap in the product.

Constraints

The blocker sat inside a third-party streaming layer we did not own, so the fix could not be implemented unilaterally — it required a vendor-side API change plus a client integration that preserved the existing security model.

My Contribution

I identified the boundary as the root cause, then partnered with our streaming provider to design and prototype a new API for securely forwarding keyboard input across it. I implemented the client-side integration to capture, transmit, and process those events inside the simulation.

Impact

Enabled keyboard-only interaction across all streamed simulations, removing a key accessibility barrier and bringing the platform into alignment with keyboard accessibility requirements under WCAG 2.1.

Technologies
API DesignSystems IntegrationWebRTCReal-Time StreamingWCAG 2.1Vendor Collaboration
Automated the Path from Reported Issue to Root Cause
In-simulation Jira reporting pipeline for AI simulation quality
Problem

As AI simulations moved past the prototype stage, problems with conversation quality, animation, latency, and simulation logic became increasingly hard to reproduce. There was no systematic way to connect a user-reported issue to the AI logs, video, and runtime data engineers needed to find the cause.

Constraints

Reports came from non-engineers mid-simulation, so capture had to be automatic and zero-friction. The system also had to be maintainable by QA rather than depending on me indefinitely.

My Contribution

I designed and built an in-simulation issue-reporting pipeline that automatically captures and attaches simulation video, AI traces, and diagnostic data to a Jira ticket — creating an end-to-end workflow from user report to engineering investigation. I owned and evolved it until it was mature enough to hand off to QA for ongoing operation.

Impact

Gave engineering and QA a repeatable way to capture, reproduce, diagnose, and resolve issues across AI simulations. That feedback loop moved the product from early prototype toward a reliable, scalable offering, and gave QA the tooling to independently own AI simulation quality.

Technologies
AutomationJira APIsObservabilityDeveloper ToolingProduction Debugging

SDK Architecture & Technical Leadership — Leia Inc

Leia Inc (now Immersity) builds 3D displays that work without glasses. I led the Unity SDK for five years, across an acquisition and a full architecture rewrite.

Reduced SDK Complexity from 40 Classes to 8
Diagram of the Leia Unity plugin architecture simplified from 40 classes to 8
Problem

As Leia grew, the Unity SDK accumulated layers of logic to satisfy both legacy and new requirements. It had become increasingly difficult to extend, and technical debt was slowing every new feature.

Constraints

The SDK was already shipping to external developers, so the rewrite had to preserve core functionality and avoid breaking existing integrations.

My Contribution

I redesigned the plugin architecture, consolidating 40 classes down to 8 without losing core functionality, then prioritized and mapped the remaining features for integration into the new structure.

Impact

Left the team with an SDK simple enough to reshape for future requirements without carrying forward old assumptions — which directly enabled the cross-platform unification work below.

Technologies
C#Unity3DSoftware ArchitectureRefactoringTechnical Debt Reduction
Unified Two Device Platforms After an Acquisition
Diagram of the Leia plugin working across Windows and Android devices
Problem

After Leia acquired Dimenco, the company needed a single plugin that worked across all displays on both Windows and Android — two separate device APIs and firmware stacks inherited from two separate companies.

Constraints

Maintaining two parallel codebases was not viable long term, and any unified design had to keep both product lines fully supported through the transition.

My Contribution

Building on the simplified architecture, I abstracted all device-specific logic behind a common interface and established two firmware communication streams behind it. I led the technical side of the merger integration.

Impact

One logic flow now serves every supported device on either operating system. Subsequent features shipped to both platforms with no code duplication.

Technologies
C++C#Windows & Android APIsCross-Platform ArchitectureSystems Integration
Standardized the SDK Release Pipeline and CI
Diagram of the standardized Leia Unity plugin release pipeline
Problem

Unity SDK releases were ad-hoc. Breaking changes routinely shipped inside routine updates, and bugs were not caught before reaching developers.

Constraints

The process had to work for a small team without dedicated release engineering, and had to be simple enough that any engineer could run a release unassisted.

My Contribution

I designed and rolled out the release process end to end: linking Jira tickets to branches and pull requests so context and code changes were traceable, standardizing the PR review workflow, adding CI test builds to verify PRs against core functionality, introducing daily standups for ticket review, and documenting the release and announcement process so anyone on the team could ship an update.

Impact

Smoother workflow across the whole team, bugs caught earlier in the cycle, and a materially more mature SDK. Release capability was no longer concentrated in one person.

Technologies
CI/CDJiraGit & PR WorkflowAutomated Test BuildsProcess Design
Unblocked Prototyping on Unreleased Automotive Hardware
Prototype build running on experimental automotive display hardware
Problem

Automotive partners needed to evaluate rendering on experimental displays, but those devices had no official firmware support in our SDK — so no builds could target them.

