Job details

Founding ML Engineer

At Coco, our mission is to revolutionize urban logistics by empowering cities, boosting local economies, and delivering delightful customer experiences. We connect people with local merchants through our fleet of on-demand delivery robots, helping merchants reach their customers faster and more efficiently. By building innovative robotic systems that seamlessly navigate city sidewalks, Coco plays a key role in reshaping the future of last-mile delivery and enhancing local businesses.

To deliver on our mission, we are building an autonomy team to develop the AI technology that will enable our robot pilots to scale efficiently, sustainably, and safely. This involves building an autonomy stack ground-up based on our millions of miles of last-mile delivery routes, proprietary video streams, and LiDAR data.

What is the scope of this role?

As a Founding Machine Learning Engineer, you will be responsible for standing up Coco’s autonomy stack alongside the CTO and fellow team members in the autonomy team. You will be responsible for designing, developing, and deploying our machine learning models, taking into account sensor data (camera, LiDAR, etc.). The impact of this will be an increased robot-to-pilot ratio that enables 100s of thousands of deliveries by 2026. In this role, you must accomplish the following:

Develop the architecture and implementation of machine learning models that power the autonomous vehicle’s perception, decision-making, and control systems.
Design and implement algorithms for object detection, sensor fusion, path planning, and real-time decision-making.
Develop and maintain robust data pipelines to ingest, label, and preprocess data from multiple sensors (LiDAR, cameras, radar).
Train and optimize deep learning models using simulation and real-world data. Focus on improving system accuracy, robustness, and efficiency.
Build simulation environments to test various driving scenarios and edge cases; work closely with the hardware team to ensure smooth integration of software with vehicle systems.
Ensure the autopilot system adheres to safety standards and regulations, incorporating redundancy and fail-safe mechanisms.
Play a key role in recruiting, mentoring, and leading a high-performance machine learning and autonomy team.

Must have competencies:

4+ years experience in machine learning, computer vision, robotics, or autonomous systems.
Proven track record of training and deploying a real world neural network.
Extremely well versed in the models and techniques that have been used and are currently in use with autonomous driving or robotics systems in constrained, production environments. SfM, SLAM, large-scale mapping & localization, RL, imitation learning, neural rendering, etc.
Expertise in training and deploying deep learning models, particularly in vision (CNNs, object detection, semantic segmentation).
Excellent programming skills in Python and C++. Practical experience with PyTorch.
Experience in optimizing large-scale ML models and deploying them on distributed cloud/edge infrastructure.
Strong leadership and communication skills.

Nice to have:

- Contributions to open-source autonomous vehicle frameworks (e.g., Autoware, Apollo).

- Experience with hardware integration and low-level system programming (ROS, CAN bus).

- Familiarity with reinforcement learning and imitation learning for decision-making in autonomous systems.

- Familiarity with regulatory and safety standards for autonomous vehicles (ISO 26262, UL 4600).

Average salary estimate

$135000 / YEARLY (est.)

min

max

$120000K

$150000K

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What You Should Know About Founding ML Engineer, Coco Delivery

Join the exciting world of Coco as a Founding ML Engineer in San Francisco! At Coco, we're on a mission to revolutionize urban logistics through a fleet of on-demand delivery robots. You’ll be stepping into a crucial role where you will develop our autonomy stack from the ground up, alongside our CTO and a talented autonomy team. Your days will be filled with designing and implementing machine learning models that are vital for our robots' perception and decision-making systems. Imagine building algorithms for object detection, sensor fusion, and real-time decision-making, all while increasing the efficiency of our delivery system. You'll work with data from LiDAR, cameras, and other sensors, optimizing and training models to reach thousands of deliveries by 2026. Your expertise in Python, C++, and deep learning frameworks like PyTorch will shine here, as you tackle real-world challenges in autonomous systems. Plus, you'll be a key player in shaping a high-performance autonomy team, mentoring future talents in the field. If you are passionate about AI technology and want to make a tangible impact on urban logistics, this role is tailor-made for you. Dive into an innovative environment at Coco where your ideas will help pave the way for the future of delivery.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) for Founding ML Engineer Role at Coco Delivery

What are the main responsibilities of a Founding ML Engineer at Coco?

As a Founding ML Engineer at Coco, your main responsibilities will include designing and developing machine learning models for our robots' perception and decision-making systems. You'll also work on algorithms for object detection and path planning while maintaining data pipelines for multiple sensors. The position demands a strong focus on training deep learning models to enhance the efficiency and safety of our delivery robots.