Senior ML Engineer (VLM)

TL;DR

Senior ML Engineer (VLM): Designing and deploying cloud-based pipelines to convert multi-sensor data into VLM/VLA training datasets with an accent on multimodal model integration and auto-labeling. Focus on building reasoning-grounded labels, mining long-tail scenarios, and closing the data flywheel for end-to-end autonomous driving.

Location: Remote (US) or Ann Arbor, MI

Salary: $177,300 - $212,800 USD

Company

hirify.global is a leader in autonomous driving focused on developing software for automated trucks as part of the Daimler family.

What you will do

• Own the offline dataset pipeline, converting logged multi-sensor data into VLM/VLA training sets.
• Build VLM-assisted auto-labeling using foundation models for dense captioning and semantic enrichment.
• Generate reasoning-grounded labels and chain-of-causation annotations to support VLA training.
• Mine and curate long-tail, high-uncertainty scenarios to measurably improve model metrics.
• Close the data flywheel by defining schemas, quality metrics, and routing failures back to retraining loops.
• Scale distributed, reproducible pipelines using cloud infrastructure and disciplined software practices.

Requirements

• Must be based in the United States.
• 6+ years of experience with a Bachelor's or 3+ years with a Master's in CS, Robotics, or related field.
• Proficiency in Computer Vision and Deep Learning (Object Detection, Tracking, Segmentation, BEV).
• Hands-on experience with Multimodal/VLM, open-vocabulary recognition, or semantic embeddings.
• Experience with distributed ML frameworks (PyTorch, Ray, Spark) and large-scale data processing (Parquet).
• Strong Python software development skills and experience with MLOps tools (MLflow, Weights & Biases).

Nice to have

• Familiarity with VLA driving models, trajectory grounding, or reasoning-trace datasets.
• Experience with high-throughput model serving tools like vLLM or SGLang.
• Knowledge of vector databases (e.g., LanceDB) and AV data standards (ROS bags, MCAP).
• Cloud orchestration skills using Terraform and AWS managed services.
• Publications in top-tier AI/Robotics venues such as CVPR, NeurIPS, or ICCV.

Culture & Benefits

• Competitive compensation package including bonuses and stock options.
• 100% paid medical, dental, and vision premiums for full-time employees.
• 401K plan with a 6% employer match.
• Flexible scheduling and generous paid vacation available immediately.
• Company-wide holiday office closures.