Manufacturing Engineer – AI and Robotics

Location: Lexington, Kentucky area (about 30 minutes north of downtown Lexington)

This is an applied AI and robotics role inside an automotive manufacturer's Advanced Technology department. Your job is to take Physical AI out of the lab and onto the plant floor: computer vision, machine learning, and sensor fusion solutions for real manufacturing problems like bin picking, part handling, and inspection.

You would report to the Engineering Manager at a global, multi-billion dollar company, with a mandate to improve manufacturing competitiveness and reduce fixed costs across North America. Relocation is paid.

• Base salary of $100,000-$140,000
  , direct hire with a full benefits package
• Paid relocation
• Applied AI and robotics work
  , taken from proof-of-concept through production deployment (yokoten)
• Simulation tools such as Isaac Sim and Mu Jo Co  for concept validation, synthetic data generation, and Sim2
  
  Real deployment
• Exposure to leadership
  , presenting results and recommendations to management and executive leadership
• Stability
  : the employer is a global leader that rarely lays off

• Integrate and deploy AI-enabled robotic solutions to improve manufacturing capability, flexibility, and performance
• Build computer vision, machine learning, and sensor fusion applications for real-world manufacturing use
• Optimize AI models for industrial hardware, balancing latency, reliability, and compute constraints
• Bridge modern AI Python scripts and standard industrial automation
• Lead and support equipment trials, debugging, and performance validation
• Work with robotics engineers, controls engineers, and plant manufacturing teams to integrate AI into production systems
• Evaluate emerging Physical AI technologies through benchmarking, supplier engagement, and industry events
• Manage contractors designing and building testing cells
• Make sure solutions meet safety, reliability, and manufacturability requirements, including applicable standards and internal risk assessments
• Document your work clearly to support future scaling

Education

• Bachelor's or master's degree in Robotics, Computer Science, Data Science, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or a related technical field (or equivalent experience)

Experience

• Demonstrated experience with manufacturing automation deployments
• Experience in robotics, AI/ML, or advanced automation development
• A full-stack mindset: building complete solutions with a team, not standalone AI algorithms, demos, or experiments
• Strong hands-on experience in at least two of: computer vision (detection, segmentation, 3D perception), machine learning/deep learning, or robotics

Technical Skills

• Proficiency in Python, C++, and ROS-based systems, with strong software engineering fundamentals
• Deep understanding of sensor types (RGBD cameras, LiDAR, Time-of-Flight sensors) and the ability to tune them for image quality, accuracy, and performance