ML Engineer Visa Sponsorship Jobs in Colorado
Colorado's ML engineer job market is anchored by Denver's growing tech sector, Boulder's AI research community, and employers like Lockheed Martin, Arrow Electronics, and a dense cluster of health-tech and aerospace startups. Many of these companies have active visa sponsorship programs, making Colorado one of the more accessible states for international ML engineers.
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INTRODUCTION
Are you passionate about shaping the future of humanity's presence in space? Lunar Outpost, a trailblazer in space robotics, invites you to join our team! Lunar Outpost is dedicated to creating a sustainable presence in space, while also driving positive impacts here on Earth. We are seeking a talented Senior Autonomy Machine Learning Engineer.
ROLE AND RESPONSIBILITIES
As a Senior Autonomy Machine Learning Engineer, you will research, develop, train, evaluate, and deploy machine learning models for Lunar Outpost’s lunar rovers, command-and-control platforms, terrestrial robotic systems, and orbital assets. Working at the intersection of robotics, autonomy, AI, and space exploration, you will develop technologies that enable robotic systems to perceive their environment, interpret operator intent, reason about mission objectives, generate plans, and safely execute complex tasks with reduced operator oversight. Your work will include transformer-based architectures, vision-language models, multimodal foundation models, robot learning, and intelligent planning and decision-support systems. You will help build datasets, evaluation frameworks, software infrastructure, and deployment pipelines that support applications ranging from natural-language vehicle control to onboard reasoning, anomaly detection, mission summarization, and multi-robot supervision. You will collaborate closely with robotics, software, simulation, and command-and-control engineering teams to transition emerging AI research into reliable capabilities.
Take the #NextLeap with Lunar Outpost and work on the Pegasus LTV, which will carry NASA astronauts farther than they've ever been before on the lunar surface!
Key Responsibilities:
- Research, design, train, fine-tune, and evaluate transformer-based machine learning architectures for autonomous robotic and command-and-control applications
- Develop vision-language-action models, vision-language models, and other multimodal models that connect operator intent and sensor observations to robot plans and actions
- Build capabilities for natural-language command interpretation, task decomposition, mission planning, action generation, operator decision support, and autonomous task execution
- Develop human-robot teaming capabilities that enable operators to efficiently supervise and command multiple robotic assets
- Create systems for mission summarization, anomaly detection, situational awareness, course-of-action generation, and operator-reviewable recommendations
- Integrate machine learning models with robotic platforms, simulation environments, command-and-control software, and autonomy frameworks
- Conduct hardware-in-the-loop tests, field tests, and structured demonstrations to validate capabilities under realistic operating conditions
- Participate in design reviews, trade studies, technical risk assessments, test-readiness reviews, and demonstrations
BASIC QUALIFICATIONS
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience
- 3 to 5 years of relevant professional, academic, or research experience developing machine learning systems, autonomous systems, or intelligent robotic applications
- Experience developing and evaluating deep learning models using Python and a modern machine learning framework such as PyTorch, JAX, or TensorFlow
- Experience in at least one of the following areas:
- Vision-language models or multimodal foundation models
- Robot learning, imitation learning, or reinforcement learning
- Natural-language planning, tool use, or agentic systems
- Autonomous planning, reasoning, or task execution
- Experience preparing datasets, implementing training pipelines, defining evaluation metrics, and analyzing model performance
- Strong software engineering skills, including experience writing maintainable and testable software
- Experience with Linux-based development environments, Git, and collaborative software development workflows
- Ability to translate research concepts into working prototypes and evaluate those prototypes against measurable system objectives
- Ability to communicate complex technical concepts, experimental results, limitations, and risks to multidisciplinary teams
- Comfortable working in a research-oriented, agile, and interdisciplinary environment where requirements and technical approaches may evolve rapidly
- U.S. Person
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
- Master’s degree or Ph.D. in Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, Computer Science, or a related field
- Experience developing or fine-tuning VLMs, VLAs, large language models, or multimodal transformer architectures
- Experience with robot foundation models, action tokenization, multimodal policy learning, hierarchical policies, or language-conditioned control
- Experience applying supervised fine-tuning, parameter-efficient fine-tuning, preference optimization, imitation learning, or reinforcement learning to foundation models
- Experience with robotics middleware and autonomy frameworks such as ROS2
- Experience integrating learned models with robot perception, planning, control, or command-and-control systems
- A record of technical innovation demonstrated through deployed systems, open-source contributions, publications, patents, or significant project achievements
COMPENSATION & BENEFITS
Compensation level and base salary are competitively structured and thoughtfully determined based on factors such as relevant skills, experience, education, and the scope of the role.
