Sensor Fusion & Computer Vision Founding-Team Role · Flynetics Systems

Senior AI/ML Scientist / AI Research Lead — Sensor Fusion & Computer Vision

Founding-Team Role · Flynetics Systems Kolkata (full-time) or Remote, anywhere in India

Build the AI core of an autonomous inspection platform for defence, energy, and critical infrastructure. Flynetics Systems is a DPIIT-recognised deep-tech company building autonomous inspection technology - drones, robotic crawlers, multi-sensor payloads and AI that turns raw sensor data into engineering-grade structural intelligence. We're revenue-generating, field-tested with defence and energy customers, and now building the core AI team that will define the company's next stage. We're hiring the person who will own the science and architecture behind our multi-modal sensor-fusion engine. This is a founding-team role for someone who wants to build serious, defensible AI — not dashboards, not API wrappers around open-source models.

The problem you'll own The hard, defensible problem is multi-modal sensor fusion for structural inspection. Our platform captures different sensor streams from the same physical asset — visual, thermal, ultrasonic, and spectral — which arrive at different resolutions, sampling rates and noise levels, and mean different physical things. The genuinely difficult parts are registering and aligning those streams spatially and temporally, fusing them at the feature level, and producing real structural intelligence: defect severity, physical risk, remaining-useful-life, and actionable maintenance decisions grounded in engineering standards. This is not image classification. The goal isn't to spot an object in a photo — it's to determine the structural state of a real asset. Where ideal proprietary data is still being built, you'll be comfortable using public datasets, synthetic data, simulation and transfer learning — while staying honest about what's proven, what's simulated, and what still needs validation.

What you'll do

• Design the multi-modal fusion architecture across visual, thermal, ultrasonic, spectral and time-series data.
• Build defect detection, classification and severity models grounded in engineering risk, not just model confidence.
• Develop degradation, anomaly-detection and remaining-useful-life models.
• Define the synthetic-data, simulation and augmentation strategy for training at scale.
• Build the evaluation, benchmarking and validation frameworks the work is measured against.
• Help shape Flynetics' long-term AI IP and technical roadmap.

Who we're looking for A PhD, postdoc, final-year doctoral candidate, senior ML engineer, applied research scientist — or an exceptional Master's-level builder with serious depth. Depth in two or more of: multi-modal AI / sensor fusion; computer vision for industrial, scientific, drone or robotic imagery; thermal, spectral or NDT data; time-series modelling, anomaly detection or degradation modelling; physics-informed ML; representation learning; structural health monitoring or predictive maintenance; robotics perception or autonomous inspection. Strong in Python and modern deep-learning frameworks, with sound instincts for data preprocessing, model evaluation and experiment design — and able to explain complex ideas clearly. Exposure to defence, aerospace, energy, drones, robotics, NDT or industrial inspection is a strong plus, but not mandatory if the ML depth is exceptional. We are not looking for someone who only wants to publish papers, nor someone who only wants to wrap APIs around open-source models. We want the rare person who can think deeply and build seriously, under imperfect data and real deadlines.

Location Full-time roles are based in Kolkata. We're open to remote candidates anywhere in India for the right person. We're also open to an initial advisory or part-time engagement that converts to full-time, if the fit is strong.

What we offer

• A founding-team seat with ownership of the core AI architecture.
• Meaningful equity, and cash compensation based on stage, fit and commitment.
• Direct access to real field problems in defence, energy and critical infrastructure.
• A small, focused team where your work directly shapes the company's future.

To apply Send your CV or LinkedIn profile and one piece of work that best represents your technical depth — thesis, paper, repository, project, model or deployed system. And answer this briefly:

how would you approach fusing two different sensor streams — say visual and thermal — into a single structural assessment of an asset? We care more about how you think than about a polished answer. Apply via LinkedIn or email

dipanshu.sinha@flynetics.com — subject line

Senior AI/ML Scientist — [Your Name] .