Computer Vision Engineer
Role description
Senior Embedded Software Engineer, Real-Time Computer Vision & Robotics (Utrecht)
KEY POINTS
- Full time, mostly on site in Utrecht with 1 to 2 days remote
- Real time computer vision on deployed autonomous robots, not simulation or research
- C++ close to the hardware, cameras, GPS, embedded compute, sensor fusion
- Technical leadership role, you will own the vision and perception software and shape the direction as the team grows
- 7 plus years experience preferred, they want someone who gives the tasks rather than just does them
- Salary up to €90,000
ABOUT THE CLIENT
A Dutch robotics scale up building autonomous laser weeding robots for agriculture. Real machines, already operating in fields with paying growers across the Netherlands, mostly organic vegetable and flower bulb farms.
Instead of chemicals, the robot uses cameras to detect weeds in real time and a laser to destroy them. Over 3 million weeds eliminated so far, covering around 1.3 hectares per day with a 91% weed reduction rate. The technology is proven and commercially deployed, this is not a research project.
Small engineering team with serious technical depth and a clear product market fit. You would be joining at the stage where the product works and needs to scale.
THE ROLE, SENIOR EMBEDDED SOFTWARE ENGINEER
Hands on senior engineering role owning the computer vision, perception and navigation software on the robot.
The core engineering challenge is a hard real time vision problem. The robot needs to distinguish weed from crop in a fraction of a second, decide where to fire the laser, and do all of that while autonomously navigating the row using GPS-RTK. Cameras, real time processing and navigation all running together on the machine in outdoor field conditions.
You will take technical leadership of this area and be the person the team looks to for direction as they grow.
WHAT THEY MEAN BY SENIOR
Worth being direct about this because it shapes who they want to speak to.
They are looking for someone with genuine depth close to the hardware. Not someone who trains models in a notebook and hands them off, but someone who builds the real time software that runs on the robot, integrates the cameras and sensors, and makes the whole pipeline work reliably in production.
Technical leadership matters. They want someone who can assess a problem, define the approach, and bring others along, not someone who needs the architecture handed to them.
7 plus years is a guide rather than a hard line, but the seniority needs to be real. They have passed on strong candidates who were too early in their career for the ownership this role demands.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
- Own the real time computer vision pipeline, weed detection, classification and targeting
- Own the navigation and perception software, GPS-RTK, path planning, row following
- Integrate cameras, sensors and compute hardware into a reliable production system
- Architect and maintain the embedded software stack on the robot
- Take technical leadership as the engineering team scales
- Contribute to the full product lifecycle from prototyping through field deployment
- Debug and optimise software running on real machines in real outdoor conditions
ESSENTIAL EXPERIENCE
- Strong commercial C++ in real time or performance critical environments
- Computer vision or image processing, detection, classification, segmentation or similar
- Experience working close to hardware, cameras, sensors, embedded compute
- Production deployment experience, software you built running on real hardware in real conditions
DESIRABLE, NOT ESSENTIAL
- ROS or ROS2
- Jetson, TensorRT, CUDA or similar edge compute platforms
- Agricultural robotics, field robotics or outdoor autonomous systems
- Sensor fusion, GPS-RTK, navigation or path planning
- OpenCV, PyTorch or TensorFlow in a deployment context
WHAT'S ON OFFER
- Salary up to €90,000
- Mostly on site in Utrecht with 1 to 2 days remote flexibility
- A deployed product with real customers and genuine commercial traction
- Technical ownership and influence over the direction of a growing engineering team
- Work that has a direct environmental impact, replacing chemical herbicides with precision robotics
