Principal Machine Learning Tech Lead

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 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.

We are looking for a highly skilled and innovative Principal Machine Learning Tech Lead to join the team responsible for building the perception stack for Blue River Technology's autonomous tractor initiative. The hire will be responsible for leading development on ML models, training and testing pipelines to enhance system safety and performance in challenging production environments. This role will range from developing initial prototypes to scaling for production.

We are looking for an experienced, motivated, and collaborative technical leader to help build the future of autonomous agriculture.

• Lead the design, development, and deployment of machine learning and computer vision models that power real-time perception for autonomous agricultural robots.
• Own the full ML lifecycle—from dataset design and data collection through training, evaluation, model optimization, and deployment on embedded platforms.
• Collaborate cross-functionally with robotics engineers, software developers, and hardware teams to integrate perception systems into field-ready machines.
• Lead a team of CVML engineers, fostering technical growth, strong engineering practices, and a culture of experimentation and delivery.
• Define and execute the ML roadmap, balancing research exploration with production needs to meet performance, safety, and robustness targets in challenging environments.
• Prototype and validate new approaches quickly, using both real-world and synthetic data to improve detection, segmentation, and scene understanding under variable conditions (lighting, occlusion, dust, etc).
• Continuously evaluate model performance in the field and refine approaches to maximize reliability and generalization across crop types, terrains, and climates.

• 8-12 years of experience developing high-performance ML systems.
• Experience shaping the technical vision for larger projects and providing guidance while contributing to core capabilities.
• Strong leadership and communication skills, and demonstrated experience in leading and mentoring teams.
• Hands-on work experience with GPU-based computing on large data sets.
• Extensive experience with deep learning frameworks (e.g., PyTorch).
• Bachelor’s or Master’s Degree in Computer Science or a related field, graduate degree preferred.

• Production experience with developing hardened machine learning perception algorithms.
• Experience building and deploying full-stack ML pipelines, from data ingestion to model training, testing, and deployment.
• Experience in working with CVML & Robotics projects.
• Experience in working with the vehicle autonomy space.
• Familiarity with TPUs, GPUs, and FPGAs.
• Experience in metrics implementation, analysis, and dashboarding.
• Knowledge of robotics libraries such as ROS / ROS
  2.

Only individual applicants will be considered. We do not work with third-party agencies or proxy interview services
. Submissions from individuals misrepresenting their identity or experience will be immediately disqualified.

All interviews are live and interactive. We assess real-time problem solving and communication skills—no pre-recorded responses or external assistance is permitted.

We verify identity before final interview rounds. This may include live  and technical screening under camera.

Applicants must have direct, hands-on experience with the technologies listed. Candidates should be prepared to speak in depth about recent and relevant projects.

At Blue River, we’re passionate about creating an inclusive…