Machine Learning Engineer

Mach Industries

$120K — $150K *
Aerospace & Defense
Less than 5 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • Strong software engineering skills in Python and production C++ on Linux.
  • Experience in end-to-end ML data and training pipelines.
  • Hands-on skills with PyTorch for ML training and tuning.
  • Knowledge in model compression and edge deployment on Jetson-class hardware.
  • Familiarity with MLOps infrastructure including SQL/Parquet and CI-based validation.
  • Relevant degree (BS/MS/PhD) in CS/EE/Robotics or equivalent experience.

Responsibilities

  • Own and enhance data and training infrastructure for the autonomy team.
  • Develop and scale multi-GPU training and evaluation processes.
  • Deploy and optimize real-time models for edge inference on Jetson-class hardware.
  • Contribute to model development for detection, tracking, and classification tasks.
  • Generate synthetic data to bridge simulation and real-world application gaps.
  • Implement runtime health metrics and improve data feedback loops.
  • Collaborate with interdisciplinary teams to transition prototypes to deployment.

Benefits

  • Health insurance coverage.
  • Retirement plans with employer contributions.
  • Professional development opportunities.
  • Equity grants included in compensation packages.
Full Job Description
The Role

Mach Industries is building an AI-forward autonomy stack for contested environments where GPS and other sensing are unavailable or unreliable. As a Machine Learning Engineer, you will own and scale the training, data, and edge-inference backbone that every vision and multi-sensor model on our product lines depends on for detection, tracking, search, navigation, targeting, and automatic target recognition. This is a broad, high-ownership role: you'll stand up the data and training infrastructure that lets the autonomy team iterate fast, generate synthetic data to cover the long tail, and get research-grade models running in real time on embedded hardware in flight. We are generalists, so you'll move fluidly between infrastructure, modeling, and deployment.

Key Responsibilities
  • Own and evolve the training and data infrastructure the autonomy team builds on: ingestion from flight/sim/HITL, curation and mining, labeling/QA workflows, dataset versioning (DVC/Parquet), and reproducible dataset builds.
  • Stand up and scale training/eval infrastructure: distributed multi-GPU training, experiment tracking, a model registry, and CI-based evaluation with regression gates plus automated field-data to retrain to validate to redeploy loops.
  • Deploy and optimize models for real-time edge inference on Jetson-class hardware (quantization/pruning, TensorRT/ONNX Runtime); profile CPU/GPU and hit tight latency, throughput, and SWaP targets.
  • Build and improve models across the portfolio as a hands-on IC: detection, segmentation, tracking, target/area search, classification/ATR, and multi-sensor fusion for EO/IR and auxiliary sensing.
  • Generate and manage synthetic data at scale (simulation + domain randomization) to cover long-tail and degraded conditions and close sim-to-real gaps.
  • Instrument runtime health, drift detection, and graceful degradation, and wire model-performance metrics back into the data and retraining loop.
  • Live close to flight data with visualization, triage, and root-cause tooling so the team can go from field logs to insight and model updates rapidly.
  • Partner with other autonomy disciplines across perception, localization, embedded, and flight-test to take capabilities from prototype to sim to HITL to flight to deployment.


Required Qualifications
  • Strong generalist software engineering: Python for ML and tooling, plus production C++ on Linux; profiling, optimization, and rigorous testing discipline.
  • Proven experience building ML data and training pipelines end to end: dataset construction, labeling/QA, augmentation, experiment tracking, and reproducible training.
  • Hands-on training and fine-tuning in PyTorch across modern detection/segmentation/tracking architectures (CNN/Transformer).
  • Edge and real-time deployment: model compression (INT8/FP16), runtime optimization (TensorRT/ONNX Runtime), and meeting latency/SWaP constraints on embedded GPU (Jetson-class) hardware.
  • Data and MLOps infrastructure: SQL/Parquet, dataset/versioning tools, CI-based validation, and scalable multi-GPU training.
  • BS/MS/PhD in CS/EE/Robotics or similar, or equivalent experience, with a track record shipping ML models to production or hardware. Senior candidates: deeper ownership of training/data infrastructure at scale.


Preferred Qualifications
  • Synthetic data generation and simulation (e.g. Unreal/Isaac, domain randomization) and demonstrated sim-to-real transfer.
  • EO/IR imagery experience and working with real flight/test data in challenging, degraded, or contested environments.
  • Multi-modal perception and fusion (EO/IR + radar/LiDAR/RF) at the feature or decision level.
  • Detection/tracking/search at scale; active learning and data-mining strategies for long-tail coverage.
  • CUDA backends for performance debugging; ROS 2; NVIDIA Jetson deployment pipelines.
  • Drift/dataset-shift monitoring, robustness and rare-event testing, long-horizon reliability metrics.
  • Distributed training frameworks and cloud ML platforms (e.g. SageMaker); Docker for reproducibility; Rust for systems tooling.


Disclosures

This position may require access to information protected under U.S. export control laws and regulations, including the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) and the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR). Please note that any offer for employment may be conditioned on authorization to receive software or technology controlled under these U.S. export control laws and regulations without sponsorship for an export license.

The salary range for this role is an estimate based on a wide range of compensation factors, inclusive of base salary only. Actual salary offers may vary based on (but not limited to) work experience, education and training, critical skills, and business considerations. Highly competitive equity grants are included in most offers and are considered part of Mach's total compensation package. Mach offers benefits such as health insurance, retirement plans, and opportunities for professional development.

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