Senior Machine Learning Engineer, Data Mining

Motional; Boston (MA); On-site; USD 110,000 - 150,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, and vision insurance

401(k) with company match

Health savings accounts

Life insurance

Pet insurance

Job summary

Motional is seeking an experienced machine learning engineer in Boston to architect and optimize models for autonomous vehicles. This role focuses on deploying real-time ML models and collaborating with teams on advanced data discoveries.

The ideal candidate has extensive experience in machine learning, particularly in model optimization and reinforcement learning. Candidates should be proficient in Python and familiar with cloud environments such as AWS, GCP, or Azure.

Qualifications

• Minimum 6 years of hands-on experience in ML engineering.
• Experience with model distillation and optimization.
• Proven ability in deploying ML models in cloud environments.

Responsibilities

• Architect and train distilled models for multimodal sensor data.
• Build reinforcement learning-based systems for autonomous driving.
• Collaborate to optimize model deployment for real-time inference.

Skills

Machine learning engineering

Model optimization

Reinforcement learning

Python

ML frameworks (PyTorch, TensorFlow, JAX)

Software engineering fundamentals

Education

BS in Computer Science or equivalent experience

Tools

AWS

GCP

Azure

Job description

Mission Summary:

At Motional, we're transforming how autonomous vehicles discover critical intelligence hidden within petabytes of multimodal sensor data. Our next-generation autonomous driving stack depends on finding the rare edge cases, long-tail scenarios, and model errors that matter most. Omnitag, our ML-powered multimodal data mining framework, is the engine that powers this discovery.

What You'll Do:

• Architect and Train Distilled Models: Design and implement teacher-student model frameworks for multimodal sensor data. Develop training pipelines for knowledge distillation. Ensure student models maintain high accuracy while drastically reducing inference latency and memory footprint.
• Reinforcement Learning for Data Discover: Build RL-based policy learning and reasoning systems for autonomous driving applications. Implement and scale RL training workflows (e.g., PPO, DQN, actor-critic methods) for simulation and real-world interaction. Explore reward shaping, environment modeling, and multi-agent RL where applicable.
• Optimize Model Deployment for Real-Time Inference: Collaborate with backend engineers to deploy distilled and RL models into production. Optimize for latency, throughput, and hardware efficiency across GPU/CPU clusters. Implement model versioning, A/B testing, and monitoring for performance regressions.
• Research and Integrate Agentic Systems: Explore and prototype agentic workflows for autonomous reasoning, chain-of-thought prompting, and goal-directed behavior. Integrate such systems into our broader autonomy stack as experimental or production components.
• Drive Production Reliability: Establish patterns for graceful degradation, fault tolerance, and cost optimization. Operate Omnitag as a mission-critical data platform serving the entire ML organization, with a focus on reliability, debuggability, and operational excellence.
• Mentor and Collaborate: Work closely with ML scientists, data engineers, and autonomy teams to translate research advances into scalable engineering solutions. Guide junior engineers in best practices for model training, evaluation, and deployment.

What We're Looking For:

• BS in Computer Science, Machine Learning, or related field, or equivalent professional experience.
• 6+ years of hands‑on experience in machine learning engineering, with a focus on model post‑training, optimization, and deployment.
• Strong experience with model distillation or teacher‑student training - practical knowledge of loss functions, training strategies, and evaluation of compressed models.
• Proven experience with reinforcement learning in production or research settings: policy optimization, reward design, simulation environments, and RL‑based reasoning.
• Expert-level proficiency in Python and ML frameworks (PyTorch, TensorFlow, or JAX).
• Strong software engineering fundamentals: testing, CI/CD, containerization, and system design.
• Experience deploying ML models in cloud environments (AWS, GCP, or Azure) and optimizing for inference.
• Demonstrated ability to ship production‑grade ML systems and mentor team members.
• Demonstrated track record of shipping robust, well‑tested, production‑grade systems and mentoring junior engineers.

Bonus Points (Nice‑to‑Haves):

• MS/PhD in Computer Science, Machine Learning, or related field.
• Experience with agentic systems, autonomous reasoning, chain-of-thought models, or LLM‑based planning.
• Background in autonomous driving, robotics, or real‑time decision‑making systems.
• Familiarity with multimodal learning, sensor fusion, or embodied AI.
• Experience building active learning loops, using the model to find the data that breaks the model.
• Experience with ML‑based data mining, active learning, or contrastive learning.
• Knowledge of model serving tools (TF Serving, Triton, TorchServe) and MLOps platforms.
• Publications or open‑source contributions in RL, distillation, or efficient ML.

We encourage a hybrid schedule with in‑office time at one of our locations in Boston, Pittsburgh, or Las Vegas to support collaboration, or this role can be fully remote.

The salary range for this role is an estimate based on a wide range of compensation factors including but not limited to specific skills, experience and expertise, role location, certifications, licenses, and business needs. This role may include additional forms of compensation such as a bonus or company equity. The recruiter assigned to this role can share more information about the specific compensation and benefit details associated with this role during the hiring process. Candidates for certain positions are eligible to participate in Motional’s benefits program. Motional’s benefits include but are not limited to medical, dental, vision, 401(k) with a company match, health saving accounts, life insurance, pet insurance, and more.

Motional AD Inc. is an EOE. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. To comply with Federal Law, we participate in E‑Verify. All newly‑hired employees are queried through this electronic system established by the DHS and the SSA to verify their identity and employment eligibility.