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Salary: USD 153,000 - 204,000 / annual
Rocket Lab Optical Systems is seeking a Senior Machine Learning Engineer II to support the U.S. Space Development Agency's Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA) Tranche 3 and beyond. You will develop deep learning neural networks for advanced Electro-Optical (EO/IR) image processing applications serving Department of Defense and Intelligence Community customers.
Rocket Lab's Space Systems division has enabled over 1,700 missions, including interplanetary exploration, in-space manufacturing, and national security initiatives. The Optical Systems group builds mission-critical space domain and ISR solutions, leveraging more than 20 years of EO/IR systems innovation.
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; collaborate with researchers and engineers on AI, ML, and computer vision; perform rapid prototyping 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.
You will work on real-world problems with direct impact on space-based sensing and warfighter capabilities. The role requires strong technical depth in machine learning, computer vision, and software engineering, combined with the ability to work in a fast-paced, mission-driven environment.
REQUIREMENTS:
- Bachelor's degree with 8+ 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: model selection, architecting, training, validation, testing, and deployment
- Experience building deep learning neural networks for computer vision, image processing, or video analysis (object detection, image segmentation, tracking)
- Strong mathematics 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
