Position Description

About Us

We’re Blue River, a team of innovators driven to create intelligent machinery that solves monumental problems for our customers. We empower our customers – farmers, construction crews and foresters - to implement safer and more sustainable solutions, driving increased profitability and with less reliance on scarce labor. We believe that focusing on the small stuff – pixel-by-pixel and task-by-task - leads to big gains. With our partners at John Deere, we have the ability to bring innovative computer vision, machine learning, robotics, and product management solutions to scale production, maximizing their potential impact.

Our people are at the heart of what we do. Through cross-discipline collaboration, this mission-driven and daring team is eager to define the new frontier of mobile robotics. We are always asking hard questions, rapidly iterating, and getting our boots in the field and on-site to figure it out. We won’t give up until we’ve made a tangible and positive impact on the planet. 

Position description 

We are looking for a highly skilled and energetic person to play a key role in improving and supporting our revolutionary robotic and vision-based systems for agriculture. You will be joining a world-class research and engineering team to provide critical skills in improving existing systems and pushing the boundaries of this technology. We provide a high degree of autonomy - you will have the opportunity to influence the development and implementation of our world changing products. For those who like seeing their efforts lead to tangible, real-world results, this role offers the chance to be involved in all steps between data collection to model training to deployment at the edge.

Position Responsibility:

• Implementing deep learning based classification systems for identifying, characterizing, and classifying plants
• Exploring and developing new methods for improving detection performance and increasing the speed of processing of edge devices
• Working with the robotics engineers to transition processing from desktop/server class machines to real-time field robotic systems
• Working with systems software engineers to help architect and develop data processing and annotation pipelines for continuous system monitoring and improvement
• Leading the development and rollout of new features for See and Spray
• Providing mentorship and guidance for other members of the machine learning group

The position will be based at our company headquarters in Santa Clara, CA.

Required Experience:

• BS, (preferred MS) or PhD in Computer Science or other specialties such as Robotics, Computer Vision or Machine Learning, with focus on Deep Learning and machine vision applications
• In-depth knowledge of deep learning frameworks including Tensorflow and PyTorch
• 3+ years developing algorithms and solving problems in computer vision and machine learning
• 3+ years in developing machine learning systems, with extensive experience on deep learning systems
• Demonstrated ability deploying machine learning systems to solve real-world problems
• Advanced proficiency in Python
• Attention to detail and ability to work independently
• Excellent communication and teaming skills
• Passion to solve difficult problems

Preferred Skills:

• Advanced proficiency in C++
• Experience in implementing and improving deep learning systems and moving to real-time processing on embedded hardware
• Hands-on work on managing and performing GPU-based computing on large data sets
• Knowledge of cloud compute platforms and tools, such as AWS, Google Cloud, Kubeflow, and Databricks

At Blue River, we’re passionate about creating an inclusive workplace that promotes and values diversity.  While we have more work to do to advance diversity and inclusion, we’re investing in our programs, including recruiting, mentorship, career development, and learning & development to ensure they support our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion goals.

We support each employee in living a full life, enabling a thriving career, and accomplishing a meaningful, challenging mission while collaborating with incredible people. We are dedicated to building a diverse and inclusive workplace, so if you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align completely with the job description, we encourage you to apply anyway.

We are an equal opportunity employer and do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, gender, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, perform essential job functions, and receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us to request an accommodation.

The US base salary range for this position is $128,000-$228,000, along with eligibility for Blue River’s bonus and benefit programs.

Our salary ranges are determined by role, level, and location. Within the range, individual pay is determined by work location and additional factors, including job-related skills, experience, and relevant education or training. Your recruiter can share more about the specific salary range for your location during the hiring process.

During the recruitment process, we may identify an alternative role or level which you are more suited to. If your ideal role at Blue River differs from the advertised position, we will provide an updated pay range as soon as possible during the hiring process.

Blue River offers competitive compensation and benefits, including a great 401(K) match. We believe in a work life balance and offer generous Paid Time Off and Sick Leave as well as Paid Parental Leave and an adoption benefit. Subsidized lunches, flexible work hours, CalTrain passes (with mobile Wi-Fi!) and a collaborative and supportive environment also contribute to making Blue River a great place to work.

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