- Comprehensive health coverage: Medical, dental, and vision benefits, with 70% of premiums covered by the employer
- Paid time off: Three (3) weeks per year of vacation
- Retirement plan: Up to 4% employer match on 401(k) contributions
- Paid holidays: 11 company-recognized holidays
- Parental leave
- Educational reimbursement opportunities to support company objectives, continued learning, and career development
Lunar Outpost Inc. is an equal opportunity employer. Lunar Outpost Inc. does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation, and gender identity), national origin, ethnicity, age, disability, veteran status, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law. All employees, including executives and human resources personnel, are expected to conduct themselves with professionalism and treat others with dignity and respect in accordance with this policy.
ML Engineer Job Roles in Colorado
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Search ML Engineer Jobs in ColoradoML Engineer Jobs in Colorado: Frequently Asked Questions
Which companies sponsor visas for ML engineers in Colorado?
Several large employers in Colorado have consistent track records of sponsoring work visas for ML engineers. These include Lockheed Martin and Raytheon in the aerospace and defense sector, Arrow Electronics and Palantir in data and enterprise tech, and health-tech companies like DaVita and Centura Health. Boulder-based startups in the AI and SaaS space also sponsor, though less predictably than established firms.
Which visa types are most common for ML engineer roles in Colorado?
The H-1B visa is the most common visa for ML engineers in Colorado, as the role typically qualifies as a specialty occupation requiring at least a bachelor's degree in computer science, mathematics, or a related field. Candidates from Canada or Mexico may also qualify for the TN visa under the NAFTA/USMCA 'Computer Systems Analyst' or 'Mathematician' categories. Australian nationals should explore the E-3 visa, which has no lottery and far shorter wait times than the H-1B visa.
Which cities in Colorado have the most ML engineer sponsorship jobs?
Denver and Boulder account for the majority of ML engineer visa sponsorship activity in Colorado. Denver's tech corridor along the I-25 corridor hosts large enterprise employers and defense contractors. Boulder is home to NCAR, University of Colorado research spinouts, and a dense startup community with AI and machine learning focus. Colorado Springs also has opportunities, primarily tied to defense and aerospace.
How to find ml engineer visa sponsorship jobs in Colorado?
Migrate Mate is built specifically for international candidates looking for visa sponsorship roles, including ML engineer positions in Colorado. You can filter by state and role to see employers who have sponsored visas before, which saves significant time compared to applying blindly. Given Colorado's mix of defense contractors, health-tech firms, and AI startups, Migrate Mate helps you identify which segment of the market is actively hiring sponsored candidates.
Are there any Colorado-specific factors ML engineers should know about before applying?
Colorado's Equal Pay for Equal Work Act requires employers to disclose pay ranges in job postings, which gives international candidates useful data when evaluating whether an offer meets H-1B prevailing wage requirements. The University of Colorado system and Colorado State University also produce a steady pipeline of ML talent, meaning competition for sponsored roles can be strong. Candidates with published research or experience in aerospace AI, geospatial ML, or healthcare data have a natural advantage with Colorado's dominant employers in those sectors.
What is the prevailing wage for sponsored ml engineer jobs in Colorado?
U.S. employers sponsoring a visa must pay at least the prevailing wage, which is what workers in the same role, area, and experience level typically earn. The Department of Labor sets this rate to make sure companies aren't hiring foreign workers simply because they'd accept lower pay than a U.S. worker. It varies by job title, location, and experience. You can look up current prevailing wage rates for any occupation and location using the OFLC Wage Search page.