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About This Role
*Quidient is a deep tech AI company pioneering advancements in Generalized (5D) Scene Reconstruction (GSR). GSR is poised to become one of the world's great digital product categories (think GPS, MRI, and LMM). Our flagship GSR product, Quidient Reality®, is a powerful API that enables anyone with a mobile device to virtualize, visualize, and measure anything. Words relevant to Quidient include Generative AI, Physics\-Informed AI, Large Scene Models (LSMs), Large World Models (LWMs), and API\-First.*
Overview
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We are seeking a Staff Deep Learning Research Engineer to design, build, and train novel neural network architectures that solve hard problems across Quidient's GSR platform. This is not an applied\-ML role — you will work from foundational principles to create new networks from scratch, implement cutting\-edge papers, and run end\-to\-end experiments across domains including geometric anomaly detection, neural rendering, and 3D reconstruction quality.
This is a hybrid position, meaning that you will need to live within easy driving distance to our Technology Center in Columbia, Maryland.
What You'll Do
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### Research \& Network Design
- Design and train novel deep neural network architectures from scratch for a variety of reconstruction tasks — including surface anomaly detection (e.g., dent detection), geometry\-based defect identification, and neural rendering improvements.
- Implement state\-of\-the\-art papers and adapt published architectures to Quidient's specific reconstruction challenges, exercising deep judgment about what will translate from benchmark to production.
- Identify technical gaps in the current reconstruction pipeline, propose neural network\-based solutions, and build the roadmap for how deep learning capabilities evolve across the platform.
- Design and maintain rigorous evaluation pipelines grounded in real\-world captures to measure model performance, regression, and generalization.
### Model Development
- Run end\-to\-end experiments independently — from hypothesis through data preparation, training, evaluation, and iteration — with minimal supervision.
- Stay current with the latest advances in deep neural network architectures, training techniques, and optimization methods, continuously bringing relevant ideas into the pipeline.
- Contribute production\-quality C\+\+ and Python to integrate trained models into the reconstruction engine.
- Bridge deep learning methods with the geometric and physical foundations of the reconstruction platform, applying domain expertise in one or more of: light transport, 3D reconstruction, or SLAM
- Drive inference optimization and GPU/CUDA performance work toward real\-time and on\-device targets.
What You Bring
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### Must\-Have Qualifications:
- Master's or PhD in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Machine Learning, or a related field. A graduate\-level foundation in deep learning theory is required, not just applied experience.
- 6\+ years of experience in deep learning research and engineering, with demonstrated ability to design, train, and evaluate novel neural network architectures from scratch.
- Deep domain expertise in at least one of: light transport, deep learning for 3D vision, or SLAM.
- Ability to read, critically evaluate, and implement current deep learning papers (CVPR, NeurIPS, ICLR, ICML) and translate them into working systems.
- Strong software engineering in C\+\+ and Python, with deep proficiency in PyTorch or equivalent frameworks for model development and training.
- Willingness to work on\-site in Columbia, MD, in a hybrid capacity.
- Meet Quidient, customer, and government security requirements, which may include, but are not limited to a background check, citizenship verification, and Criminal Justice Information Services verification
### Nice\-to\-Have Qualifications:
- Experience in fast\-paced or startup environments.
- Publications or open\-source contributions in deep learning, neural rendering, 3D reconstruction, or computer vision (CVPR, NeurIPS, ICLR, ICML, SIGGRAPH, or similar).
- Experience designing evaluation pipelines and experiment infrastructure for deep learning research.
- Hands on with geometric or physics\-informed neural networks, or anomaly detection in 3D data.
- Track record of taking a research idea from paper to production\-deployed model.
What We Offer
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### Compensation:
- Salary Range: $185,000 – $235,000\.
- Annual bonus and equity as appropriate.
### Benefits:
- Health insurance
- HSA
- 401(k) with company match
- Life \& disability insurance
- Paid holidays \& generous PTO
- Opportunities for bonuses, equity, and career growth
Equal Opportunity Employer Statement
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Quidient is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Quidient will consider all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, national origin, age, veteran status, disability, or any other classification protected by applicable state, federal, or local laws.
