Perception Engineer | Nox Metals | Detroit, MI
We need a Perception Engineer to give the factory eyes, ears, and a sense of touch. Vision systems on every machine. Vibration sensors on every saw. Thermal sensors on every cut. Every signal turned into data, every dataset turned into a better cost model, a smarter nest, a tighter cycle, and a more reliable cell. Nox Metals is an employer with real opportunity for long term career growth, this is a place to build a career, not just hold a job.
You will:
- Own the perception stack across the entire factory, vision, vibration, thermal, force, and any other sensor that gives us a signal worth capturing
- Build vision systems for robotics, inspection, dimensional verification, defect detection, and material identification
- Build sensor systems on saws, CNC equipment, and automated cells, vibration for blade wear, thermal for cut conditions, current draw for load, and whatever else makes the cell smarter
- Feed perception data into job costing, cycle time prediction, and nesting optimization, the perception layer is what makes WAYNE and our cost models actually accurate
- Own the full pipeline end to end, sensor selection, mounting, calibration, data collection, labeling, training, deployment, edge inference, monitoring, retraining
- Build edge inference where it makes sense and cloud inference where it makes sense, you make the call
- Build the data pipelines that capture every frame, every waveform, every reading, the data that powers our ML and operational intelligence
- Partner tightly with the ML, automation, controls, and software teams, you sit at the seam where hardware, signals, models, and software all meet
- Run experiments, ablations, and real-world tests to prove what works on the floor, not just on a benchmark
- Always ask questions, never guess when something is unclear
- Look at every sensor, every model, every signal, and figure out how to make it better
- Work safely every shift and hold your teammates to the same standard
You should be:
- Strong technical foundation in computer vision, signal processing, and sensor systems, judged on capability not years
- Hands-on with industrial cameras, machine vision platforms, and 2D and 3D imaging
- Experienced with non-vision sensors, accelerometers, vibration, thermal, current, force, and the analog and digital interfaces that connect them
- Fluent in modern ML and DL frameworks (PyTorch, JAX, OpenCV, or comparable) and the surrounding tooling
- Comfortable shipping the full pipeline, you collect the data, you train the model, you deploy it on edge or cloud, you monitor it, and you retrain it
- Experienced integrating perception into PLCs, robotics, and production software systems
- Comfortable on the software side, you write the integration, hit the API, structure the payload, reason about the model in production
- Tightly partnered with ML, automation, and controls teams in past roles, comfortable writing specs, filing tickets, and shaping the tools you use
- Cracked with AI tools, modern software, and data, you build perception systems that talk to the rest of the company
- A builder at heart, you would rather ship a working v1 today than ship a perfect v3 next month
- High attention to quality, every model, every dataset, every sensor calibration
- Always thinking about how to make systems better, you do not accept "this is how we have always done it"
- Absolutely customer obsessed, every signal you capture eventually shows up as a part on a customer's dock
- User obsessed, you sit with the operator, you watch them run the machine, and you build perception they actually trust
- A team player with a good attitude, you make the floor better for everyone around you
- Someone who takes ownership, if it senses, sees, or hears, it is your responsibility
- Precise under pressure and reliable
- Organized and detail oriented
- Committed to safety, you follow every protocol, wear your PPE, lock out tag out, and never cut corners that put people at risk
- High agency, you handle big items alone and ask for help when needed
- Low ego, you walk the floor, you crawl into cells, you do the unglamorous work because it needs to get done
- Able to lift up to 50 lbs and operate heavy equipment on your feet when the floor needs you
- Not afraid to work outside normal hours when America demands it
- Never says "that's not my job"
Nice to have:
- Experience deploying perception systems in metals, machining, or industrial environments
- Background with vibration analysis, predictive maintenance, or condition monitoring
- Experience with thermal imaging or thermography in process control
- Hands-on with edge inference platforms, NVIDIA Jetson, OpenVINO, Coral, or comparable
- Background in 3D vision, structured light, stereo, or LiDAR
- Open source work, published research, or a portfolio of perception systems you have built
This role is full time, in person in Detroit.
