Job Description

🚀 Role Overview

This is a senior AI / computer vision engineering position focused on building real-world AI systems across:

• Retail analytics
• Manufacturing quality control
• Supply chain optimization
• Consumer insights
• Visual intelligence products

It sits inside PepsiCo’s global digital transformation / AI roadmap, which means:

👉 Strong business impact
👉 Enterprise-scale deployment
👉 Cross-functional collaboration

Location: Plano, Texas (on-site / hybrid depending on team).

🧠 What You’ll Actually Do

1️⃣ Build Computer Vision Systems End-to-End

You will design and deploy:

• Object detection models
• Image classification systems
• Segmentation pipelines
• Video analytics solutions
• Visual search / OCR systems

This is production AI, not just research.

2️⃣ Work Across the ML Lifecycle

Responsibilities include:

• Data preparation with engineers
• Model training & experimentation
• Deployment & optimization
• Monitoring & KPI definition
• MLOps collaboration

So this role is closer to ML Engineer + CV Scientist hybrid.

3️⃣ Drive Innovation & Standards

Senior expectations:

• Create reusable libraries
• Define best practices
• Mentor team members
• Influence AI adoption strategy

This means leadership without being a people manager.

4️⃣ Collaborate With Business Teams

Important difference vs academia:

You’ll interact with:

• Product owners
• Manufacturing teams
• Retail operations
• Supply chain leaders

So business communication matters a lot.

🔬 Technical Stack & Expertise

Core Computer Vision Knowledge

Models mentioned:

• CNNs: ResNet, EfficientNet, MobileNet
• Vision Transformers: ViT, Swin
• Detection: YOLO, Faster R-CNN, DETR
• Segmentation: U-Net, Mask R-CNN, SAM

This signals a modern deep learning CV environment.

Tools & Frameworks

Languages:

• Python (primary)
• Java (optional)

Libraries:

• OpenCV
• PyTorch / TensorFlow
• TorchVision
• Detectron2
• MMDetection
• Albumentations

Deployment:

• ONNX
• TensorRT
• Quantization
• Edge deployment

Cloud:

• AWS / Azure / GCP
• Azure DevOps CI/CD

Bonus Skills (Very Valuable)

• Multimodal AI (CLIP, GPT-4V)
• NLP + GenAI
• Responsible AI
• FAIR data practices

This shows PepsiCo is moving toward foundation models & multimodal AI.

📊 Experience Level Expected

Minimum:

• 4+ years hands-on CV experience

Ideal:

• 6+ years
• Proven business impact

Education:

• Master’s required
• PhD preferred

So this is a true Senior Engineer (L4-L5 equivalent).

💰 Compensation

Base Salary:

$89,000 — $149,000

Plus:

• 10% annual bonus
• Benefits
• PTO
• Retirement plan

Compared to tech companies, this salary is moderate but:

✅ Stable company
✅ Good work-life balance
✅ Enterprise experience

🏭 Real-World Use Case Examples

You might build systems like:

• Shelf product recognition in stores
• Defect detection on production lines
• Package tracking automation
• Demand forecasting using visual signals
• Consumer behavior analysis via images/videos

This is applied AI with physical-world impact, which is very valuable experience.

🏆 Career Value

Strong career benefits:

✅ Enterprise AI deployment experience
✅ Production CV expertise
✅ Cross-industry exposure
✅ Leadership credibility
✅ Transition path to Big Tech or startups

After this role you could move into:

• Principal ML Engineer
• AI Architect
• Computer Vision Lead
• Head of AI
• Robotics / autonomous systems companies

🆚 Compared to Data Scientist Roles

Feature	This Role	Typical Data Scientist
Modeling Depth	Very High	Medium
Engineering	High	Medium
Business Impact	High	Medium
Math Complexity	High	Medium
Coding	Heavy	Moderate
Research	Moderate-High	Low-Moderate

This is more engineering-heavy than most data science jobs.

⭐ Difficulty Level

This is not beginner friendly.

Strong candidates usually have:

• Research publications OR
• Production CV deployments OR
• Deep learning specialization

👍 Who Should Apply

Great fit if you:

✔ Love deep learning & vision
✔ Want real-world AI deployment
✔ Enjoy engineering challenges
✔ Have PyTorch experience
✔ Want stable big-company environment

Not ideal if you:

❌ Prefer business analytics
❌ Want pure research role
❌ Don’t enjoy coding heavily

⭐ Honest Market Assessment

This is a solid senior AI role, but compensation is lower than:

• FAANG
• Top startups
• Quant firms

However, experience value is high.