Salary Context
This $185K-$235K range is above the median for AI/ML Engineer roles in our dataset (median: $180K across 1841 roles with salary data).
View full AI/ML Engineer salary data →Role Details
About This Role
AI/ML Engineers build and deploy machine learning models in production. They work across the full ML lifecycle: data pipelines, model training, evaluation, and serving infrastructure. The role has evolved significantly over the past two years. Where ML Engineers once spent most of their time on model architecture, the job now tilts heavily toward inference optimization, cost management, and integrating LLM capabilities into existing systems. Companies want engineers who can ship production systems, and the experimenter-only role is fading fast.
Day-to-day, you're writing training pipelines, debugging data quality issues, setting up evaluation frameworks, and figuring out why your model performs differently in staging than it did on your dev set. The best ML engineers are obsessive about reproducibility and measurement. They instrument everything. They know that a model is only as good as the data feeding it and the infrastructure serving it.
Across the 3,708 AI roles we're tracking, AI/ML Engineer positions make up 70% of the market. At Quidient, this role fits into their broader AI and engineering organization.
Demand for AI/ML Engineers has been strong and consistent. Unlike some AI roles that spike with hype cycles, ML engineering is a foundational need. Every company deploying AI models needs people who can keep them running, and the gap between research prototypes and production systems keeps growing.
What the Work Looks Like
A typical week might include: debugging a data pipeline that's silently dropping 3% of training examples, running A/B tests on a new model version, writing documentation for a feature flag system that lets you roll back model deployments, and reviewing a junior engineer's PR for a new evaluation metric. Meetings tend to be cross-functional since ML touches product, engineering, and data teams.
Demand for AI/ML Engineers has been strong and consistent. Unlike some AI roles that spike with hype cycles, ML engineering is a foundational need. Every company deploying AI models needs people who can keep them running, and the gap between research prototypes and production systems keeps growing.
Skills Required
Python and PyTorch dominate the requirements. Most roles expect experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure) and familiarity with ML frameworks like TensorFlow or JAX. RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) has become a top-3 skill requirement as companies integrate LLMs into their products. Docker and Kubernetes show up in about a third of postings, reflecting the production focus of the role.
Beyond the core stack, employers increasingly want experience with experiment tracking tools (MLflow, Weights & Biases), feature stores, and vector databases. Fine-tuning experience is valuable but less common than you'd think from reading Twitter. Most production LLM work is RAG and prompt engineering, not fine-tuning. If you have both, you're in a strong position.
Companies that are serious about AI/ML hiring tend to post specific infrastructure details in the job description: the frameworks they use, their model serving stack, their data pipeline tools. Vague postings that just say 'ML experience required' without specifics are often companies that haven't figured out what they need yet.
Compensation Benchmarks
AI/ML Engineer roles pay a median of $218,750 based on 3,817 positions with disclosed compensation. Senior-level AI roles across all categories have a median of $230,000. Disclosed range: $185K to $235K.
Across all AI roles, the market median is $217,500. Top-quartile compensation starts at $272,100. The 90th percentile reaches $325,000. For comparison, the highest-paying categories include AI Safety ($300,000) and Research Engineer ($280,000). By seniority level: Entry: $120,000; Mid: $200,000; Senior: $230,000; Director: $272,150; VP: $250,000.
Quidient AI Hiring
Quidient has 3 open AI roles right now. They're hiring across AI Product Manager, AI/ML Engineer. Positions span Columbia, MD, US, Washington, DC, US. Compensation range: $200K - $235K.
Location Context
Across all AI roles, 14% (508 positions) offer remote work, while 3,180 require on-site attendance. Top AI hiring metros: New York (1,045 roles, $220,000 median); San Francisco (810 roles, $277,088 median); Los Angeles (397 roles, $215,000 median).
Career Path
Common paths into AI/ML Engineer roles include Data Scientist, Software Engineer, Research Engineer.
