OpenUSD Development Certification: What It Is and Why It Matters#
To help qualify OpenUSD (Universal Scene Description) skills, NVIDIA collaborated with USD experts from around the world to establish the OpenUSD Development professional certification exam.
The OpenUSD Development certification proves your ability to create optimized pipelines, structure workflows for large projects, and apply best practices trusted by major studios and tech companies worldwide.
Why OpenUSD Development Certification Is Important for 3D Developers#
Teams working on unified 3D projects need standardized workflows, strong pipeline management, and a common technical language—precisely what Universal Scene Description delivers. However, it’s important to keep in mind that USD is not just another file format, and building USD pipelines is not as simple as just swapping your existing files out with .usd (and we wouldn’t want you to do that anyway).
Not everyone is building USD scenes the right way.
OpenUSD is an open ecosystem with almost unlimited possibilities - you can do almost anything - so it’s natural that there are a lot of ways you can do things wrong (or at least wrong enough to cause headaches later on). If your team lacks unified standards, you should expect costly inefficiencies, sloppy structures, and bad processes.
Pipeline developers are essential.
USD’s unique structure, extensibility, and collaborative capabilities unlock incredible benefits, but require careful planning to seamlessly adapt existing workflows and processes into modern pipelines. Understanding, designing, and managing these systems requires expertise that’s highly sought-after.
Certification helps you identify and grow true USD talent, giving you confidence that you’re hiring and developing the right people for high-impact work. Ideally 10% of your team—or at least one or two people per project—should hold USD Development certification to anchor your pipelines with proven expertise.
Practical Benefits of OpenUSD Certification for Pipelines and Collaboration#
Certification isn’t the end of the road with building USD expertise, but it provides a baseline qualification for USD development and creates a shared foundation that:
Ensures everyone is building on the same standards.
Sets a clear, achievable target as OpenUSD’s boundaries continue to expand.
Leads to efficient workflows, better project outcomes, and easier onboarding for new team members.
Updates as the technology evolves ensuring experts remain abreast with the latest features and best practices.
At a minimum, certification verifies critical skills for building industry-ready 3D workflows and establishes a foundation for future-proof collaboration—essential for any successful digital twin project or physical AI initiative.
Ready To Establish Yourself as a Certified OpenUSD Developer?#
📚 Start here with the Learn OpenUSD curriculum.
Start by taking the open-sourced Learn OpenUSD curriculum. We designed it to be free and easily accessible to anyone, regardless of your industry, experience level, or GPU setup. We’ll continue to develop this content and release periodic updates, and you can help build more USD experts by making your own contributions.
🎓 Find additional resources on the OpenUSD Development Certification exam page.
Once you’ve built a foundation with the Learn OpenUSD content, you can review the additional materials called out in the study guide found on the certification page. When you’re ready, register for the exam and take it at home at your own convenience.