Staff Software Engineer (Perception)

Shield; Washington; On-site; USD 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Excellent Medical Coverage

Mental Health Support

Paid Parental Leave

Stock Benefits

401K

Job summary

Shield’s Hivemind Solutions Perception team is hiring a senior ML engineer to lead the development of vision, vision-language, and vision-language-action models for autonomous systems. The role focuses on bridging cutting-edge AI research with scalable production, deploying models to embedded hardware, and guiding architecture across multiple efforts.

You will work with researchers, perception engineers, autonomy engineers, and platform teams to advance perception capabilities while mentoring

Qualifications

• Strong understanding of 3D vision problems/algorithms.
• Proficiency in C++ and Python.
• Ability to obtain a SECRET clearance.
• Experience deploying models in production.
• Experience with PyTorch and TensorFlow.
• Experience with vision-language models and vision-language-action models.
• Open-source contributions to ML/CV projects.
• Experience with defense customers.

Responsibilities

• Lead development of ML solutions for perception in autonomous systems.
• Own architecture and model development across multiple efforts.
• Bridge research and production for reliable autonomy.
• Mentor engineers and raise technical bar across the org.
• Collaborate with researchers, perception engineers, autonomy engineers, and platform teams.
• Develop benchmarks and evaluation frameworks for model performance.

Skills

3D vision

Analytical problem-solving

C++

Python

SECRET clearance

Education

Bachelor's degree

Master's degree

PhD

Tools

PyTorch

TensorFlow

ONNX

TensorRT

Job description

• The Hivemind Solutions Perception team develops the next generation of perception capabilities for autonomous systems by combining state-of-the-art machine learning with the proven foundations of computer vision
• The team advances how autonomous platforms understand and interpret the world by developing vision, vision-language (VLM), and vision-language-action (VLA) models that tackle core perception challenges such as object understanding, scene interpretation, and mission-relevant environmental awareness
• Working at the intersection of research and production, our engineers build the data pipelines, supervised fine-tuning (SFT) workflows, evaluation frameworks, and deployment infrastructure needed to transform cutting-edge AI research into reliable, mission-ready perception capabilities
• In this role, you’ll lead the technical development of advanced machine learning solutions that define the future of perception for autonomous systems
• You’ll own the team’s most challenging technical problems, drive architecture and model development across multiple efforts, and influence how foundation models are adapted, evaluated, and deployed for real-world autonomy
• Working closely with researchers, perception engineers, autonomy engineers, and platform teams, you’ll bridge cutting-edge AI research with scalable production systems while mentoring engineers and raising the technical bar across the organization
• Model Development – Design, train, fine-tune, and maintain state-of-the-art vision, vision-language, and vision-language-action models that improve perception and decision-making for autonomous systems
• Data Pipelines & Model Training – Build scalable data pipelines, supervised fine-tuning (SFT) workflows, and evaluation loops that continuously improve model performance on mission-relevant tasks
• Model Deployment & Optimization – Deploy and optimize machine learning models for embedded hardware using technologies such as ONNX, TensorRT, and hardware-accelerated inference frameworks
• Perception & Autonomy Applications – Apply modern machine learning techniques to solve challenging perception and autonomy problems across aerial and other autonomous systems operating in complex, real-world environments
• Research-to-Production – Translate cutting-edge machine learning research into production-ready capabilities by balancing model performance, robustness, computational efficiency, and operational reliability
• Cross-functional Collaboration – Partner closely with perception, autonomy, platform, and software engineering teams to integrate machine learning capabilities into mission-ready autonomous systems
• Model Evaluation & Validation – Develop benchmarks, testing methodologies, and evaluation frameworks to measure model performance, identify failure modes, and guide future improvements
• Continuous Improvement – Improve training infrastructure, developer tooling, deployment workflows, and model lifecycle management to accelerate experimentation and production delivery

Benefits

• Excellent Medical Coverage
• Mental Health Employee Assistance Program
• Paid Parental Leave
• Pet Insurance
• Flexible Work Hours
• Onsite Gym (DC)
• Gym Discount (San Diego)
• Free Parking
• Competitive Compensation
• Stock Benefits
• 401K Services and Match

Strong understanding of 3D vision problems/algorithmsStrong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to translate research into practical applicationsProficiency in C++ and PythonAbility to obtain a SECRET clearanceExpertise of machine learning fundamentalsTypically requires a minimum of 7 years of related experience with a Bachelor’s degree; or 6 years and a Master’s degree; or 4 years with a PhD; or equivalent work experienceDemonstrated expertise in deploying models using TensorRT and ONNXExperience training an deploying ML models for computer vision in a production settingExperience with machine learning frameworks such as PyTorch and TensorFlowExperience with training/finetuning vision-language models, vision-language-action models, and/or world modelsContributions to open-source projects in machine learning or computer visionExperience with developing autonomous systems for defense customersTrack record of publications in leading computer vision and robotics conferences and journals (e.g., CVPR, ICCV/ECCV, RAL, ICRA)