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Clera

Senior ML Engineer, Perception

San Francisco
Salary
$190,000 - $222,000 annually
Level
Senior
Work type
On-site · San Francisco
Visa
Not offered

Open. First seen 21 October 2026.

Apply on the company's site →

About the role

About the Role

Lead perception engineering for a defense technology team developing autonomous systems to detect and track aerial threats. You will own the perception domain and work closely with robotics, controls, and hardware engineers to deliver reliable capabilities on real-world equipment.

What You'll Do

  • Design perception architecture spanning detection, tracking, classification, and sensor fusion.
  • Develop computer vision models and training pipelines, then deploy them on-device.
  • Fuse EO/IR and other relevant sensor data across the perception stack.
  • Optimize real-time performance for embedded hardware and tight latency budgets.
  • Partner with robotics, controls, and hardware teams to make practical system design decisions.
  • Mentor perception engineers while contributing hands-on technical work.

What We're Looking For

  • At least 5 years of experience building and shipping perception systems on real hardware.
  • Strong Python and C++ skills, with experience developing production machine learning models and end-to-end training-to-deployment pipelines.
  • Hands-on experience building real-time computer vision detection and tracking from live sensor data, and personal ownership of perception models or tracking systems.
  • Experience deploying models on-device with TensorRT, ONNX, or equivalent, and optimizing for embedded compute and latency constraints.
  • Relevant experience in defense, autonomy, robotics, or aerospace, with a track record of systems that perform in real-world conditions.
  • Experience with aerial target tracking, moving-camera compensation, EO/IR or other sensor fusion, thermal imagery, or small and long-range targets is valuable.
  • Radar or RF perception, classified programs, sensor fusion in challenging environments, and mentoring experience are also useful.
  • A degree in computer science, electrical engineering, robotics, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.

Compensation & Benefits

Base salary is $190,000 to $222,000 USD annually. Visa sponsorship is not available.

Location

On-site in San Francisco, California, United States.

What this role asks for

Particular to this role

C++ · Computer Vision

Rare in Clera's other 299 open postings.

Standard for data science / ML roles

Machine Learning · Python

Common in data science / ML postings at any company.

Compared with Clera's other open jobs.

The team: Engineering HIRES STEADILY

This role is one of 385 open in Engineering. 319 were posted in the last 30 days and the oldest in March: a team that hires all year rather than one being built.

WHAT THE TEAM WORKS WITH, ACROSS ITS POSTINGS

LLM (162 of 385), Python (160 of 385), TypeScript (151 of 385), React (122 of 385), Machine Learning (92 of 385), PostgreSQL (70 of 385), JavaScript (66 of 385)

OTHER ROLES ON THIS TEAM

From the team and dates on Clera's own job board.

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