# Technical Lead Manager - Perception, Self-Driving Systems

**Company:** [Applied Intuition](https://hotfix.jobs/companies/applied-intuition)
**Location:** Sunnyvale, CA
**Role:** ML Engineering
**Salary:** $232k – $298k/yr
**Experience:** 5+ years
**Skills:** Python, C++, Machine Learning, Deep Learning, Computer Vision, 3D Scene Understanding, Transformers, Bev, Multi-Task Learning, Embedded Systems, Model Deployment, Perception Models, Autonomous Vehicles
**Posted:** 2026-05-11

> Leads team developing and deploying a unified camera-first perception model for self-driving systems across diverse vehicles, geographies, and conditions. Hands-on with ML architecture, training, evaluation, embedded optimization, and customer requirements. Requires 5+ years ML perception experience and 2+ years team leadership.

## Job Description

## Responsibilities
- Own the perception model end-to-end: architecture, training, evaluation, and deployment across geographies, road types, sensor setups, and environmental conditions.
- Drive a camera-first perception strategy to reduce dependencies on HD maps and lidar.
- Lead training and iteration cycles hands-on, including data analysis, eval dashboards, and failure analysis.
- Own model performance across full deployment surface: highway, urban, residential, ramps, complex intersections, poor weather, hilly terrain.
- Manage model lifecycle from training through quantization and deployment on embedded compute with device-specific optimizations.
- Work directly with OEM customer programs to understand sensor configurations, target ODDs, and performance requirements.
- Recruit, develop, and technically lead a team of perception engineers.

## Requirements
- 5+ years in ML/deep learning for perception or 3D scene understanding with hands-on experience training and deploying vision models at scale.
- 2+ years managing or technically leading a perception team.
- Experience building production perception systems, especially camera-only or camera-first solutions.
- Track record deploying perception models to embedded hardware under real-time latency and compute constraints.
- Strong software engineering in **Python** and **C++** across the stack from training to onboard inference.
- Experience scaling perception models across multiple geographies, sensor setups, or vehicle platforms.

## Nice to Haves
- Deep familiarity with transformer-based architectures for 3D perception, BEV representations, multi-task learning, and dense prediction.
- Familiarity with occupancy-based scene representations, sparse query-based architectures, or temporal aggregation approaches.
- Experience reducing or removing map dependencies in perception systems.
- Background in autolabel pipelines, data quality monitoring, or data flywheel design for perception.
- Experience with closed-loop simulation for perception model evaluation.
- Experience at an AV company that has shipped perception to production.

## Compensation
Base salary range: **$231,900 - $298,100 USD** annually, plus equity and benefits.

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