Merlin Labs
Lead AI Dataloop and Release Engineer
Boston · Contract
No sponsorshipDetected 27 days ago
Platform EngineeringMachine LearningData EngineeringLLMsMLOpsHRISDO-178DO-254RoboticsLeadershipCommunication
About the role
- You've built the data flywheels and worked closely with provisioning training clusters, as well as data-driven, physics-based and high-fidelity simulators.
- This position is based on-site at Merlin HQ in Boston, MA.
Responsibilities
- Own the end-to-end data pipeline - from raw collection and labeling through curation, versioning, and delivery - ensuring the reliability and scale that training and simulation workflows demand.
- Build and maintain data flywheels that continuously improve model performance by closing the loop between deployed system behavior and future training iterations.
- Collaborate closely with teams provisioning and operating large-scale GPU/TPU training clusters to align data delivery with compute capacity and training schedules.
- Drive the design and integration of data pipelines that feed data-driven, physics-based, and high-fidelity simulators, ensuring simulated environments are realistic enough to support confident AI model validation.
- Partner with safety, validation, and certification teams to establish data quality standards and traceability practices that satisfy regulatory requirements in aviation and/or automotive domains.
- Lead, mentor, and grow a team of data and infrastructure engineers, setting technical direction and fostering a culture of rigor, ownership, and continuous improvement.
Requirements
- You know what it takes to engineer the data pipeline that makes simulated environments realistic enough to deploy AI models confidently in safety critical environments like aviation and automotive space.
- 10+ years of engineering experience, with at least 4 years in a technical leadership role owning data infrastructure, MLOps, or AI platform engineering at scale.
- Hands-on experience integrating data systems with large-scale distributed training infrastructure (e.g., GPU/TPU clusters, job orchestration, experiment tracking).
- Experience working in or alongside safety-critical domains (autonomous vehicles, aviation, robotics, or similar) with an understanding of what rigor, traceability, and validation mean in that context.
- Demonstrated experience building and operating data pipelines for AI/ML model training, including dataset management, labeling workflows, and data versioning at production scale.
- Deep understanding of simulation pipelines - including data-driven, physics-based, or sensor-realistic simulators - and how data quality directly impacts simulator fidelity and model transferability.
- Strong systems-thinking mindset: you reason about data quality, pipeline reliability, and infrastructure design as interconnected constraints, not isolated problems.
- Track record of building platforms and tooling that other engineering teams depend on day-to-day, with a high bar for reliability, documentation, and developer experience.
- Excellent cross-functional communication skills - able to translate technical data strategy into clear priorities for product, safety, and executive stakeholders.
Nice to have
- Experience with domain randomization, synthetic data generation, or sensor simulation techniques used to bridge the sim-to-real gap in autonomous systems.
- Familiarity with aviation-specific standards (e.g., DO-178C, DO-254) or automotive safety frameworks (e.g., ISO 26262, SOTIF) as they relate to data and software validation.
- Hands-on background with perception, planning, or control model development in autonomous vehicles or UAV/UAS systems.
- Experience with formal data governance, lineage tracking, or provenance tooling in regulated environments.
- Contributions to open-source tooling in the MLOps, data engineering, or simulation space.
- Merlin Labs is an equal opportunity employer and values diversity.
- All job offers are contingent upon the candidate passing background and reference checks.
- Applicants must be authorized to work in the United States without the need for visa sponsorship now or in the future.
Benefits
- Define and track KPIs for data pipeline health, simulation fidelity, and model readiness, using these metrics to prioritize investments and communicate progress to senior leadership.
Company info
- Merlin is a venture backed aerospace startup building a non-human pilot to enable both reduced crew and uncrewed flight.
- Backed by some of the world's leading investors, Merlin is scaling alongside our customers to begin leveraging autonomy today to solve some of aviation's biggest challenges.
Visa & Work Authorization
- At this time, we are unable to provide visa sponsorship or consider candidates who require visa transfers.
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This listing is sourced directly from Merlin Labs's careers page and normalized into a canonical job model.