Staff Perception Engineer

Gather AI • Pittsburgh, PA

1d

About The Position

We are seeking a Staff Perception Engineer to take full technical ownership of one of Gather AI's two production platforms — our drone-based inventory scanning system or our MHE Vision product — deployed today in customer warehouses. You'll bring systems-level rigor to a platform that already works, with a mandate to make it faster to deploy, easier to operate, and more reliable at scale. This is a high-ownership, high-impact role, critical to the quality of every scan our system performs. You will drive technical direction and deliver measurable impact on production systems serving real customers.

Requirements

• 5+ years of experience in machine vision, imaging systems, or perception engineering
• Deep expertise in camera systems: sensor selection, lens specification, resolution analysis, pixels-on-target calculations, and exposure control for industrial applications
• Hands-on experience with motion blur analysis and mitigation — rolling vs global shutter trade-offs, exposure budgeting relative to platform velocity
• Strong Python and C++ proficiency with OpenCV and camera SDK experience (FLIR, Lucid, Basler, or similar); familiarity with GigE Vision or USB3 Vision standards
• BS or MS in Electrical Engineering, Optics, Physics, Computer Science, or a related field

Nice To Haves

• Experience with drone or robotics perception systems (gimbal stabilization, triggering, onboard compute constraints)
• Optical design or lens selection experience (MTF analysis, depth of field, distortion characterization)
• Edge compute and embedded vision experience (NVIDIA Jetson, FPGA-based image processing)
• Familiarity with classical and deep learning perception algorithms and how image quality affects model performance

Responsibilities

• Own the camera and imaging subsystem audit across MHEV and Modal: characterize existing performance (barcode decode rates, read distances, motion blur impact) and identify top bottlenecks
• Evaluate and select camera and sensor hardware — specifying resolution, sensor size, lens selection, and exposure control for industrial warehouse environments
• Implement and tune auto-exposure, gain control, and lighting strategies for variable warehouse lighting conditions, including motion blur mitigation for moving platforms
• Develop image quality metrics and production monitoring to maintain system performance as deployments scale
• Collaborate with the ML team to ensure perception model inputs meet training and inference quality requirements; contribute to next-generation capabilities such as damage detection and label reading
• Work with the hardware team on camera mounting, vibration/damping, and lens placement to optimize system-level performance

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level