From here, career progression typically leads toward ML Architect, AI Engineering Manager, Principal ML Engineer.
The fastest path into ML engineering is through software engineering with a self-directed ML education. A CS degree helps, but production engineering skills matter more than academic credentials. Build something that works, deploy it, and measure it. That portfolio project is worth more than a Coursera certificate. For career growth, the fork comes around the senior level: go deep on technical complexity (staff/principal track) or move into managing ML teams.
What to Expect in Interviews
Expect system design questions around ML pipelines: how you'd build a training pipeline for a specific use case, handle data drift, or design A/B testing infrastructure for model deployments. Coding rounds typically involve Python, with emphasis on data manipulation (pandas, numpy) and algorithm implementation. Take-home assignments often ask you to build an end-to-end ML pipeline from raw data to deployed model.
When evaluating opportunities: Companies that are serious about AI/ML hiring tend to post specific infrastructure details in the job description: the frameworks they use, their model serving stack, their data pipeline tools. Vague postings that just say 'ML experience required' without specifics are often companies that haven't figured out what they need yet.
AI Hiring Overview
The AI job market has 3,708 open positions tracked in our dataset. By seniority: 102 entry-level, 1,705 mid-level, 1,469 senior, and 432 leadership roles (Director, VP, C-Level). Remote roles make up 14% of the market (508 positions). The remaining 3,180 roles require on-site or hybrid attendance.
The market median for AI roles is $217,500. Top-quartile compensation starts at $272,100. The 90th percentile reaches $325,000. Highest-paying categories: AI Safety ($300,000 median, 21 roles); Research Engineer ($280,000 median, 147 roles); AI Architect ($254,798 median, 67 roles).
Demand for AI/ML Engineers has been strong and consistent. Unlike some AI roles that spike with hype cycles, ML engineering is a foundational need. Every company deploying AI models needs people who can keep them running, and the gap between research prototypes and production systems keeps growing.
The AI Job Market Today
The AI job market spans 3,708 open positions across 16 role categories. The largest categories by volume: AI/ML Engineer (2,605), Data Scientist (310), AI Software Engineer (259). These three account for the majority of open positions, though smaller categories often have higher per-role compensation because of specialized skill requirements.
The seniority mix tells a story about where AI teams are in their maturity. Entry-level roles (102) are outnumbered by mid-level (1,705) and senior (1,469) positions, reflecting that most companies are past the 'build a team from scratch' phase and need experienced engineers who can ship production systems. Leadership roles (Director, VP, C-Level) total 432 positions, representing the bottleneck between technical execution and organizational strategy.
Remote work availability sits at 14% of all AI roles (508 positions), with 3,180 requiring on-site or hybrid attendance. The remote share has stabilized after the post-pandemic correction. Senior and specialized roles (Research Scientist, ML Architect) are more likely to be remote-eligible than entry-level positions, partly because experienced hires have more negotiating power and partly because these roles require less hands-on mentorship.
AI compensation is structured in clear tiers. The market median sits at $217,500. Top-quartile roles start at $272,100, and the 90th percentile reaches $325,000. These figures include base salary with disclosed compensation. Total compensation (including equity, bonuses, and sign-on) runs 20-40% higher at companies that offer those components.
Category matters for compensation. AI Safety roles lead at $300,000 median, while Prompt Engineer roles sit at $140,000. The spread between highest and lowest-paying categories reflects the premium on specialized technical skills versus broader analytical roles.
The most in-demand skills across all AI postings: Python (1,890 postings), Aws (1,103 postings), Azure (877 postings), Rag (855 postings), Gcp (631 postings), Prompt Engineering (560 postings), Pytorch (545 postings), Claude (498 postings). Python dominates, appearing in the vast majority of role descriptions regardless of category. Cloud platform experience (AWS, GCP, Azure) is the second most common requirement. The newer entrants to the top skills list (RAG, vector databases, LLM APIs) reflect the shift from traditional ML toward generative AI applications.
Frequently Asked Questions
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