AR Job Description: Exploring Careers in Augmented Reality

Written by Coursera Staff • Updated on

Discover the many career options within the AR industry, whether you’re looking for something technical or a career that relies on creativity and management skills.

[Featured Image] A woman interested in an AR job description experiences an AR screen.

Augmented reality (AR) technology blends digital features with the real world to create an enhanced version of your surroundings. Unlike virtual reality (VR), which creates an immersive environment that isolates you from your surroundings via a headset, AR allows the real and digital worlds to interact.

Many may be familiar with AR technology due to its use in the gaming industry (as witnessed in the popular Pokémon Go game); entertainment is hardly AR’s only function. Professionals from a wide breadth of industries are using AR to innovate and create. For example, in health care, AR can be used to guide people performing first aid techniques, and in retail, it can allow consumers to imagine what products would look like in their homes.  Likewise, jobs within AR technology are not limited to technical roles. 

If you are interested in pursuing a career in AR, you have a range of career paths to choose from. Discover AR job categories, the roles and responsibilities of different positions, and how you can find your start in the industry. 

AR job categories

AR jobs are sometimes referred to as “XR jobs,” with the “X” representing the convergence and overlap of AR, virtual reality (VR), and mixed reality (MR). While many AR jobs involve software development, many other roles involve design and project management tasks.

Individuals in the roles below may work together to help complete AR projects successfully:

 

  • Development roles: These roles involve the actual building of AR software. However, they might not just be strictly software designer and engineering roles; they could also include 3D modeling and artist work.

 

  • Design roles: AR experiences require user experience (UX) design. As such, you can find UX design roles in AR related to content strategy and creation, testing, implementation, and UX research.

 

  • Project management roles: Individuals in project management roles may help identify project steps and strategy, choose talent suited to work on the project, provide resources to talent and teams, and oversee goals and metrics that help determine whether or not the AR project is successful.

 

  • Business roles: Once AR-related software is available, salespeople are needed to market the product and direct consumers toward appropriate tech solutions.  

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Design, Augmented reality (AR), Virtual reality (VR), development, Extended Reality (XR), Unity, Unreal, WebXR, User Experience Design (UXD), Mixed Reality (MR)

AR job descriptions for common AR job roles

Different roles exist across various AR job categories. According to the 2024 McKinsey Technology Trends Outlook report, immersive reality job postings have doubled since 2020, with high demand for software engineers, graphic designers, and project managers, among other roles [1]. However, there is a particular shortage of talent exists in XR software engineering.

AR jobs come with different responsibilities, educational requirements, and salaries. For example, you may find that a job description for an AR software developer may differ from a job description for an AR designer, but overlap often exists between the two.

Below, you can examine the difference in positions between three common AR roles. 

1. AR software developer

Median annual salary (US): $108,235 [2]

Job outlook (projected growth from 2023 to 2033): 17 percent [3]

Requirements: Employers generally prefer you have at least a bachelor’s degree in computer and information technology, though some may want a master’s degree.

An AR software developer is more of a technical role. You'll often develop AR software and strategically work to ensure software meets user needs. In this position, you might also be responsible for testing and maintaining AR software as well as recommending upgrades.  

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2. AR software designer

Median annual salary (US): $77,746 [4]

Job outlook (projected growth from 2023 to 2033): 17 percent [3]

Requirements: Many employers look for AR software designers with degrees in computer science, though degrees in design and engineering are also valuable.

While the developer actively builds AR software, the AR designer is the mastermind behind the process. In this role, your value might depend more on your vision and ideas than your technical skills.

3. AR project manager

Median annual salary (US): $95,040 [5

Job outlook (projected growth from 2023 to 2033): 7 percent [6]

Requirements: Many AR project managers have experience in computer science or engineering.

While an AR project manager’s skills are more related to general project management, they still need a good grasp of AR development and design to shepherd a project over its lifetime adequately. 

In further business-related roles, an employer may not explicitly require you to have technical skills, such as experience with programming, but having tech skills and knowledge can still be beneficial.

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Key skills for AR professionals

Regardless of what specific AR role you choose to pursue, you may want to hone a few key skill sets. Beyond technical skills, such as those necessary for AR development or design, AR professionals are also often skilled in the following areas:

 

  • Creativity and problem-solving: Designing, developing, or otherwise supporting an AR project through your role may require creative problem-solving as you produce a unique solution catering to users’ needs.

 

  • Collaboration and communication: AR professionals generally work on larger teams. Effective communication and collaboration are key to ensuring project success. 

 

  • Staying updated on current XR trends: XR is a rapidly evolving field, and if you stay updated on the industry and its evolving needs, you can continually develop in-demand skills.  

How to start a career in AR

To pursue or further an AR career, a good place to start is by establishing the right knowledge base, and consistently updating your skills to remain current with industry standards.

  • Pursue a higher education. If you’ve yet to pursue a bachelor’s degree and want to work in one of the more technical AR roles, consider pursuing one in computer science or engineering. If you have already obtained a bachelor’s degree, you might consider pursuing a master’s degree, specifically if you want to grow your career to a leadership or management level. Many employers prefer those in AR leadership to have more advanced qualifications. 

  • Showcase your projects. You can continue to fine-tune your AR-related skills by creating your own AR content to show your experience in a portfolio. This gives you not only practice but it is also something to present to potential employers.

  • Consider a boot camp. Lastly, before and after you find a good employment fit, you may want to consider attending online boot camps focusing on specific AR skill development. Having a boot camp experience on your resume can show employers that you have in-demand technical knowledge and are a fast learner who’s adaptable and capable of thriving in a remote work setting. You can find boot camps that will teach relevant AR skills, such as how to adapt to the latest trends within the XR field, XR development and design, and XR prototyping.

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Learn more about AR with Coursera

Employees with immersive reality experience are in high demand, and you don’t necessarily always need an extensive technical background to land a role in XR. The industry needs project managers, sales representatives, marketers, and more alongside the expected developers and designers.

To enter the AR industry, explore AR and AR-related courses on Coursera. From prepping for a career as an AR developer with the Meta AR Developer Professional Certificate to pursuing a Graduate Diploma in Computer Science from the University of London, options exist for your level of interest and education. 

Article sources

1

McKinsey. “McKinsey Technology Trends Outlook 2024,https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/mckinsey-digital/our-insights/the-top-trends-in-tech.” Accessed February 4, 2025.

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