Constraints

Waiting on official firmware releases would have missed partner timelines, and the solution had to accommodate hardware configurations that changed between prototypes.

My Contribution

I built a process for pulling display configuration data from configurable JSON files, which let me produce working builds for experimental displays without waiting on firmware updates.

Impact

Enabled demos on automotive partners' experimental hardware and supported those partners with internal projects, keeping business relationships moving that would otherwise have been blocked on firmware.

Technologies
C#JSON ConfigurationFirmware InterfacingRapid PrototypingBuild Tooling
Added URP, HDRP, and Post-Processing Pipeline Support
Leia display content rendered with URP and HDRP post-processing pipelines
Problem

The Leia Unity SDK only supported Unity's default render pipeline. Any content built with URP, HDRP, or post-processing simply would not work on our displays — excluding a large share of modern Unity projects.

Constraints

Each render pipeline hooks into Unity differently, so support had to be added without forking the SDK per pipeline or regressing default-pipeline behavior.

My Contribution

I restructured the SDK to add the necessary hooks and interception points for Post-Processing, URP, and HDRP rendering paths.

Impact

Leia displays now work out of the box with all supported Unity rendering techniques, removing a hard adoption blocker for incoming developers.

Technologies
Unity URPUnity HDRPPost-ProcessingReal-Time GraphicsC#

Leadership Highlights

Led the Unity SDK Engineering Team
Joe leading the Leia Unity SDK plugin team
Problem

Our plugins had several critical open issues that were affecting customer satisfaction and actively slowing adoption of the company's display technology.

Constraints

The team had to clear the existing bug backlog, deliver client-requested features, and keep internal content releases moving — concurrently, with three engineers.

My Contribution

I led a team of three engineers, setting the goals and sequencing: fix user-reported bugs, ship client-requested features, and manage internal Unity plugin content releases against our quality bar. I drove milestones and timelines and mentored the team through the architecture changes.

Impact

The team resolved every identified bug within projected timelines and shipped several features that meaningfully improved the SDK's functionality and developer experience.

Technologies
Technical LeadershipTeam LeadershipMentoringProject Planning
Owned Technical Partnership with Industry Stakeholders
Leia display prototype built for an automotive industry partner
Problem

Industry partners and business stakeholders needed demos running on devices that were not available on the market, including experimental automotive hardware.

Constraints

Each request came with different hardware, different partners, and no established path to a working build.

My Contribution

I served as the technical point of contact — scoping each project's real needs, translating between business stakeholders and engineering, and unblocking whatever stood between the partner and working content.

Impact

Leia built stronger relationships across multiple industries and sustained support for experimental devices it otherwise could not have demonstrated.

Technologies
Cross-Functional CollaborationTechnical ScopingClient RelationsRapid Prototyping
Built the Developer Communication Process
Leia developer community engagement activity
Problem

Leia had no standardized way to tell external developers about SDK updates, and no reliable channel for their feedback to reach the engineering team.

Constraints

This had to run alongside my engineering work, so it needed to be a repeatable process rather than an ad-hoc time sink.

My Contribution

I established the full loop: worked with marketing to produce clear feature communications, monitored and engaged the developer forums on a daily cadence, built a systematic approach to gathering and categorizing bug reports and feature requests, and set up regular meetings to bring that feedback to the development team for prioritization.

Impact

Turned the developer community into an active input to product direction, connecting real user feedback to engineering priorities.

Technologies
Developer RelationsFeedback LoopsProcess DesignCross-Functional Collaboration
Managed the Porting of 40+ Titles to a New Platform
Leia marketstore game library ported across 40+ titles
Problem

Leia set out to launch its marketstore with over 40 games. The titles varied widely in complexity, engine, and audience, each requiring its own approach to porting, testing, and release.

Constraints

The work spanned multiple external publishing partners on a fixed launch timeline, with quality standards that had to hold across every title.

My Contribution

I owned the program end to end: built the project plan and milestone tracking across all titles, established regular communication with each publishing partner, worked with QA to define a rigorous per-title testing protocol, created a structured process for routing update requests and bug reports back to publishers, and coordinated launches as titles cleared QA.

Impact

All 40+ games were ported, tested, and launched within the projected timeline.

Technologies
Program ManagementQA Process DesignPartner ManagementRelease Coordination
Additional Projects

A decade of shipping across domains

Games, healthcare, education, enterprise simulation, automotive, and public sector — different industries, the same engineering approach.

Wallabe Sky AR customizable furniture viewer

Wallabe Sky

Cross-PlatformSingle Codebase

Shipped one codebase to three very different runtimes — HoloLens, ARKit, and WebGL — letting Neumatic Digital's customers preview customizable furniture in their own space on any of them.

