Part-Time Student - Robotics Engineer - Ames, IA or Urbandale, IA

The Part-Time Student Program is designed to augment the Company’s regular full-time staff and is for students who work in parallel to their school schedule year-round.

About the role

As a Part-Time Student Robotics Engineer for John Deere located in Ames, IA, or Urbandale, IA, you will design, develop, and optimize robotics, perception, and AI technologies that enable automation and autonomy solutions for John Deere products.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and optimize robotics, perception, and AI technologies that enable automation and autonomy solutions for John Deere products.
• Develop production-quality software and algorithms for deployment on real-time edge-compute platforms.
• Research, develop, and evaluate computer vision, machine learning, and deep learning algorithms for perception and decision-making systems.
• Develop and train multi-modal AI models using camera imagery, machine telemetry, CAN signals, and other sensor data.
• Develop synthetic data generation and simulation workflows to improve model robustness and reduce data collection costs.
• Collaborate with CVML, robotics, software, systems, and product engineering teams to integrate perception capabilities into John Deere platforms.

Requirements

• Pursuing a Bachelor's, Master's, or PhD degree in: Computer Science, Robotics, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Machine Learning/Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, Applied Mathematics; other fields may apply.
• Strong programming skills in Python and/or C++.
• Experience with machine learning and deep learning frameworks such as PyTorch or TensorFlow.
• Experience with computer vision libraries such as OpenCV.
• Understanding of machine learning fundamentals, neural networks, and model development workflows.
• Experience working with real-world data through academic projects, internships, research, or personal projects.
• Strong communication and collaboration skills.
• Ability to work independently while contributing effectively within a multidisciplinary team.
• Graduation date of May 2027 or later.
• Available to work during the academic year (16-20 hours weekly).
• Available to work during the summer semester (30-40 hours weekly).
• Must be registered as a full-time student at a U.S./local accredited university/college.
• Cumulative GPA of 2.8 or above.
• Must be able to be onsite at the work location in Urbandale, IA during the summer semester on a daily basis OR onsite at the John Deere Ames Research Park during the school year.
• This position is not available to students on immigration visas.

Skills

• Hands-on experience developing computer vision, machine learning, perception, or robotics solutions.
• Experience with foundation models, generative AI, large vision-language models, or multimodal learning.
• Experience with 3D perception, structure-from-motion, neural rendering, Gaussian Splatting, NeRFs, SLAM, or mapping technologies.
• Strong mathematical background in linear algebra, probability, optimization, and statistics.
• Passion for innovation, autonomous systems, robotics, and solving real-world customer problems.

Benefits

• Flexible work arrangements
• Highly competitive base pay
• Savings & Retirement benefits (401K and Defined Benefit Pension)
• Healthcare benefits with a generous company contribution in the Health Savings Account
• Adoption assistance
• Employee Assistance Programs
• Tuition assistance
• Fitness subsidies and on-site gyms at specific Deere locations
• Charitable contribution match
• Employee Purchase Plan & numerous discount programs for personal use
• Vacation and Holiday Pay

Pay

$15 - $40 hourly based on published rates for business function and education level.

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