{"id":234119,"url":"https://alion.io/job/blue-river-technology-principal-rl-engineer-e2e-autonomy","title":"Principal RL Engineer, E2E Autonomy","company":{"id":12147,"name":"Blue River Technology","domain":"bluerivertechnology.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/blue-river-technology","size_band":null,"is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Greenhouse","truth_index":{"grade":"B","score":81,"open_postings":4,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":0.75,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":39,"computed_at":"2026-10-24T06:02:35Z"}},"role":"Industrial Engineering","role_family":"Industrial Engineering","seniority":"lead","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Santa Clara, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":187000,"max":378000,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":378000},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":3,"visa_sponsorship":true,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"Computer Vision","optional":false},{"name":"Machine Learning","optional":false},{"name":"Python","optional":false},{"name":"PyTorch","optional":false},{"name":"Reinforcement Learning","optional":false},{"name":"Reinforcement Learning","optional":false},{"name":"Reward Modeling","optional":false},{"name":"CUDA","optional":true},{"name":"ROS","optional":true},{"name":"Sim-to-Real","optional":true}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-05-28T02:08:55Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-09-03","last_verified_at":"2026-10-24T10:26:04Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":149,"trust":{"level":"stale","repost_count":0,"flags":["stale"],"days_open":149},"description":"We’re Blue River, a team of innovators driven to create intelligent machinery that solves monumental problems for our customers. We empower our customers - farmers, construction crews, and foresters - to implement safer and more sustainable solutions, driving increased profitability with less reliance on scarce labor. We believe that focusing on the small stuff - pixel-by-pixel and task-by-task - leads to big gains. With our partners at John Deere, we have the ability to bring innovative computer vision, machine learning, robotics, and product management solutions to scale production, maximizing their potential impact.\nOur people are at the heart of what we do. Through cross-disciplinary collaboration, this mission-driven and daring team is eager to define the new frontier of mobile robotics. We are always asking hard questions, rapidly iterating, and getting our boots in the field and on-site to figure it out. We won’t give up until we’ve made a tangible and positive impact on the planet.\nSummary\nOur mission is to bring the power of E2E machine learning and robotics to John Deere, revolutionizing how robotic systems are built. We aim to open up previously inaccessible opportunities, delivering autonomy products that customers love.\nAs a Principal/Sr Principal RL Engineer, you will help grow and shape our E2E stack. This involves shaping the design of the E2E training and inference pipeline, both on- and off-vehicle and on- and off-prem. You will also help with new models and features. Our E2E team is lean and moving quickly. You should be comfortable and excited about working with ambiguity, helping define what will move the program forward, working across traditional boundaries, and learning new things.\nEmployment Type: Full-Time\nWork Location: Remote\nVisa sponsorship is available for this position. \nJob Responsibilities\nThe main job responsibilities include: \nDesign and implement state-of-the-art online and offline reinforcement learning algorithms for complex tasks with long horizons. \nFormulate reward models and exploration strategies that enable task performance and adherence to strict safety requirements. Enable flexible customer operation across a range of tasks with natural language instructions.\nEnhance policy robustness to challenges such as sensor noise, machine wear, and extreme environmental variability.\nDesign and conduct experiments; develop evaluation frameworks for simulation and real-world deployment.\nCollaborate closely with infrastructure engineers to design scalable E2E training systems, including large-scale simulation infrastructure.\nCollaborate with pretraining and robotics engineers to integrate RL seamlessly into the full E2E autonomy stack.\nDrive the E2E vision and act as an ambassador for an E2E-first organization.\nTechnical leadership and mentorship: serve as an in-house RL expert, elevating the team through code reviews, algorithmic guidance, and fostering a culture of rigorous scientific experimentation.\nStay up to date with the latest RL research and integrate advancements into our stack.\nRequired Experience and Skills\nPhD +3 or 5+ years of professional work experience delivering high-performance RL products professionally.\nProven track record in developing RL models. Prefer experience deploying to production for robotics and boosting key metrics. \nExpertise in developing simulation environments and tackling the sim-to-real transfer.\nExpertise in designing and developing software for complex systems.\nComfortable working on new hardware systems and working on new RL/ML/software problems.\nStrong Python coding skills and proficiency with deep learning frameworks like PyTorch.\nComfortable working across traditional team boundaries to deliver results.\nExcellent brainstorming, creative thinking, mathematical analysis, and communication skills.\nTrack record of regularly anticipating technical issues and making architectural and design decisions to avoid them.\nBS/MS/PhD in CS or related field.\nPreferred Experience and Skills\nExperience with robotics middleware such as ROS or other robotics-focused software packages.\nStrong CUDA background or other GPU frameworks.\nExperience in multidisciplinary environments. (We’ve got CS, CV/ML, EE, ME, etc.)\nHave worked on embedded systems.\nExperience with system architecture.\nAt Blue River, we’re passionate about creating an inclusive workplace that promotes and values diversity. While we have more work to do to advance diversity and inclusion, we’re investing in our programs, including recruiting, mentorship, career development, and learning & development to ensure they support our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion goals. We support each employee in living a full life, enabling a thriving career, and accomplishing a meaningful, challenging mission while collaborating with incredible people. We are dedicated to building a diverse and inclusive workplace, so if you’re excited about this role but your experience doesn’t align completely with the job description, we encourage you to apply anyway. \nWe are an equal-opportunity employer and do not discriminate based on race, religion, color, national origin, sex, gender, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, perform essential job functions, and receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us to request an accommodation. \nThe US annual base salary range for this position is $187,000 - $378,000, along with eligibility for Blue River’s bonus and benefit programs.\nOur salary ranges are determined by role, level, and location. Within the range, individual pay is determined by work location and additional factors, including job-related skills, experience, and relevant education or training. Your recruiter can share more about the specific salary range for your location during the hiring process. During the recruitment process, we may identify an alternative role or level to which you are more suited. If your ideal role at Blue River differs from the advertised position, we will provide an updated pay range as soon as possible during the hiring process.","description_format":"text","description_chars":6295,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":3,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":{"level":"bachelor","optional":false},"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":["Equity"],"hiring_locations":[],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["AgTech","Farm Machinery","Computer Vision","Agriculture AI"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-09-05T09:59:45Z"}],"visa":[{"country":"US","licensed_sponsor":true,"evidence":"H-1B filings in 12 months: 16 · green card filings: 9","filings_12m":16,"filings_prev_12m":23,"green_card_filings_12m":9,"median_offered_wage_usd":171700,"route":null,"cap_exempt":false,"checked_at":"2026-10-15T11:24:14+00:00","sources":["US Department of Labor: LCA disclosure data (H-1B, H-1B1, E-3)","US Department of Labor: PERM disclosure data (green cards)"],"filings_for_role_12m":0}],"liveness":{"score":11,"band":"cold","label":"Long shot","p_open":1,"p_active":0.402,"p_room":0.28,"age_days":149,"expected_fill_days":39,"reasons":["conf:4","velocity","win:tail","crowd:"],"computed_at":"2026-10-24T06:02:35Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":378000,"is_top_pay":true},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/blue-river-technology-principal-rl-engineer-e2e-autonomy","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/blue-river-technology-principal-rl-engineer-e2e-autonomy.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-24T12:07:36Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":17427,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-25T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":12147},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=12147"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fblue-river-technology-principal-rl-engineer-e2e-autonomy"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fblue-river-technology-principal-rl-engineer-e2e-autonomy"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fblue-river-technology-principal-rl-engineer-e2e-autonomy"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/blue-river-technology-principal-rl-engineer-e2e-autonomy\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fblue-river-technology-principal-rl-engineer-e2e-autonomy"}]}