Perception Engineer Defense

Applied Intuition Inc. is powering the future of physical AI. Founded in 2017 and now valued at $15 billion the Silicon Valley company is creating the digital infrastructure needed to bring intelligence to every moving machine on the planet. Applied Intuition services the automotive defense trucking construction mining and agriculture industries in three core areas: tools and infrastructure operating systems and autonomy. Eighteen of the top 20 global automakers as well as the United States military and its allies trust the companys solutions to deliver physical intelligence. Applied Intuition is headquartered in Sunnyvale California with offices in Washington D.C.; San Diego; Ft. Walton Beach Florida; Ann Arbor Michigan; London; Stuttgart; Munich; Stockholm; Bangalore; Seoul; and Tokyo. Learn more at .

We are an in-office company and our expectation is that full-time employees primarily work from their Applied Intuition office 5 days a week. However we also recognize the importance of flexibility and trust our employees to manage their schedules responsibly. This may include occasional remote work starting the day with morning meetings from home before heading to the office or leaving earlier when needed to accommodate family commitments. This in-office expectation does not apply to contractor positions

The Perception Engineer role at Applied Intuition Defense is a hands-on full-stack high tempo position where you will be part of an expert team rapidly pursuing the second (99%) and third nine (99.9%) of perception model performance across maritime land air-to-surface and surface-to-surface domains in EO and IR.

We develop our own custom detector and classifier architectures weve developed our own comprehensive MLOps tooling allowing us to rapidly iterate at the scale of millions of images and videos we make our own industry-leading labeling software and we manage in-house labeling on a daily basis. We do all of this using frontier AI and large token budgets. If something needs to be built to get the job done we will build it. If you have extensive modeling experience with transformers vision-language models diffusion models and video model training pipelines we need you. If you have deployed production ML models into the real world or optimized them heavily we need you.

• Develop perception models that find and classify targets with an error rate of <1/100

• Deploy perception models to Jetson Orin boards and optimize models for better-than-realtime performance.

• Build large foundation models for high-accuracy assisted data labeling.

• Build tooling across the entire perception stack: labeling tools simulation.

• Work with the best and most competitive AI talent in the world through collaboration with Applied Intuition self-driving staff.

• Scale up datasets using a variety of state-of-the-art data generation techniques including simulation diffusion and generative AI.

• Create and maintain highly optimized models and inference software providing model results at maximum attainable frames per second (FPS) on Jetson-like hardware.

• Collaborate across the hardware sensor tracking autonomy and testing teams to ensure seamless deployment in on-site DoD testing and demonstration events.

• MS or PhD in Computer Engineering Robotic Engineering Computer Science or equivalent OR 5 years of relevant experience working with simulation machine learning and ML infrastructure.

• Proficiency in training ML models in PyTorch on multi-machine multi-GPU systems.

• Experience in optimizing and deploying machine learning models to edge devices.

• Strong experience with agentic coding with proven experience in Python and/or cpp.

• Experience leveraging modern AI-powered development tools (e.g. GitHub Copilot Cursor) to accelerate the creation of robust well-tested systems.

• Adeptness with remote software development the ability to handle and process large datasets and a capacity to learn new software and algorithms as needed with little supervision .

Travel Requirements:

• Must be willing to travel as projects require usually for SW/HW integration and/or demonstrations; estimated average travel is 2-5 days every other month (10-20%)

• Interested candidates should also inquire about relocation assistance to Applied Intuition Defense facilities near Destin FL Washington D.C. or San Diego CA

Security Requirements:

• Must be a U.S. Citizen

• Must hold or be eligible to obtain and maintain a U.S. security clearance

For more information about U.S. security clearances: click here.

• PhD in Computer Vision Machine Learning or related field with strong academic contributions

• 5 years of experience building and deploying perception models on real-world hardware

• A background in generating datasets using simulation engines like Unreal Engine NVIDIA Omniverse Blender or 3D asset creation tools

• Experience with deeply optimizing Transformer-based models for edge devices like NVIDIA Jetson boards

• Familiarity with Software-in-the-Loop (SIL) and Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) including integration and test experience on common COTS hardware devices (e.g. NVIDIA Jetson Raspberry Pi5)

Compensation at Applied Intuition for eligible roles includes base salary equity and benefits. Base salary is a single component of the total compensation package which may also include equity in the form of options and/or restricted stock units comprehensive health dental vision life and disability insurance coverage 401k retirement benefits with employer match learning and wellness stipends and paid time off. Note that benefits are subject to change and may vary based on jurisdiction of employment.

Applied Intuition pay ranges reflect the minimum and maximum intended target base salary for new hire salaries for the position. The actual base salary offered to a successful candidate will additionally be influenced by a variety of factors including experience credentials & certifications educational attainment skill level requirements interview performance and the level and scope of the position.

Dont meet every single requirement If youre excited about this role but your past experience doesnt align perfectly with every qualification in the job description we encourage you to apply anyway. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles.

Applied Intuition is an equal opportunity employer and federal contractor or subcontractor. Consequently the parties agree that as applicable they will abide by the requirements of 41 CFR 60-1.4(a) 41 CFR 60-300.5(a) and 41 CFR 60-741.5(a) and that these laws are incorporated herein by reference. These regulations prohibit discrimination against qualified individuals based on their status as protected veterans or individuals with disabilities and prohibit discrimination against all individuals based on their race color religion sex sexual orientation gender identity or national origin. These regulations require that covered prime contractors and subcontractors take affirmative action to employ and advance in employment individuals without regard to race color religion sex sexual orientation gender identity national origin protected veteran status or disability. The parties also agree that as applicable they will abide by the requirements of Executive Order 13496 (29 CFR Part 471 Appendix A to Subpart A) relating to the notice of employee rights under federal labor laws.

FOR US-BASED ROLES: Applied Intuition is committed to providing an accessible and inclusive application and interview experience to applicants who are disabled veterans and other applicants with disabilities or medical conditions. Reasonable accommodations are available requesting an accommodation will not affect your candidacy in any way and you are not required to disclose the nature of your disability or medical condition in order to make a request. If you require an accommodation please contact . We will work with you!

Required Experience:

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