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Salary: USD 153,000 - 204,000 / annual
Rocket Lab Optical Systems is seeking a Principal Machine Learning Engineer to support the U.S. Space Development Agency's Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA) and related programs. You will develop deep learning neural networks for advanced Electro-Optical (EO/IR) image processing applications serving Department of Defense and Intelligence Community customers.
In this role, you will design, train, and deploy machine learning models for optical systems applications; build and maintain ML pipelines for data ingestion, feature engineering, training, and inference; and collaborate with researchers and engineers on AI, machine learning, and computer vision solutions. You will perform rapid prototyping and enhanced development for integration into operational systems, troubleshoot and maintain existing and new systems, and stay current with ML research to evaluate new tools, frameworks, and techniques.
Rocket Lab's Space Systems division has enabled over 1,700 missions ranging from interplanetary exploration to national security initiatives, building spacecraft and payloads for NASA, the Space Development Agency, and the U.S. Space Force. Rocket Lab Optical Systems brings more than 20 years of electro-optical and infrared systems innovation to deliver responsive, scalable sensing solutions across all orbital domains.
QUALIFICATIONS:
- Bachelor's degree with 12+ years of experience, OR Master's degree or Ph.D. in Computer Science, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Physics, or related field
- Strong background in machine learning including model selection, architecting, training, validation, testing, and deployment
- Experience building deep learning neural networks for computer vision, image processing, or video analysis (e.g., object detection, image segmentation, tracking)
- Strong math background, particularly linear algebra
- Proficiency in Python
- Experience with deep learning libraries (Keras, TensorFlow, PyTorch, etc.)
- Software engineering fundamentals: version control, testing, CI/CD, containerization
- U.S. citizenship required due to program requirements
- Ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. Government Security Clearance
NICE TO HAVE:
- Proficiency in C/C++/Rust
- Experience curating quality, real-world datasets for training deep learning models
- TS/SCI security clearance
