Staff Machine Learning Engineer (Autonomy)

San Francisco, Houston + 1 more

About the role

About Mariana Minerals

Mariana Minerals is a software-first, vertically integrated minerals company on a mission to supply the critical minerals powering modern energy, AI, and defense technologies. We’re reimagining the minerals supply chain by combining deep industry expertise with advanced software, automation, and data-driven decision-making.

Role Overview

We are hiring Machine Learning Engineers (Autonomy) to build the autonomy and sensor-integration software that lets our mining vehicles perceive, decide, and drive themselves.

In this role you will own parts of the software and sensor integration that enables full mining autonomy — sensor fusion across LiDAR, cameras, radar, and IMU/GNSS; perception, localization, and mapping; and the autonomy stack that turns sensing into safe vehicle motion. You will carry work from architecture and algorithm design through implementation, simulation, and bench and field validation, working hand in hand with our hardware, controls, and systems-engineering teams. This is a hands-on, first-principles role for an engineer who wants to develop the world’s first fully autonomous mines.

What You’ll Do

  • Develop autonomy software for autonomous mining vehicles focusing on one or more area: perception, SLAM, motion planning, and control

  • Integrate and calibrate the sensing suite (LiDAR, cameras, radar, IMU, GNSS), implementing sensor fusion and time synchronization robust to dust, vibration, and corrosion-heavy mining environments

  • Build and maintain embedded and real-time software that bridges sensing, compute, and actuation, with attention to safety, latency, and reliability

  • Develop simulation, logging, and data pipelines to test autonomy behavior and drive performance against safety and availability targets

  • Lead bench, rig, and field validation of the autonomy stack, debugging across the full software-hardware boundary

  • Collaborate with hardware and controls engineers to integrate sensing, compute, and actuation into a complete vehicle

What You’ll Bring

  • Bachelor's degree in Mechatronics, Robotics, Computer Science, Electrical, or related engineering discipline

  • 5-10+ years developing autonomy, robotics, or embedded software, ideally for mobile robots or vehicles

  • Strong proficiency in C++ and/or Python, and with a robotics middleware such as ROS/ROS 2

  • Hands-on experience with sensor integration and fusion - LiDAR, cameras, radar, IMU, GNSS - and with perception, localization, or motion-planning algorithms

  • Working knowledge of real-time and embedded systems, and of the controls and software-hardware integration that drive actuation

  • Experience in autonomous vehicles, robotics, automotive, or off-highway equipment strongly preferred

Our culture is built on four principles:

Everyone Gets Home Safe. We never put speed or cost ahead of people.

Extreme Ownership. We take full responsibility for outcomes, relentlessly driving toward solutions.

Engineer Out Requirements, then Automate. We simplify, optimize, and then automate for scale.

Share Your Legos. We collaborate openly, share knowledge, and empower each other to build bigger, better solutions.

Join us as we build the future of responsible mineral sourcing and supply!

About Mariana Minerals

Mariana Minerals is a software-first, vertically integrated minerals company focused on supplying the minerals critical to modern energy, AI, and defense technologies. It engineers, builds, and operates mines and refineries using its proprietary MarianaOS platform, which integrates capital project execution, refinery operations, and mine management into a single AI and machine learning stack. The company targets domestic U.S. critical mineral supply for sectors facing supply chain vulnerabilities, including copper and lithium.

Other roles at Mariana Minerals

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Job details

Location

San Francisco, Houston + 1 more

Company

NameMariana Minerals
IndustryArtificial Intelligence (AI)
Team Size3

Funding

Total raised

$400M

Last stage

Series A

Investors

a16z

Founders

TC

Turner Caldwell

CEO & Co-Founder

LinkedIn
JL

Juan Lozano

Co-Founder & CTO

BT

Baker Tilney

Co-Founder & CFO

LinkedIn

What happens next.

No applications, no recruiter spam. Just the intro.

01

Confirm the fit

A few questions to make sure this role is the right shape for you. Two minutes.

02

I pitch you to the company

I write the intro, send it to the founder, and handle the back-and-forth.

03

A meeting lands on your calendar

If they’re a yes, I book the chat. You show up — that’s the whole job-hunt.