Senior Software Engineer, Video Analytics

Zipdev is recruiting for an unnamed client seeking a hands-on Senior Backend Engineer. The role focuses on building scalable backend systems and deploying machine learning or computer vision capabilities in production, including video analytics applications.

Responsibilities:

• Design, build, and maintain scalable backend systems using Elixir and Python
• Develop and support production systems that integrate machine learning or computer vision capabilities
• Build and maintain infrastructure for real-world applications such as object detection, people or vehicle detection, cross-camera tracking, and video analytics
• Collaborate with engineering and product teams to bring ML/CV capabilities into reliable production environments
• Own technical decisions, implementation, testing, and deployment as a hands-on individual contributor
• Troubleshoot performance, reliability, and scalability challenges across backend and ML-enabled systems

Requirements:

• Proven experience shipping at least one machine learning or computer vision system into a real-world production environment, either on edge devices or in the cloud
• At least 4 years of experience as a hands-on individual contributor backend engineer at a Series A-D startup, as a full-time employee
• Production experience with Elixir or another functional programming language, such as Scala, Haskell, Clojure, OCaml, F#, or Erlang
• Strong backend development experience, with the ability to design, build, and maintain production-grade systems
• Comfortable working independently, solving complex engineering problems, and contributing directly to code
• Must currently reside in the United States and be either a US citizen or Green Card holder. Visa-based work authorization is not eligible
• Candidates must demonstrate a combination of real-world production ML/CV deployment, hands-on backend engineering at a Series A-D startup, and functional programming experience
• All three are essential
• Pure AI researchers, PhD-focused research profiles, LLM-only experience, or candidates whose experience is primarily training models from scratch. These backgrounds do not substitute for shipping computer vision systems into production
• Elixir developers without demonstrated experience deploying an ML or computer vision system into production
• Consultants, freelancers, former founders/CTOs, or candidates without the required full-time startup employee experience
• Candidates whose experience is primarily in government, defense, or heavily regulated environments, including organizations such as Booz Allen Hamilton, Lockheed Martin, Anduril, Palantir, and Raytheon
• Candidates from research-heavy autonomous vehicle teams, including Waymo and Zoox
• Managers and executives who are no longer hands-on engineers
• Production computer vision experience is a non-negotiable requirement
• Strong Elixir experience alone is not sufficient