Principal Computer Vision Engineer
AgZen is tackling two of agriculture’s biggest challenges: waste and pollution.
Each year, billions are spent on pesticides and fertilizers, yet most never reach the crops - resulting in costly waste and significant environmental harm. We’re changing that. By using machine learning, computer vision, and fluid dynamics, AgZen optimizes chemical application in real time, reducing input use, minimizing pollution, and protecting both yields and ecosystems.
Founded out of MIT and backed by $13.5M in funding, our multidisciplinary team of engineers and ag science experts is redefining sustainable farming with breakthrough technology. We’re not just improving agriculture, we’re reimagining what’s possible.
About the Role:
As part of the engineering team, you will help design, build, and improve the computer vision systems that power AgZen’s precision spraying technology and ensure they perform reliably in real agricultural environments. We are looking for a sharp, technically strong, and highly collaborative Principal Computer Vision Engineer to drive the development of our vision models and guide the technical direction for all computer vision work. Responsibilities will span model architecture design, data strategy, experimentation, performance evaluation, and integration with hardware and system components. Clear communication, cross-functional partnership, technical leadership, and the ability to operate effectively in dynamic field conditions will all be essential for success in this role.
📍This role is located in Somerville, MA (Boston area) with work required to be in-person.
What You’ll Do:
- Develop advanced computer vision models that support real-time detection and decision-making in AgZen’s spraying systems.
- Lead the design of model architectures, training pipelines, and evaluation methods that meet performance requirements in both lab and field environments.
- Collaborate closely with hardware, firmware, and product teams to ensure vision models integrate seamlessly with system components.
- Oversee data collection planning, dataset creation, and annotation quality to ensure robust and representative training data.
- Analyze field performance to identify root causes of model behavior, propose improvements, and validate updates through experimentation.
- Establish best practices for versioning, testing, deployment, and continuous improvement of computer vision models.
- Provide technical mentorship to teammates and contribute to strong engineering standards across the organization.
- Communicate progress, risks, and recommendations to engineering and product leadership in a clear and structured manner.
What We're Looking For:
- A bachelor’s degree in computer science, electrical engineering, robotics, or a related field; an advanced degree is preferred but not required.
- 7+ years of experience in solving problems in computer vision/perception with a foundation in deep learning and ML
- Experience working with real-time or edge-based inference and integrating models with hardware or embedded systems.
- Demonstrated ability to design experiments, analyze results, and iterate quickly based on field and product requirements.
- Deep experience training and validating computer vision models (e.g., object detection, segmentation, and classification) for robust performance in real-world environments.
- Proven ability to architect end-to-end computer vision pipelines, strategically decomposing complex problems across multiple models and stages.
- Expertise in MLOps best practices and tooling (e.g., MLflow, W&B, or similar experiment tracking and deployment frameworks) for managing the entire model lifecycle from research to production at scale.
- Clear communication skills and the ability to work effectively with cross-functional teams in a fast-moving environment.
- Advanced knowledge of software engineering principles, including software design, source control management, build processes, code reviews, and testing methods
- The resilience, adaptability, and technical leadership needed to deliver solutions in dynamic and sometimes unpredictable field conditions.
- Advanced proficiency in Python, PyTorch, Numpy, and OpenCV.
What We Offer:
The opportunity to make an immediate and visible impact in a fast-growing company, competitive salary, early-employee equity, 401(k) with employer matching, 6 weeks of PTO, paid holidays and health insurance.
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