Freelance Machine Vision Engineer Jobs in Illinois

Company Overview

At Motorola Solutions, we believe that everything starts with our people. We're a global close-knit community, united by the relentless pursuit to help keep people safer everywhere. We build and connect technologies to help protect people, property and places. Our solutions foster the collaboration that's critical for safer communities, safer schools, safer hospitals, safer businesses, and ultimately, safer nations. Connect with a career that matters, and help us build a safer future.

Department OverviewMotorola Solutions' innovations, products, and services play essential roles in people's lives. Our end-to-end suite of software solutions helps customers manage emergency communications, process video and evidence, and leverage cutting-edge AI-driven analytics for security and operational insights. We are industry leaders in video security and analytics, with solutions deployed in more than 120 countries across diverse environments such as school campuses, transportation systems, healthcare centers, public venues, critical infrastructure, prisons, factories, casinos, airports, financial institutions, government facilities, and retailers. Our AI-powered security solutions integrate advanced video analytics, machine learning, and embedded intelligence to enable proactive threat detection, enhanced situational awareness, and automated decision-making.
Job Description

The Director of Computer Vision will drive the technical vision, research and engineering execution for the platform, with focus on the following core areas:

• Foundational Research Strategy: Define the long-term research agenda for fundamental computer vision capabilities and drive the culture of scientific excellence.

• Technical Vision, Engineering Leadership, and Execution: Provide executive technical leadership to a unified research and engineering organization, defining the technical architecture, strategy, and engineering roadmap for the Computer Vision Platform. Drive execution, ensuring the seamless translation of product requirements into robust technical specifications and successful delivery of next-generation visual intelligence solutions that are highly scalable and align with overall product and business strategy.

• Organizational Leadership and Talent Strategy: Manage and scale a unified computer vision research and engineering organization distributed across multiple geographies, overseeing multiple teams, and defining the strategy for recruiting, mentoring, and attracting world-class talent.

• End-to-End MLOps and Deployment: Own the entire engineering lifecycle for central, reusable computer vision models and foundational AI infrastructure. This includes establishing best-in-class MLOps practices for scalable training, efficient deployment, continuous monitoring, and performance optimization across edge and cloud environments.

• Performance Measurement and Continuous Improvement: Define, implement, and track key technical performance metrics (e.g., latency, throughput, model efficiency, system reliability) to measure engineering success, identify bottlenecks, and drive continuous improvement in execution and delivery.

• Technical Innovation and Risk Management: Evaluate and integrate cutting-edge computer vision research and technologies. Proactively identify and mitigate significant technical risks, and lead critical engineering decisions, including build-versus-buy analysis.

Qualifications & Experience

• 10+ years of technical leadership experience leading computer vision teams and organizations, with a focus on building and deploying enterprise-scale platforms and solutions in production.

• Technical Acumen & Deep Expertise: Deep, demonstrable expertise in computer vision, machine learning algorithms, and the end-to-end MLOps lifecycle, including 5+ years of hands-on experience building and optimizing computer vision models or as a computer vision researcher. Proven ability to engage in complex technical discussions, define the architectural vision for central, reusable AI infrastructure and models, and drive technical strategy while managing critical trade-offs.

• Executive Technical Strategy & Metrics: Proven experience defining long-term technical vision, engineering strategy, and roadmaps for a large-scale platform. Expertise in defining and implementing technical metrics (e.g., latency, throughput, system reliability, model efficiency) to measure engineering excellence and drive continuous improvement across an organization.

• Organizational & People Leadership: Demonstrated ability to manage and scale a unified, distributed engineering and research organization of 50 to 100 people, mentor senior technical talent, and lead multiple teams across different geographies.

• Strong Analytical and Research Skills: Hands-on experience driving innovation through foundational research, working with AI performance metrics (e.g., Precision/Recall), real-time video processing, and inference optimization.

• Customer-Driven Technical Leadership (Pathfinding): Track record of translating highly ambiguous product concepts and complex customer needs into clear, executable technical roadmaps and architectural specifications.

• Start-up Mentality & Agility: Experience in a start-up or fast-paced environment is highly valued, demonstrating high ownership, bias for action, comfort with ambiguity, and the ability to drive 0-to-1 product development with limited resources.

• Domain Knowledge: Experience in public safety, security-focused software (e.g., video security, evidence management), mission-critical systems, or emergency communications is a plus.

Target Base Salary Range:$250,000 USD - $290,000 USD

Consistent with Motorola Solutions values and applicable law, we provide the following information to promote pay transparency and equity. Pay within this range varies and depends on job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. The actual offer will be based on the individual candidate.

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Basic Requirements

• Bachelors degree with 10+ years of technical leadership experience leading computer vision teams and organizations.

Travel RequirementsUnder 25%
Relocation ProvidedNone
Position TypeExperienced
Referral Payment PlanNo

Our U.S.Benefitsinclude:

• Incentive Bonus Plans

• Medical, Dental, Visionbenefits

• 401K with Company Match

• 10 Paid Holidays

• GenerousPaidTime Off Packages

• Employee Stock Purchase Plan

• PaidParental & Family Leave

• and more!

EEO Statement

Motorola Solutions is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status or any other legally-protected characteristic.

We are proud of our people-first and community-focused culture, empowering every Motorolan to be their most authentic self and to do their best work to deliver on the promise of a safer world. If you'd like to join our team but feel that you don't quite meet all of the preferred skills, we'd still love to hear why you think you'd be a great addition to our team.

We're committed to providing an inclusive and accessible recruiting experience for candidates with disabilities, or other physical or mental health conditions. To request an accommodation, please complete thisReasonable Accommodations Formso we can assist you.