Engineering Manager, Machine Learning (Caper)

Instacart is hiring an Engineering Manager, Machine Learning and Computer Vision to lead a team developing perception, multimodal understanding, and edge inference systems for AI-powered shopping carts. The role involves building platforms and models to improve recognition accuracy, latency, and reliability in retail environments.

Location: Remote (Canada)

Salary: $201,000—$253,000 USD (depending on location)

Responsibilities

• Lead and grow a team of ~10 ML, CV and AI infrastructure engineers building perception and reasoning systems for Caper Carts.
• Define the technical vision, roadmap, and success metrics for cart perception and multimodal understanding; prioritize work that drives measurable gains in item recognition accuracy, checkout speed, and system reliability.
• Architect scalable training, data, and inference platforms on GCP using Ray, Kubernetes, and modern MLOps practices to enable rapid experimentation and safe, repeatable deployments.
• Deliver production-grade CV/VLM models for multi-camera item detection, weighing, and basket reasoning; optimize on-device inference for low-latency, high-availability operation at the edge.
• Build the data flywheel end-to-end—instrumentation, labeling, evaluation, offline/online testing, and monitoring—to continuously improve performance across diverse store conditions.
• Collaborate cross-functionally with Android, hardware, product, design, operations, and retailer partners; communicate risks, tradeoffs, and timelines clearly in a fast-paced, ever-evolving environment.

Requirements

• 8+ years of experience building and deploying machine learning systems, with a strong focus on computer vision in production environments.
• 2+ years of experience managing teams of 6+ ML/CV/AI engineers, including hiring, performance management, and career development.
• Hands-on expertise with computer vision, deep learning (e.g., PyTorch), model training/evaluation, and MLOps practices for reliable CI/CD of ML services.
• Proven experience architecting and operating ML infrastructure on GCP (e.g., GKE, Vertex AI, BigQuery) and distributed training/inference with Ray; containerization with Docker and orchestration with Kubernetes.
• Experience delivering real-time edge inference, including model optimization (e.g., TensorRT, ONNX, quantization) and monitoring for latency, throughput, and accuracy.
• Proficiency in Python and SQL, with a track record of shipping end-to-end CV systems including data pipelines, experimentation, deployment, and post-launch iteration.
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Electrical/Computer Engineering, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.

Benefits

• Highly market-competitive compensation and benefits.
• Eligible for a new hire equity grant as well as annual refresh grants.
• Remote work with location-dependent pay ranges.

Additional Information

• This role is remote across Canada; West Coast time zones are ideal, but open to talent anywhere in the country.
• Learn more about the work at Connecting stores from edge to cloud: reinventing retail with physical AI.