Chief CV/ML Engineer

This is a senior technical leadership role owning the technical direction and architecture for the CV/ML systems at the core of an autonomous gun turret. You will set the technical strategy for real-time drone detection, tracking, and classification, and see it through from architecture to fielded, military-grade systems. Your time will center on architecture, design review, and the hardest technical problems on the program, with a small group of senior engineers reporting to you.

Responsibilities

• Own the technical roadmap and architecture for the CV/ML stack, setting direction that Engineering Managers and their teams execute against.
• Make and document the consequential technical decisions: sensor and compute architecture, model strategy, real-time performance tradeoffs, and how the perception system evolves across weapon system variants and engagement ranges.
• Personally drive the hardest and most ambiguous technical problems on the program, from concept through field validation.
• Lead a small group of senior CV/ML engineers, and mentor senior and staff engineers and managers across the broader team through design review and technical guidance.
• Partner with the VP of AI and Engineering Managers to align technical strategy with product goals, delivery commitments, and hiring plans.
• Set and uphold the technical quality bar across the CV/ML organization through architecture review, design review, and validation standards.

Requirements

• Deep expertise and 15+ years of experience in machine-learning-based computer vision and traditional image and signal processing, ideally in robotics, including systems deployed in real-time or safety-critical applications.
• A track record of owning the architecture of a complex perception or autonomy system across multiple years and releases, from initial design through production hardening.
• Demonstrated ability to set technical direction that other teams execute against, and to drive alignment through expertise and influence as well as authority.
• Experience mentoring and leading senior team members, whether as a formal manager or as a principal-level technical leader.
• At least a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or a related field, with a strong focus on machine learning and computer vision.
• Strong command of Python and C++ and modern ML frameworks such as PyTorch or TensorFlow, with the depth to review and guide work across the stack even where you are not writing the code yourself.
• Comfort operating in a fast-moving, engineering-first environment where architecture decisions carry hard real-world consequences.

Nice to have

• Prior experience as a Principal Engineer, Chief Engineer, or technical director for a perception, autonomy, or weapons/aerospace program.
• Ph.D. in computer vision, machine learning, or related fields.
• Experience with object detection and tracking in challenging real-world conditions such as small targets, cluttered backgrounds, or low-contrast imagery.
• Background in defense, aerospace, or autonomous systems where performance and reliability requirements are non-negotiable.
• Experience architecting systems for edge hardware such as NVIDIA Jetson or similar embedded GPU platforms, or with multi-sensor fusion across modalities such as optical and infrared cameras.
• Experience taking a system through field testing, hardware integration cycles, and production hardening, not just software-only development.

Benefits

• Competitive salary
• ACS Equity Package
• Health, Dental, Vision Insurance
• Paid Time Off