Senior ML Engineer — Wildland Fire Vision & Field Apps

The Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence; Seattle (WA); On-site; Full time

Job description

At AI2 we build AI for the common good. At Wildlands, our goal is to apply machine learning to support wildland fire management and research workflows. We are focusing our work on ground-level fuels that are not measurable with satellite technology. Surface fuels are a neglected research area in wildfire research and management – we are taking current low-tech methodology and applying computer vision to greatly amplify the impact.

In this role, you will work closely with some of the leading AI researchers in the world. You will design models that help fuel ecologists to measure various parameters to manage forests. You will create computer vision based models to help scientists understand as much of the state of the forests as possible using photographs. You will conduct research to understand the fusion of various types of imagery (Infra-red, visible, Lidar etc.) and the information which can be gathered. You should be able to convert some of these models to run them in the mobile devices to help researchers in the field during data collection.

Your Next Challenge:

The essential functions include, but are not limited to the following:

• Own a large system or a set of smaller components and take an active role in product or project definition. Design and write a significant portion of the critical-path code or modeling.
• Successfully lead the development and launch of deliverables that require guiding other team members, with limited oversight from manager/peers.
• Plan, design, code, and deliver systems that have a significant impact, such as greatly improved performance, availability, adoption, or customer satisfaction.
• Be sought after as a technical expert. Advise management, colleagues, and customers on advanced technical matters.
• Promote a healthy, collaborative culture that improves the team’s overall effectiveness through mentorship, role modeling, etc.
• Help resolve conflicting views on technical matters, and focus the whole team on delivery.

Required:

A Senior Machine Learning Software Engineer shows strong ownership of solutions and solves difficult or complex problems. Engineers at this level will have demonstrated and are expected to have:

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Statistics, Engineering, Applied Mathematics, or a related quantitative field, plus 7 years’ experience; OR Master's degree in Computer Science, Statistics, Engineering, Applied Mathematics, or a related quantitative field, plus 5 years’ experience
• Have production experience with multiple successful launches/deliveries, with solutions that are extensible.
• Experience with applied deep learning (transformers, deep CNNs, etc)
• Expertise in machine learning, statistics, computer vision and time series analysis
• Familiarity working with cloud services (GCP, AWS, or Azure, etc)
• Strong collaboration skills

Preferred:

• Published papers in ML/AI (NLP or CV)
• Research experience or Ph.D

Physical Demands and Work Environment:

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by a team member to successfully perform the essential functions of this position. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the functions.

• Must be able to remain in a stationary position for long periods of time.
• The ability to communicate information and ideas so others will understand. Must be able to exchange accurate information in these situations.
• The ability to observe details at close range.
• Can work under deadlines.

A Little More About AI2:

The Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence is a non-profit research institute in Seattle founded by Paul Allen. The core mission of AI2 is to contribute to humanity through high-impact research in artificial intelligence.

In addition to AI2’s core mission, we also aim to contribute to humanity through our treatment of each member of the AI2 Team. Some highlights are: