Lead Audio Machine Learning Engineer - Remote Opportunity

About the Role

We are seeking a Lead Audio Machine Learning Engineer to join our innovative team at 9 Mothers. This Lead Audio Machine Learning Engineer remote position focuses on leveraging machine learning to enhance our systems for reliably detecting, classifying, and tracking acoustic targets. You will play a crucial role in bridging traditional DSP techniques with modern ML approaches, ensuring our interceptors can effectively identify threats in challenging environments.

What You'll Do

• Develop hybrid models that integrate beamformed channels and multichannel features for robust detection and classification.
• Define labeling strategies, build training and evaluation pipelines, and implement hard-negative mining to handle diverse outdoor conditions.
• Directly reduce false alarms caused by environmental factors such as wind and rain across various terrains and sensor units.
• Deploy models to edge runtimes with strict latency constraints, ensuring operability in real-time.
• Collaborate cross-functionally with Hardware and DSP teams to align data, calibration, and performance metrics.

Requirements

• Proven experience shipping ML for audio or similar noisy sensors with measurable operational metrics (precision/recall, false alarms).
• Disciplined approach to ML engineering, including reproducible experiments and systematic error analysis.
• Practical understanding of mic-array fundamentals (SNR, aliasing, sync) to debug failures and design robust tests.
• High proficiency in Python; experience with Rust for runtime integration is a significant plus.
• Must be a US citizen and able to pass a background check.

Nice to Have

• Experience with on-device inference optimization (TensorRT, ONNX, quantization).
• Familiarity with weak/self-supervised learning and domain adaptation.
• Fusion/tracking experience (temporal models, confidence calibration).
• A passion for building robots as a hobby.

What We Offer

• Direct roadmap influence—shape our product and technology trajectory from day one.
• Mission-critical work that actively contributes to countering real-world threats.
• Access to a brand-new lab optimized for rapid prototyping, equipped with cutting-edge technology.
• 100% employer-paid premiums for medical, dental, and vision insurance.
• Unlimited PTO to recharge and stay sharp.
• Zero red tape—report directly to the founders and make impactful technical decisions.
• Relocation assistance for those moving to Austin, TX, to join our onsite team.