Senior Automation Engineer, Vision

Job description

About Mach Industries Founded in 2023, Mach Industries is a rapidly growing defense technology company focused on developing next-generation autonomous defense platforms. At the core of our mission is the commitment to delivering scalable, decentralized defense systems that enhance the strategic capabilities of the United States and its allies. With a workforce of approximately 350 employees, we operate with startup agility and ambition. Our vision is to redefine the future of warfare through cutting-edge manufacturing, innovation at speed, and unwavering focus on national security. We are dedicated to solving the next generation of warfare with lethal systems that deter kinetic conflict and protect global security. The Role Mach Industries is seeking a Senior Automation Engineer, Vision to develop and standardize machine vision systems across manufacturing. You will develop proof-of-concept vision systems using industrial cameras, optics, lighting, profilometers, vision controllers, and edge compute, then translate successful concepts into standardized hardware and software architectures that can be deployed across production equipment. This is a highly hands-on engineering role. You will build vision systems in the lab and on manufacturing equipment, characterize imaging performance, develop acquisition and processing methods, define compute requirements, and establish the technical standards used by internal teams and external systems integrators. Key Responsibilities • Develop Mach's standardized machine vision platform for automated manufacturing equipment. • Design and build proof-of-concept vision systems using industrial cameras, lenses, lighting, filters, profilometers, depth cameras, and other optical sensors. • Select and characterize cameras, optics, lighting, sensors, controllers, and acquisition hardware for manufacturing applications. • Define edge compute requirements based on acquisition rates, processing workloads, latency, and machine cycle-time requirements. • Select and benchmark CPUs, GPUs, industrial PCs, and other compute hardware for production vision applications. • Develop image acquisition methods including exposure, triggering, synchronization, lighting control, field of view, depth of field, resolution, and optical configuration. • Develop 2D and 3D vision applications for inspection, measurement, localization, guidance, identification, and process monitoring. • Develop applications using laser profilometers, stereo/depth cameras, structured-light systems, and other 3D sensing technologies. • Optimize vision pipelines using GPU acceleration, parallel computing, and other hardware-accelerated approaches where required to meet production cycle times. • Design experiments to characterize measurement capability, repeatability, resolution, robustness, processing latency, and sensitivity to process variation. • Develop standardized hardware architectures for cameras, lenses, lighting, profilometers, controllers, networking, and edge compute. • Establish standards for camera mounting, lighting geometry, calibration, triggering, image acquisition, image storage, diagnostics, and system validation. • Define standardized interfaces between vision systems and Beckhoff TwinCAT machine controls. • Develop reusable software, libraries, configuration methods, and diagnostic tools for common vision applications. • Partner with manufacturing and quality engineers to translate process and inspection requirements into robust automated vision solutions. • Support vision-guided robotics, automated inspection, process monitoring, and closed-loop manufacturing applications. • Translate successful proof-of-concept systems into specifications and standards for production equipment. • Review vision systems delivered by equipment OEMs and systems integrators and ensure compliance with Mach standards. • Support FAT, SAT, commissioning, troubleshooting, and production ramp of Required Qualifications • Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Mechatronics, Robotics, Computer Engineering, Optical Engineering, Computer Science, or a related discipline. • 5+ years of experience developing machine vision, optical inspection, metrology, or automated manufacturing systems. • Hands-on experience selecting and integrating industrial cameras, lenses, lighting, and vision hardware. • Strong understanding of imaging fundamentals including resolution, field of view, depth of field, exposure, contrast, lighting geometry, and optical distortion. • Experience developing and deploying 2D or 3D machine vision applications. • Experience defining edge compute requirements and selecting hardware based on image-processing workloads, latency, throughput, and machine cycle-time requirements. • Experience with CUDA or other GPU-accelerated, hardware-accelerated, or parallel computing approaches for high-performance image processing. • Experience profiling and optimizing vision pipelines to meet deterministic production performance requirements. • Experience integrating vision systems with PLC-controlled or robotic manufacturing equipment. • Experience taking vision applications from proof of concept through commissioning and production. • Strong experimental and troubleshooting skills with the ability to develop and debug systems directly on manufacturing equipment. Preferred Qualifications • Experience with industrial vision platforms such as Cognex, Keyence, Basler, Teledyne, LMI, SICK, or similar. • Experience with 3D and depth-sensing platforms such as Intel RealSense, Luxonis OAK, Stereolabs ZED, or similar. • Experience with laser profilometers, stereo vision, structured-light systems, 3D cameras, point clouds, or other optical metrology and perception technologies. • Experience with ROS 2, including integration of cameras, perception pipelines, coordinate transforms, and robotic systems. • Experience developing standardized vision architectures deployed across multiple machine