Project Overview →
Valeo Voyage XR VR teleportation experience in a self-driving car

Valeo Voyage XR

Sensor IntegrationReal-Time 3D

Adapted self-driving car technology — cameras, motion sensors, and AI software — into a real-time VR passenger experience. I took it from a rough technical demo to a polished client presentation in 5 weeks.

Project Overview →
Avatar Medic AR disaster relief training application

Avatar Medic

AI IntegrationIBM Watson

An AR training application that walks non-medical personnel through administering disaster relief intervention, built on the IBM Watson toolset. Won the hackathon award for Best Use of IBM Watson.

Project Overview →
Sonder, one of the first animated films rendered in Unity

Sonder

ToolingPipeline R&D

One of the first animated films rendered in Unity. I consulted during early R&D — building cinematic pipeline tools, prototyping Unity's pre-alpha Timeline system, and giving structured feedback that shaped its development direction.

Project Overview →
IFTF Future 50 Hologram Dance Hall 3D scanned dancer

IFTF Future 50: Hologram Dance Hall

Content PipelineLive Deadline

Built an end-to-end pipeline that 3D scanned guests on site, then rigged, animated, and composited them into a music video played live at the event — all within the event's own timeline.

IFTF Emerging Media Lab →
Stanford Anatomy Visualization Tool showing an interactive 3D viewer

Stanford Anatomy Visualization Tool

Real-Time 3DEnd-to-End Ownership

An anatomy viewer built around the actual workflows of anatomy professors, replacing static slide decks with a real-time 3D exploration tool. Designed and developed end to end.

Stanford Clinical Anatomy →
Inside Rodin's Hands holographic AR exhibit at the Cantor Museum

Inside Rodin's Hands

Computer VisionImage Tracking

An AR exhibit at Stanford's Cantor Museum using image-based tracking to give visitors an X-ray view into Rodin's sculptures. Featured on Al Jazeera America.

News report →
Interactive VR anatomy lecture built for Stanford Clinical Anatomy

Stanford VR Lectures

Real-Time 3DEnd-to-End Ownership

Interactive VR anatomy lectures built for Stanford Clinical Anatomy, replacing static textbook content with spatial, explorable 3D environments. Designed and developed end to end.

Stanford Clinical Anatomy →
Sevo The Dragon pre-surgery anxiety reduction game character

Sevo The Dragon

Full OwnershipHealthcare

A stress-reduction game for Stanford Medicine Children's Health that helps pediatric patients stay calm before surgery. I handled programming, art sourcing, music integration, and owned the full project timeline. Later featured in an NBC report and a Super Bowl commercial.

Super Bowl commercial →
NeuroExplorer VR educational neuroscience experience

NeuroExplorer VR

Cross-Disciplinary TeamAward-Winning

A 2018 Oculus Launchpad Award-winning experience that teaches neuroscience concepts to anyone, regardless of prior background. Developed within a cross-disciplinary team of artists, sound engineers, and production specialists.

Find it on the Oculus Store →
Simtainer VR experience showing a repurposed shipping container

Simtainer

Simulation LogicReal-Time 3D

A simulation exploring alternative uses for shipping containers — housing, medical bays, and urban farming. I built and programmed the application, authoring multiple simulation narratives with Unity's Timeline system.

Project Overview →
Smart City Futures Edmonton VR community engagement tool

Smart City Futures Edmonton

Public SectorStakeholder Collaboration

A community engagement tool for the City of Edmonton visualizing smart city infrastructure options. I programmed the application and coordinated directly with city planners and designers.

Blaze Of Trust Burning Man VR art project

Blaze Of Trust

Sole EngineerOn-Site Deployment

A Burning Man art project combining VR with live interactive exercises. I was the sole developer — responsible for all Unity development, hardware setup, and on-site deployment in a hostile-to-hardware environment.

Community

Community & Mentorship

Game Creators Hudson Valley community meetup

Game Creators Hudson Valley

OrganizerCommunity Building

I run Game Creators Hudson Valley, a community for game developers, artists, and enthusiasts across the Hudson Valley — a place to meet collaborators, learn new skills, and build games together. Open to all skill levels, from students and hobbyists through working professionals, with talks, demos, game jams, and networking.

SFVR community meetup for VR and AR developers

SFVR — San Francisco VR Meetup

Event LeadXR Community

A community meetup bringing VR/AR developers, creators, and enthusiasts together to explore emerging immersive technologies, share projects, and connect across the industry — hands-on demos, technical discussions, and knowledge sharing across the XR community. I grew from volunteer, to managing staffing for GDC after-events, to running full events.

