Lead ML Engineer – Space Imaging & Vision

Rocket Lab USA; Long Beach (CA); On-site; USD 199,000 - 318,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Employee Stock Purchase Program (15%+)

Stock options / equity

Top-tier health plans

Dental & vision coverage

Paid vacation & holidays

401(k) with company match

EV charging access

Onsite fitness centers

Snacks & beverages

Merchandise discounts

Job summary

Rocket Lab USA is seeking a Principal Machine Learning Engineer for its Optical Systems group in Long Beach, CA. You will build deep learning models for EO/IR image processing, architect end-to-end ML pipelines, and collaborate with researchers to transition prototypes into flight-ready systems.

The role requires advanced ML expertise, strong Python skills, and experience with CV, deep learning libraries, and CI/CD. A U.S. citizen and ability to obtain a security clearance are required.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in a technical field and significant ML experience.
• Proven ability to design, train, validate and deploy ML models.
• Experience with computer vision and image processing tasks.

Responsibilities

• Develop and deploy machine learning models for Optical Systems.
• Build ML pipelines for data ingestion, feature engineering, training, and inference.
• Collaborate with researchers and engineers across AI, ML and CV.
• Prototype rapidly and integrate solutions into operational systems.
• Stay current with ML research and evaluate new tools and frameworks.

Skills

Python proficiency

Deep learning libs

Computer vision

ML model lifecycle

CI/CD & containerization

Linear algebra

US security clearance

Education

Bachelor's in CS/EE/ME/Physics or related

Master's or PhD (advantage)

Tools

Docker

Git

Keras/TensorFlow/PyTorch

Job description

Rocket Lab USA is seeking a Principal Machine Learning Engineer for its Optical Systems group in Long Beach, CA. You will build deep learning models for EO/IR image processing, architect end-to-end ML pipelines, and collaborate with researchers to transition prototypes into flight-ready systems.

The role requires advanced ML expertise, strong Python skills, and experience with CV, deep learning libraries, and CI/CD. A U.S. citizen and ability to obtain a security clearance are required.