Founding Engineer - ML, Computer Vision and software

Nyad (Headquarters: Birmingham, AL)

ML Computer Vision Full-Stack Backend Frontend Python PyTorch TensorFlow Biology Wastewater Startup Techstars Azure Docker GitHub Actions CI/CD Image Segmentation Image Classification AI Engineer Full Stack Engineer Back End Engineer Front End Engineer

Help us keep water clean. Literally. Join this Techstars backed startup.

Nyad is on a mission to modernise how the world manages industrial wastewater. Across thousands of factories and treatment plants, operators are manually inspecting microbes under microscopes making critical decisions for billions of bacteria that clean our water. When things go wrong, they really go wrong: bugs die, pollution spikes, and companies spend big on emergency chemicals.

We’re building software tools that empower operators with real-time insights combining image-based analysis, process recommendations, and AI-driven models of microbial health. It’s biology meets machine learning, in one of the least digitised but most essential sectors on Earth.

**Why This Role Matters**

You’ll be Nyad's first technical hire. A founding engineer who will help shape the product, company, and culture from the ground up. You’ll work directly with the founders to turn prototypes into scalable, operator-ready tools.

This is a cross-disciplinary role. You’ll lead full-stack development and also own early-stage computer vision work. Responsible for building systems that can identify and classify microorganisms in microscope images. You won’t be handed perfect datasets. You’ll help collect, clean, and learn from them in the wild.

**What You’ll Do**

*   Build core product features for Nyad’s web app, including image upload flows, admin tools, and process feedback loops
*   Own model training including labelling and experimentation for image segmentation and classification of microbial species (especially in PyTorch, TensorFlow, or similar)
*   Collaborate closely with microbiologists, wastewater operators, and engineers to understand real-world constraints
*   Deploy, test, and iterate in fast feedback loops with our pilot customers
*   Shape technical strategy, from data pipelines to infrastructure decisions

**You Might Be a Fit If You…**

*   Are a full-stack generalist who can ship quickly and handle ambiguity
*   Have hands-on experience training and deploying computer vision models
*   Are comfortable working with imperfect datasets, or low-data regimes
*   Have built products end-to-end from frontend components to cloud deployment
*   Can move fast without cutting corners on code quality, security, or reliability
*   Are excited by mission-driven work and want your code to have an impact

**Bonus Points**

*   Experience with environmental engineering, scientific imaging, environmental data, or ML in the life sciences
*   Familiarity with Azure, Docker, GitHub Actions, or CI/CD for cloud deployments
*   Previous startup experience—or a strong desire to be in that world

**What We Offer**

*   A founder-level seat at the table—your decisions will shape the product and company
*   Equity that reflects your impact (Stock options)
*   Direct exposure to cutting-edge environmental innovation and industrial customers
*   A chance to build something that actually matters