Skip to content
Deft AI

Machine Learning Engineer

San FranciscoOnsite · United States
FullTime · Science & Engineering
POSTED 16 APRVERIFIED 6H AGO
Apply Ask
Role
207 days opentrue age
Posted 16 Apr
Payats field
$150k–200kposted
▼ −30% vs market median $250k
$150k$300k
Market p25–p75
$200k–$300k
SF Bay Area · n=461 · 365d to 6 Nov
CompanyDeft AI →
10open roles
Opened · 30d
+0
Closed · 30d
−0
4d of snapshots · 30d window
Market
3,280open · ML / AI
Opened · 7d
+2267% of open
All ml / ai
6,656open
All tracked boards · live 10 Nov · n=3,280
Visa
1H-1B LCAs · FY26
LCAs FY26 · n=1 · to 2026-05-15
PyTorchTensorFlow

What you'll do

● Design and develop a modular robot autonomy stack that composes Vision-Language-Action (VLA) models with purpose-built modules to enable grasping and dexterous behaviors in unstructured environments

● Develop action refinement and safety layers that post-process VLA outputs — constraint satisfaction, collision and force guards, smoothing, and runtime monitors for safety-critical deployment

● Architect clean interfaces and abstractions around base VLA models so they can be swapped, benchmarked, and upgraded as the SOTA evolves — keeping the stack model-agnostic

● Design and maintain robust data collection and curation pipelines for production robot fleets

● Build reliable, high-speed robot autonomy software stack optimized for inference

performance

● Advance SOTA dexterous manipulation architecture through novel methodologies while bridging theory & practice—real customer use-cases with clear success criteria.

Required Qualifications

● PhD or MS degree in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Robotics, or equivalent technical discipline

● Deep expertise in machine learning fundamentals, reinforcement learning, and associated

frameworks (PyTorch, TensorFlow, Ray, etc.)

● 3+ years of proven track record developing and deploying ML systems from research through production implementation

● Hands-on experience with model lifecycle management including training, deployment, and maintenance in production settings

Preferred Qualifications

● Authored or co-authored peer-reviewed publications in robotics or related fields

● Hands-on experience designing and implementing bimanual manipulation tech stacks

with imitation learning or RL-based methods

● Background in real-time ML inference systems, simulation-to-reality transfer, or advanced

reinforcement learning implementations

Benefits

● We support publishing at top robotics/ML venues and presenting at conferences (travel + time fully covered).

● Medical, dental & vision plans

● Daily meals stipend

Hiring Process

● Phone screen + 3 virtual technical interviews + onsite

Expected Compensation

● $150,000 - $200,000 annual salary + cash and stock awards + benefits

● The pay offered for this position may vary based on several individual factors, including job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. The total compensation package may also include additional components/benefits depending on the specific role. This information will be shared if an employment offer is extended.

Source · Deft AIFirst seen 2 NovOriginal ↗