Position Title : AI Research & Development Engineer (Optical Systems)

Experience Level : Mid-Level (35 Years)

Location : Bangalore

Department : AI Research & Photonics R&D

Role Summary :

Our client is seeking an innovative Mid-Level AI Research Engineer to bridge deep learning research with optical and photonic technologies.

In this role, you will design, train, and validate machine learning models for applications such as computer vision processing of optical sensor signals, neural network optimization for optical computing architectures, or AI-driven control loops for physical light-manipulating hardware.

You will collaborate closely with photonics researchers, software engineers, and optical designers to take novel AI algorithms from academic research to hardware-in-the-loop prototypes.

Key Responsibilities :

- Algorithm & Model Research : Research, prototype, and train deep learning models (e.g., PyTorch, JAX, TensorFlow) tailored for processing optical data, spectral signals, or physical hardware co-design.

- Hardware-in-the-Loop AI Integration : Deploy and evaluate neural network models on edge AI hardware, FPGAs, or custom optical co-processors, optimizing for latency, throughput, and memory constraints.

- AI for Optics & Physics-Informed ML : Apply physics-informed neural networks (PINNs) or reinforcement learning to solve complex wave propagation, beam-forming, thermal drift, or optical alignment problems.

- Data Pipeline & Experimentation : Build end-to-end data pipelines for acquiring, augmenting, and annotating real-world optical telemetry and simulation data.

- Cross-Functional R&D : Work with optical engineers and physicists to translate physical domain constraints into machine learning loss functions and evaluation metrics.

- Technical Communication : Document research findings, publish/patent novel algorithms where applicable, and translate research prototypes into production-ready software components.

Requirements & Qualifications :

- Education : Masters or Ph.D. in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Applied Physics, Photonics, or a related field (or a Bachelor's with equivalent research output).

- Experience : 3 to 5 years of combined academic and industry research experience in artificial intelligence and computer vision/signal processing.

Core Technical Skills :

- Demonstrated proficiency in Python and deep learning frameworks (PyTorch or JAX).

- Experience with computer vision, image processing, or raw signal processing algorithms (OpenCV, NumPy, SciPy).

- Track record of reading, reproducing, and adapting state-of-the-art research papers to practical engineering problems.

- Experience with model acceleration, quantization, and profiling tools (e.g., ONNX, TensorRT, OpenVINO).

Preferred Qualifications :

- Background in photonics, optical imaging, spectroscopy, LiDAR, or optical computing architectures.

- Experience with physics-informed machine learning, inverse problems in imaging, or Fourier optics.

- Proficient in C++ for performance-critical model inference and hardware interfacing.