Senior Python Engineer, ML and Autonomy

SDFM; Baton Rouge (LA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health, dental, and vision insurance

401(k)

Paid time off

Job summary

ZenaTech in Baton Rouge seeks a Senior Python Engineer to own the machine learning behind our defense drones and biometric security products. You will build autonomy and perception models across the IQ Sphere, Phoenix Interceptor, and ZenaDrone families, and drive the voiceprint matching behind Voice Lock from training to edge execution.

This role sits at the deepest technical seat on the new Baton Rouge team, requiring hands-on deployment on constrained hardware, model provenance, and tight

Qualifications

• 5+ years of production Python experience with deep ML frameworks (PyTorch/ONNX) and deployment paths.
• Experience deploying models to constrained edge targets with attention to latency, power, and thermal limits.
• Depth in computer vision, signal processing, or speaker recognition.
• U.S. citizenship and eligibility to work in a CMMC Level 2 environment.

Responsibilities

• Build and train models for autonomy, target discrimination, and perception across drone families.
• Own the Voice Lock voiceprint pipeline end-to-end—from enrollment to matching and roster management.
• Ensure models run within real compute, power, and thermal budgets on edge targets.
• Develop an evaluation harness to catch model regressions and run in CI.
• Collaborate with hardware teams on sensor integration.
• Document model provenance, data lineage, and evaluation results for government reviews.

Skills

production Python

deep ML framework

edge deployment

model evaluation

documentation

Tools

PyTorch

ONNX

Job description

About ZenaTech

ZenaTech (Nasdaq: ZENA | FSE: 49Q) is a technology company specializing in AI drones, Drone as a Service (DaaS), enterprise SaaS, and quantum computing solutions for mission-critical business applications. Since 2017, the company has leveraged its software development expertise and expanded its drone design and manufacturing capabilities through ZenaDrone to innovate and enhance customer inspection, monitoring, safety, security, compliance, and surveying processes.

ZenaTech serves over 100 enterprise software customers in law enforcement, government, and industrial sectors, with drones used in agriculture, defense, and logistics industries. The company has offices in North America, Europe, and the UAE.

Job Overview

We are looking for a Senior Python Engineer to own the machine learning behind ZenaTech's defense drones and secure audio products. This is the deepest technical seat on our new Baton Rouge team: you will build autonomy and perception models across the IQ Sphere, Phoenix Interceptor, and ZenaDrone families, and own the voiceprint matching behind Voice Lock, our biometric security product. You will take models from training all the way to running on real edge hardware.

Key Responsibilities

• Build and train models for autonomy, target discrimination, and perception across the drone product families.


• Own the Voice Lock voiceprint pipeline end to end - enrollment, matching, and the roster database - against 2027 preview and launch dates.


• Get models running within real compute, power, and thermal budgets on edge targets.


• Build an evaluation harness that catches model regressions and runs in CI.


• Work with hardware teams on sensor and capture integration.


• Document model provenance, training data lineage, and evaluation results to a standard that holds up to government customer review.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of production Python with deep ML framework experience - PyTorch, ONNX, and the quantization and deployment path, not only notebook work.


• Has deployed a model to a constrained edge target and worked through quantization loss, latency budgets, and thermal limits.


• Depth in computer vision, signal processing, or speaker recognition.


• Must be a U.S. citizen and eligible to work in a CMMC Level 2 environment.

Preferred

• Defense, aerospace, robotics, or national lab experience.


• Experience documenting models for regulated or government customers.

Benefits

• Health, dental, and vision insurance


• 401(k)


• Paid time off

Artificial Intelligence We use artificial intelligence to review and screen applications and materials. However, every candidate we move forward with is reviewed and selected, and all final hiring decisions are made by a member of our hiring team.