Applications Engineer, San Francisco

Applications Engineer
San Francisco, CA
· Applications
· Full time, in office

Compensation: $80,000 to $110,000 USD base, plus an annual performance bonus of up to 20%.
Travel: Up to 50%, typically lower.

Overview.ai is bringing the cutting edge of AI computer vision to manufacturing, solving inspection problems that were previously not solvable with traditional machine vision. We're a full-stack company: we deploy GPU-powered cameras on production lines, run inference on the edge, and operate a platform that supports large fleets of devices deployed across the world.

We're growing extremely fast. Our customers love the product because it works: high accuracy, fast deployment, and an operator-friendly experience that makes real factory rollouts possible, not just pilots.

This is a hands on machine vision role for someone who wants to get deep, fast. You will split your time between the lab and live customer applications: evaluating a lens, optimizing a camera setup, building a proof of concept, troubleshooting an inspection that has to hold on a production line. The work moves from bench to factory floor in weeks, not quarters, and what you learn in the lab shows up directly in what we deploy.

• Become a genuine machine vision expert: optics, lighting, sensors, and AI inspection, on real parts and real lines.
• Own the experiment. You decide how to test it, you write the report, the finding changes the deployment.
• Sit at the seam of lab research and customer reality, where most vision engineers only ever see one side.
• Work directly with the most demanding manufacturers in the world, with Sales, Product, and Engineering a desk away.

• Lab testing and experimentation: Hands on testing with cameras, lenses, lighting, and other machine vision components.
• Vision setup builds: Build and evaluate vision configurations for customer applications and internal projects.
• Technical test reports: Run application tests and turn out clear, fast technical reporting others can act on.
• Technology evaluation: Assess new components and technologies and call whether they improve our systems.
• Customer support in the field: Testing, troubleshooting, deployment, and technical problem solving for local customers.
• AI vision workflow: Image collection, labeling, training, and model evaluation on AI based inspection systems.
• Team enablement: Build the internal test setups, resources, and documentation the broader Applications team runs on.
• Optical and hardware projects: Camera calibration, new optical configurations, and hardware evaluation.

Required

• 1 to 3+ years in machine vision, computer vision, applications engineering, robotics, automation, manufacturing, or a related field.
• Strong hands on grasp of machine vision fundamentals: cameras, lenses, optics, lighting, and image acquisition.
• Familiarity with lens types and when to use them, including telecentric lenses.
• Working understanding of AI based vision and how it differs from traditional rules based vision.
• Familiarity with image labeling, model training, classification, object detection, and segmentation.
• Strong troubleshooting instincts and a logical, experimental approach to technical problems.
• Comfortable working hands on with hardware and testing approaches independently.
• Able to document and communicate technical findings clearly.
• Eager to learn new technologies quickly, including industrial automation and PLCs.
• Based in San Francisco, working primarily from our office, with occasional travel to customer sites.

• Experience with industrial machine vision systems in production.
• Experience selecting or evaluating cameras, lenses, lighting, or optical components.
• Hands on experience with…