Contract Machine Learning Startup Jobs in Houston, TX

At Bot Auto, we are revolutionizing the transportation of goods through autonomous trucking. With the agility of a startup and the experience of a team that has achieved numerous industry firsts, we build technology that connects autonomous vehicles, cloud infrastructure, data, machine learning, and real-world fleet operations.

We are looking for curious and motivated software engineers to help build the systems that make autonomous trucking possible.

Depending on your interests, experience, and business needs, you may work on one or more areas, including:

• Full-stack and operational applications
• Distributed systems and backend services
• Developer and core infrastructure platforms
• Data processing and workflow orchestration
• Machine learning infrastructure
• Simulation and evaluation applications
• Build, release, and deployment tooling

You do not need prior experience in every area. We are looking for engineers with strong fundamentals, an eagerness to learn, and the ability to solve practical problems collaboratively. You will work alongside experienced engineers and develop expertise through real projects that directly support our autonomous vehicles and operations.

• Design, implement, test, and maintain software features under the guidance of experienced engineers.
• Build user-facing applications, backend services, APIs, data pipelines, or internal engineering tools.
• Develop responsive web interfaces using technologies such as React and TypeScript.
• Build backend services and workflow automation, primarily using Python and, where appropriate, Go.
• Work with databases, event-driven systems, and real-time data to connect applications, infrastructure, and autonomous vehicle operations.
• Contribute to platforms supporting areas such as fleet operations, simulation, machine learning, data processing, CI/CD, and software deployment.
• Debug software issues and help improve system reliability, performance, usability, and observability.
• Write clean, maintainable, well-tested, and well-documented code.
• Participate in code reviews, technical discussions, testing, deployment, and production support.
• Collaborate with engineers, product managers, autonomy teams, and operations teams to translate real-world needs into dependable software.
• Learn new technologies and engineering practices as your responsibilities grow.

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.
• 0-3 years of professional software engineering experience. New graduates with strong academic, internship, open-source, or personal project experience are encouraged to apply.
• Programming proficiency in at least one general-purpose language, preferably Python, Go, JavaScript/TypeScript, Java, or C++.
• Solid understanding of software engineering fundamentals, including data structures, algorithms, debugging, testing, and source control.
• Ability to break down problems, learn unfamiliar systems, and deliver well-scoped work.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Collaborative mindset, attention to detail, and willingness to receive and apply feedback.

Experience in one or more of the following areas is helpful but not required:

• Full-stack web development using React, TypeScript, and modern frontend tooling.
• Backend service or API development using Python or Go.
• SQL or NoSQL databases.
• Distributed systems, asynchronous processing, or event-driven architectures.
• Data processing, batch workflows, or workflow orchestration systems.
• Machine learning pipelines, model evaluation, experiment tracking, annotation, or dataset management.
• Simulation, visualization, geospatial applications, or real-time operational interfaces.
• Docker, Kubernetes, or cloud platforms such as AWS.
• CI/CD systems, build tools, package management, or developer productivity tooling.
• Streaming and messaging technologies such as NATS, Kafka, MQTT, or WebSockets.
• Observability tools such as metrics, logging, tracing, dashboards, or alerting.
• Autonomous vehicles, robotics, transportation, logistics, or other systems that interact with the physical world.

• Strong engineering fundamentals over familiarity with a particular technology stack.
• Demonstrated ability to build, debug, or improve working software.
• Curiosity about how systems work across application, infrastructure, and operational boundaries.
• Ownership of your work while knowing when to ask for help.
• Thoughtful consideration of reliability, usability, maintainability, and real-world impact.
• Interest in growing into a versatile engineer who can contribute across multiple technical domains.

At Bot Auto, engineers are not limited to isolated tasks. You will contribute to production systems, learn from experienced teammates, and have opportunities to explore different engineering areas as the company and your career grow.