Lead ML Engineer (VLA/ALM)

TL;DR

Lead ML Engineer (VLA/ALM): Design, implement, and integrate Vision-Language Models (VLMs) and Large Language Models (LLMs) into the perception stack for autonomous vehicles with an accent on semantic scene understanding, multimodal data alignment, and real-time performance. Focus on developing high-quality production code, leading feature development, and optimizing ML pipelines for field deployment in robotic systems.

Ann Arbor, MI

Salary Range $200,000 - $240,000 USD

Company

hirify.global develops and deploys autonomous vehicles powered by Multi-Policy Decision Making technology to transform urban mobility.

What you will do

• Develop software and system requirements with cross-functional teams.
• Design, implement, and test perception features using VLMs and LLMs for improved semantic understanding.
• Lead feature development including design, code reviews, issue resolution, and validation testing.
• Track and analyze technical performance of perception systems in the field.
• Build and optimize data, development, and ML pipelines focused on multimodal data alignment.

Requirements

• 5+ years industry experience on real-world robot systems with high-quality code.
• Master’s degree in Robotics, Computer Science, or related field.
• Strong C/C++/Python skills in Linux; PyTorch/TensorFlow for ML/DL.
• Experience fine-tuning VLMs (e.g., CLIP, BLIP) for real-world applications.
• Expertise in computer vision (detection, segmentation), semantic understanding, tracking, sensor fusion, or localization/planning.
• Experience deploying ML models in real-time systems with high accuracy and low latency.

Nice to have

• VLMs for edge-case detection and explainable AI.
• Synthetic data, Reinforcement Learning, or ML optimization on limited compute (e.g., quantization).
• Proven field deployments to robots.

Culture & Benefits

• Comprehensive healthcare including medical, dental, vision, life, disability; HSA/FSA accounts.
• Rich retirement with immediate vested employer match.
• Generous paid parental leave and flexible vacation policy plus holidays.
• Total Wellness Program for wellbeing.
• Moderate travel (11%-25%).
• Standard office conditions with prolonged sitting/standing/computer use.