Lead Computer Vision/ML Engineer — Founding Role to $9000

About Us

Our client is MilTech startup building an on-premises platform for automated annotation of UAV video and training computer vision models for autonomous flight.

We have a strategic partnership with one of the largest Ukrainian UAV manufacturers and access to what is likely the largest privately owned UAV video dataset in the world.

The company is at a very early stage — the funding is secured, the technical vision exists, and the data is available. Our focus now is building the core engineering team to turn this platform into reality.

The Role

We are looking for a Lead Computer Vision / Machine Learning Engineer to join as a founding member of the engineering team.

This role is highly hands-on and strategic. You will define the ML architecture, select the tools and frameworks, and build the machine learning pipeline from the ground up. As the platform grows, you will also build and lead a team of ML engineers.

While the high-level technical direction is defined — including petabyte-scale video processing, active learning pipelines, and edge deployment on NVIDIA Jetson devices — the implementation details will be driven by your expertise and technical judgement.

Responsibilities ML Architecture & Technical Direction

• Design and implement the end-to-end ML pipeline, from raw video ingestion to model deployment on UAV hardware
• Evaluate and select appropriate frameworks and infrastructure tools
• Build systems for experiment tracking, model versioning, and reproducible training
• Establish the training infrastructure and ML development workflow
• Make strategic build vs. integrate decisions across the ML stack

Data Pipeline & Curation

• Design video preprocessing pipelines including:
   
  • clip segmentation
  • frame extraction
  • scene detection
  • embedding generation
• Develop data curation workflows to extract high-quality training datasets from large-scale raw video
• Define the annotation ontology and labeling standards for detection, classification, segmentation, and multi-object tracking

Model Development

• Train and improve computer vision models for:
   
  • object detection
  • scene classification
  • object tracking
  • segmentation
• Implement distributed multi-GPU training for large-scale experiments
• Design and implement active learning pipelines including:
   
  • automated labeling
  • confidence-based routing
  • human review workflows
  • retraining triggers
• Define model evaluation metrics and promotion criteria

Edge Deployment

• Optimize models for real-time inference on NVIDIA Jetson hardware
• Implement model optimization techniques including:
  • ONNX conversion
  • TensorRT acceleration
  • INT8 quantization
• Design the model delivery pipeline from training registry to deployed UAV systems

Team Building

• Hire and mentor ML engineers as the team grows
• Establish engineering practices including:
  • code review
  • testing standards
  • documentation
• Own and communicate the ML technical roadmap

RequirementsMust Have

• 5+ years of experience in computer vision and deep learning, including production deployments
• Strong proficiency with PyTorch, including distributed training
• Experience building object detection and tracking pipelines (YOLO, RT-DETR, Detectron2, or similar)
• Experience optimizing models for edge or mobile deployment (TensorRT, ONNX, SNPE, or similar)
• Experience building ML infrastructure and training pipelines
• Strong Python skills and ability to write production-quality code
• Experience leading or mentoring engineers

Nice to Have

• Experience with UAV, drone, robotics, or autonomous systems
• Experience deploying models on NVIDIA Jetson
• Experience with high-performance video processing pipelines (DeepStream or custom)
• Experience in defense or MilTech environments
• Experience defining ML architecture from scratch in early-stage startups
• C++ experience for performance-critical components

What We Offer

• Founding engineering role with direct influence on company technology
• Ownership of the entire ML pipeline from raw data to deployed models
• Access to one of the largest privately owned UAV video datasets in the world
• Dedicated on-prem GPU infrastructure
• Open-source-first engineering approach
• Opportunity to build and lead a machine learning team
• Competitive salary
• Stock options