Senior ML Engineer - Space Vision & Image Processing

Rocket Lab Corporation; Tucson (AZ); On-site; USD 120,000 - 170,000; Full time

Job summary

Rocket Lab's Optical Systems division seeks a Senior Machine Learning Engineer I based in Tucson, AZ to advance deep learning for Electro-Optical image processing and defense-related missions.

You will design, train, and deploy ML models, build end-to-end pipelines, and collaborate with AI researchers to deliver mission-critical solutions for DoD/IC programs while complying with ITAR and security requirements.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in CS/ECE/related field required; 5+ years of experience, or a PhD with relevant experience.
• Strong background in ML including model selection, training, validation, testing, and deployment.
• Experience with deep learning for computer vision / image processing.

Responsibilities

• Contribute to developing ML solutions for real‑world space domain 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.
• Prototype rapidly and integrate into operational systems.
• Troubleshoot, fix bugs, and maintain systems.
• Stay current with ML research and evaluate new tools and techniques.

Skills

Python

Deep learning

ML model development

CI/CD basics

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/ECE/related field

Master's or PhD in related field

Tools

Docker

Version control

CI/CD tooling

Job description

Rocket Lab's Optical Systems division seeks a Senior Machine Learning Engineer I based in Tucson, AZ to advance deep learning for Electro-Optical image processing and defense-related missions.

You will design, train, and deploy ML models, build end-to-end pipelines, and collaborate with AI researchers to deliver mission-critical solutions for DoD/IC programs while complying with ITAR and security requirements.