Engineering Manager, Perception

We’re Blue River, a team of innovators driven to create intelligent machinery that solves monumental problems for our customers. We empower our customers – farmers, construction crews, and foresters - to implement safer and more sustainable solutions, driving increased profitability with less reliance on scarce labor. We believe that focusing on the small stuff – pixel-by-pixel and task-by-task - leads to big gains. 

Blue River Technology aligns with John Deere’s vision to “innovate on behalf of humanity” by quickly identifying and solving high-value, high-uncertainty challenges in AI, machine learning, computer vision, and robotics. BRT acts as a research and development flywheel, building not only new products but also new platforms that reliably create value for both Deere and its customers. From fully autonomous machines to highly precise farming equipment, BRT and Deere are partnering to create technical breakthroughs in industries like agriculture and construction. 

Our people are at the heart of what we do. Through cross-disciplinary collaboration, this mission-driven team is eager to define the new frontier of robotics. We are always asking hard questions, rapidly iterating, and getting our boots in the field to figure it out. We won’t give up until we’ve made a tangible and positive impact on the planet!

Blue River Technology is based in Santa Clara, CA. 

Summary

We are developing autonomy for off-road construction vehicles, including autonomous articulated dump trucks (ADTs). This role owns the entire data, perception ML, and analytics stack, from raw sensor ingest to optimized edge inference and fleet-level performance visibility.

You will lead a small perception team while remaining deeply hands-on. You are accountable for how data is collected, curated, trained, deployed, measured, and improved in production. This is a high ownership, leadership role with direct responsibility for autonomous vehicle performance on a jobsite.

• Employment Type: Full-Time
• Work Location: Santa Clara, CA 
• Visa sponsorship is considered for this position.

Job Responsibilities

A combination, not necessarily all-inclusive, of the following:

• Drive Technical Excellence
  • Take Radical Ownership: Own the entire perception lifecycle, ensuring models don't just "pass" in the lab but thrive on-vehicle in unpredictable off-road environments.
  • Architect for the Edge: Champion a "hardware-first" mindset, ensuring every model is designed for real-time inference and resource efficiency on NVIDIA hardware.
  • Enforce High Standards: Maintain a rigorous bar for code quality and system design through active mentorship and hands-on reviews.

• Lead a Data-Centric Culture
  • Prioritize the Pipeline: Shift the focus from "model chasing" to "data curation," building active learning loops that turn field failures into training successes.
  • Connect Metrics to Reality: Bridge the gap between offline validation and real-world autonomy outcomes; ensure the team optimizes for vehicle performance, not just loss functions.

• Communicate & Collaborate
  • Provide High-Signal Leadership: Translate complex ML trade-offs and failure modes into actionable insights for leadership and cross-functional partners.
  • Partner Across the Stack: Collaborate deeply with Data Engineering and Field Ops to ensure the fleet analytics dashboard remains the "source of truth" for autonomy readiness.

Required Experience and Skills

• 7+ years of experience in relevant fields.
• Excellent technical communication skills, getting and providing context from/to multiple cross-functional teams. Ability to distill technical uncertainty into clear risk assessments for non-technical stakeholders.
• Prior experience leading small technical teams while remaining hands-on.
• Proven track record deploying ML models to edge platforms, specifically NVIDIA Jetson / Orin.
• Experience with TensorRT optimization and inference performance tuning.
• Deep understanding of data-centric ML and dataset quality management.
• Strong production experience with Python and PyTorch.

Preferred Experience and Skills

• Robotics Veteran: Experience with multi-sensor fusion (Lidar, Radar, Camera) in unstructured or off-road environments.
• Analytics Power User: Experience defining fleet-level performance metrics and using those metrics to guide product roadmaps.

At Blue River, we’re passionate about creating an inclusive workplace that promotes and values diversity.  While we have more work to do to advance diversity and inclusion, we’re investing in our programs, including recruiting, mentorship, career development, and learning & development to ensure they support our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion goals. We support each employee in living a full life, enabling a thriving career, and accomplishing a meaningful, challenging mission while collaborating with incredible people. We are dedicated to building a diverse and inclusive workplace, so if you’re excited about this role but your experience doesn’t align completely with the job description, we encourage you to apply anyway.

We are an equal-opportunity employer and do not discriminate based on race, religion, color, national origin, sex, gender, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, perform essential job functions, and receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us to request an accommodation. 

The US annual base salary range for this position is $192,000 - $287,000, along with eligibility for Blue River’s bonus and benefit programs.

Our salary ranges are determined by role, level, and location. Within the range, individual pay is determined by work location and additional factors, including job-related skills, experience, and relevant education or training. Your recruiter can share more about the specific salary range for your location during the hiring process. During the recruitment process, we may identify an alternative role or level to which you are more suited. If your ideal role at Blue River differs from the advertised position, we will provide an updated pay range as soon as possible during the hiring process.

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