Students in the Newburgh Armory Unity Center VR class

VR Class: Newburgh Armory Unity Center

InstructorCurriculum

The Newburgh Armory Unity Center's "Prosperity Through Education" program offers free Saturday enrichment classes for the community. I created and continue to teach an introductory Unity3D and VR development class.

Class Overview →
SATU STEAM summer program students in West Oakland

SATU STEAM Summer Program

Program CreatorMentorship

A summer program preparing underserved West Oakland youth for careers in technology and innovation. I created the program and coordinated guest mentors from the tech industry each week.

Awards

Recognition

Coyote Automobile Awards trophy
Valeo Voyage XR – Techno Innovation 3rd Place
IBM Watson Award badge
Avatar Medic – Best Use of IBM Watson
Oculus Launchpad Award badge
NeuroExplorer VR – Oculus Launchpad Winner
Project Tango Award badge
Dino Labs – Most Useful Application
ZSpace Award badge
Escape! – Winner
High Fidelity Award badge
Attack On Titan VR Showdown – 2nd Place
Microsoft Hololens Award badge
Connect 4 – 2nd Place
DeVry University Award badge
TrakKart – Planning, Technical Merit, Best Presentation, Judges Choice
Technical Skills

Tools and domains I work in

Languages

C++ C# TypeScript JavaScript Python Node.js YAML JSON CLI

Real-Time & 3D

Unity3D Real-Time 3D Game Engines URP / HDRP Post-Processing XR VR AR WebRTC LiveKit Real-Time Streaming

AI

AI Integration LLM Integration OpenAI Generative AI Conversational AI Speech-to-Text (STT) Text-to-Speech (TTS) Deepgram ElevenLabs Voice Activity Detection AI Pipelines

Architecture & Infrastructure

Systems Architecture Systems Integration API Design CI/CD Automation Observability Developer Tooling Production Systems

Leadership & Process

Technical Leadership Team Leadership Mentoring Cross-Functional Collaboration Rapid Prototyping Client Relations
Background

Education

Bachelor's Degree, Game and Simulation Programming

DeVry University

Experience

Experience & Leadership

Senior Software Engineer: XR Artificial Intelligence Integration

Mursion ·

  • Architected and built Mursion's first on-demand AI simulation platform in Unity 3D, Node.js, and TypeScript — integrating Deepgram speech-to-text, OpenAI reasoning, ElevenLabs voice synthesis, and real-time 3D avatars into a production system now delivered as a 24/7 offering to customers globally
  • Diagnosed a 1.2-second lag degrading conversational immersion, then re-engineered the speech-to-text pipeline and migrated to Deepgram Flux — cutting round-trip latency by roughly 1.5 seconds
  • Identified a streaming security boundary blocking keyboard input, then partnered with our streaming provider to design and ship a new forwarding API — closing a key WCAG 2.1 accessibility gap
  • Designed and built an in-simulation Jira reporting pipeline that auto-captures video, AI logs, and diagnostics — giving engineering and QA a repeatable way to reproduce, diagnose, and resolve issues at scale

See Featured Engineering Work above for detailed case studies from this role.

Engines Plugin Lead

Leia Inc ·

  • Led a team of 3 Unity plugin developers, driving project milestones and timelines
  • Redesigned the Unity plugin architecture, reducing complexity from 30+ classes to 8, improving maintainability and performance
  • Led the technical side of a company merger, building one plugin that worked across both Windows and Android APIs
  • Added Post Processing, URP, and HDRP support in Unity; built the Unreal release pipeline and UE5 support
  • Served as the primary liaison with industry partners and the developer community

See Featured Engineering Work above for detailed case studies from this role.

Founder / Developer

Gamehearts LLC ·

  • Mahalo Digital: built an AR Stamp Card for the Dell Technologies World Expo in Las Vegas
  • Valeo: brought a VR teleportation experience from a rough technical demo to a polished presentation in 5 weeks
  • Lucile Packard Children's Hospital: led a team of artists and voice actors to build anesthesia stress-reduction games, featured in NBC and Super Bowl commercials
  • Sonder: created cinematic pipeline tools for one of the first animated films rendered in Unity

Content Solutions Developer

Stanford University Dept. of Clinical Anatomy ·

  • Inside Rodin's Hands: created a holographic art exhibit, featured on Al Jazeera America
  • Inside Human Body: built 4 interactive VR anatomy lectures
  • Ported an iOS educational app to Windows, ZSpace, and Oculus
  • Led the ongoing shift of clinical anatomy content from textbooks to interactive AR/VR media

Let's Connect

I'm always interested in discussing new opportunities, hard technical problems, or connecting with other engineers and technical leaders.