Director of AI Robotics

External•Bellingham, WA

8d•Onsite

About The Position

Janicki Industries is seeking a Director of AI Robotics to drive the day-to-day delivery of our AI perception engineering roadmap. This seasoned technical leader translates research direction and strategy into executed work, running the team's sprint and project cadence. They stay hands-on with architecture and code, unblock engineers on hard technical problems, and ensure perception systems reliably transition from prototype to production. This role supports the delivery of 3D object detection, six-degree-of-freedom pose estimation, and multi-sensor perception pipelines (RGB cameras, depth cameras, LIDAR) using frameworks such as NVIDIA Isaac Perceptor, FoundationPose, and OpenCV, across a wide range of factory objects from standard pallets to one-of-a-kind composite tooling.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Mechanical Engineering, Mathematics, Physics, or closely related field.
10+ years of software/AI engineering experience, including seasoned, hands-on technical leadership shipping production systems.
Demonstrated experience running execution and delivery for a technical engineering team (sprint/project leadership, direct reports, or equivalent).
Willingness and ability to work on-site full-time at our Bellingham, WA facility.
Applicants must be a US Citizen or of Legal Permanent Resident Status due to ITAR and EAR regulations.
Ability to obtain a U.S. Secret Security Clearance (U.S. Citizenship Required).
Candidate must agree to enter a Continuous Evaluation program for Special Access Program or other Government Access Requirements.

Nice To Haves

Master’s or Ph.D. in Computer Vision, Robotics, Computer Science, or related field.
Deep hands-on experience with deep learning-based object detection and pose estimation (YOLO, PointNet, FoundationPose, etc.).
Experience with 3D point cloud processing (PCL, Open3D) and depth sensors.
Experience with NVIDIA perception tools (Isaac Perceptor, TAO Toolkit, DeepStream, Jetson).
Strong programming proficiency in Python and/or C++ in Linux environments.
Experience with deep learning frameworks (PyTorch, TensorFlow).
Familiarity with ROS/ROS 2 perception pipelines.
Experience with camera calibration, multi-sensor alignment, and sensor fusion.
Experience generating synthetic training data using simulation tools (Isaac Sim, Omniverse).
Background in industrial inspection, manufacturing vision systems, or factory automation.
Experience working with large, irregularly shaped objects rather than small consumer products.
Experience running Agile/Scrum or similar delivery processes for engineering teams.
Experience operating within ITAR/EAR-regulated or cleared program environments.

Responsibilities

Own day-to-day execution of the AI perception roadmap, translating priorities set by the Head of AI R&D into project plans, milestones, and sprint-level execution.
Provide hands-on technical leadership across model development, sensor integration, and deployment of 3D detection and pose estimation systems.
Directly review code, architecture, and technical designs; step in to unblock engineers on complex technical problems.
Manage day-to-day workload, task assignment, and technical mentorship for AI Engineers on the team.
Drive delivery of perception pipelines integrating camera and LIDAR sensors into production-ready systems.
Own testing, validation, and monitoring practices to ensure perception accuracy and reliability in production.
Coordinate execution with navigation, controls, and manufacturing engineering teams to keep integration work on schedule.
Track and report progress, blockers, technical risks, and resourcing needs to the Head of AI R&D.
Participate in technical hiring, interviewing, and onboarding of AI Engineers.
Being at work on time and maintaining good attendance is a condition of employment and is an essential function of the job.