Chief Engineer - ML, Physical AI, & Autonomy
About The Position
Blue Origin is building a world-class Machine Learning, Physical AI, and autonomy organization to power its next generation of space vehicles, lunar systems, and robotic platforms. The vision of millions of people living and working in space will require advanced robotics and Physical AI of all kinds. This role is for a senior ML / Autonomy / Physical AI technical leader to anchor this capability, architecting and training models that will enable autonomous operations on the lunar surface and across space systems. These capabilities are intended to be flown into space and to the lunar surface on upcoming missions. This is a Technical leader role for the ML, autonomy, and Physical AI capability, with the mandate to lead a focused team of 6-8 engineers. The role involves defining the Digital Twin simulation and training pipeline, training and architecting models, deploying them onto platforms and infrastructure, and shaping Blue Origin's strategy in this area. The individual will engage with peers in academia, industry, and government, report into senior leadership, and have direct visibility with Executive leadership.
Requirements
- M.S. in Computer Science, Electrical/Computer Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Robotics, Applied Math, or related technical field
- 12+ years (Level 7) / 10+ years (Level 6) of progressive experience developing autonomy, robotics, or ML systems for real-world deployment
- Industry leader in developing AI/ML models and training techniques for physical AI
- Demonstrated technical leadership of complex multi-disciplinary efforts
- Deep expertise in two or more of the following: Model architectures and training techniques for Physical AI systems, Computer vision and perception (detection/segmentation, SLAM, visual-inertial odometry, sensor fusion), Robotic manipulation, grasping, and contact-rich tasks, Modern ML stack (PyTorch / JAX / TensorFlow), training pipelines, and model deployment, Decision-making under uncertainty (RL, MPC, MDP/POMDP, hybrid planning), GN&C-integrated autonomy (rendezvous & proximity operations, hazard detection & avoidance, terrain-relative navigation, powered descent guidance), Multi-agent / swarm systems and distributed autonomy
- Production-quality coding skills in Python and C/C++
- Experience taking concepts from research through integrated demonstration
- Excellent technical communication; able to brief executives, customers, and engineers
- Ability to obtain a DoD U.S. Secret clearance.
- U.S. citizenship required.
Nice To Haves
- Ph.D. in a relevant technical field
- Prior automotive / AV autonomy, aerospace, defense, or safety-critical systems experience
- Experience with foundation models / Vision-Language-Action (VLA) models for robotics
- Familiarity with V&V for ML/AI in high-consequence applications (formal methods, runtime monitors, uncertainty quantification, SOTIF/ISO 21448)
- Experience with simulation frameworks: Isaac Sim, Gazebo / Ignition, MuJoCo, MATLAB/Simulink, custom physics engines
- Experience with ROS / ROS2, DDS, or analogous middleware
- Experience deploying ML on edge / embedded / radiation-tolerant compute (Orin, Versal, rad-hard SoCs, FPGAs)
- Familiarity with lunar surface operations, cislunar logistics, or in-space servicing/assembly/manufacturing
- Active U.S. Secret or Top Secret/SCI clearance
- Publications in NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, ICRA, IROS, RSS, CoRL, AIAA SciTech / GNC, or equivalent
- Experience with proposal writing for NASA / DARPA / AFRL / SDA programs
Responsibilities
- Lead design and training of ML models for autonomy, perception, decision-making, and control in space applications
- Define the simulation and training pipeline needed for the different lunar surface and in-space applications
- Operationalize models — deploy, run, and integrate into Blue Origin systems and infrastructure
- Recruit, build, and lead a focused team of 6-8 ML/autonomy engineers
- Define autonomy reference architectures spanning lunar surface operations, in-space servicing, autonomous landing, and orbital robotics
- Partner with GN&C, avionics, software, and systems engineering to translate research advances into deployable autonomy
- Champion V&V, runtime assurance, uncertainty quantification, and safety cases for high-consequence space systems
- Represent Blue Origin with customers, partners, and academia
- Brief Executive leadership on autonomy capability and roadmap
Benefits
- Medical, dental, vision, basic and supplemental life insurance
- Paid parental leave
- Short and long-term disability
- 401(k) with a company match of up to 5%
- Education Support Program
- Stock Options for all regular employees (working at least 20 hours/week)
- Up to four (4) weeks per year based on weekly scheduled hours
- Up to 14 company-paid holidays
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Senior
