Principal ML Engineer, Space Optics & Vision — Clearance

Rocket Lab USA; Tucson (AZ); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Rocket Lab USA is seeking a Principal Machine Learning Engineer in Tucson, AZ, to lead ML model development for advanced optical systems. You will design, train, and deploy DL models, build end-to-end ML pipelines, and collaborate with research engineers on AI, ML, and CV applications.

You will work within Rocket Lab Optical Systems, applying 12+ years of experience to enable mission-critical defense and space-related projects while ensuring robust software practices and security clearances.

Qualifications

• Strong background in ML including model selection, architecting, training, validation, testing, and deployment.
• Experience in building DL neural networks for CV, image processing, or video analysis (object detection, segmentation, tracking).
• Proficiency in Python and modern DL libraries like Keras, TensorFlow, PyTorch.

Responsibilities

• Contribute your experience to developing ML solutions for real-world problems.
• Design, train, and deploy ML models for Optical Systems applications.
• Build and maintain ML pipelines for data ingestion, feature engineering, training, and inference.
• Collaborate with researchers/engineers on AI, ML, and computer vision.
• Perform rapid prototyping and enhanced development for integration into operational systems.
• Perform troubleshooting, bug fixes, and maintenance of existing and new systems.
• Stay current with ML research and evaluate new tools, frameworks, and techniques

Skills

Machine learning

Python

Deep learning

Computer vision

Math/linear algebra

CI/CD

Version control

Security clearance

Education

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

Master's degree or PhD preferred

Tools

Keras

TensorFlow

PyTorch

Job description

Rocket Lab USA is seeking a Principal Machine Learning Engineer in Tucson, AZ, to lead ML model development for advanced optical systems. You will design, train, and deploy DL models, build end-to-end ML pipelines, and collaborate with research engineers on AI, ML, and CV applications.

You will work within Rocket Lab Optical Systems, applying 12+ years of experience to enable mission-critical defense and space-related projects while ensuring robust software practices and security clearances.