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Vision Science Jobs in California (NOW HIRING)

San Diego

Optician/Optometric Assistant

Lemon Grove, CA

$17.75 - $23/hr

As a teaching-facility, we take pride in our ability to train and empower team members to understand the importance in vision science as well as the finest optical technology that help our patients ...

San Diego

Optician/Optometric Assistant

Lemon Grove, CA

$17.75 - $23/hr

As a teaching-facility, we take pride in our ability to train and empower team members to understand the importance in vision science as well as the finest optical technology that help our patients ...

San Diego

Optician/Optometric Assistant

Lemon Grove, CA

$17.75 - $23/hr

As a teaching-facility, we take pride in our ability to train and empower team members to understand the importance in vision science as well as the finest optical technology that help our patients ...

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All JobsVision Science JobsVision Science Jobs in California

Vision Science information

See California salary details

$24.2K

$47.8K

$78K

How much do vision science jobs pay per year?

As of Jun 17, 2026, the average yearly pay for vision science in California is $47,757.00, according to ZipRecruiter salary data. Most workers in this role earn between $38,000.00 and $51,300.00 per year, depending on experience, location, and employer.

What are the key skills and qualifications needed to thrive as a Vision Scientist, and why are they important?

To thrive as a Vision Scientist, you need a strong background in biology, optics, neuroscience, and experimental design, typically supported by a PhD or advanced degree in vision science or a related field. Familiarity with laboratory equipment, statistical analysis software (such as MATLAB or Python), and imaging systems is essential. Strong analytical thinking, attention to detail, and effective communication skills enable successful research and collaboration. These competencies are crucial for advancing knowledge in visual perception and developing applications in healthcare and technology.

What is the difference between Vision Science vs Optometrist?

AspectVision ScienceOptometrist
Required CredentialsTypically requires a master's or PhD in vision science or related fieldRequires Doctor of Optometry (OD) degree and licensure
Work EnvironmentResearch labs, universities, industry settingsPrivate practices, clinics, healthcare facilities
Industry UsageResearch, product development, academiaPatient eye care, vision testing, prescribing corrective lenses

Vision Science and Optometrists both focus on eye health and vision, but differ in their roles. Vision Science primarily involves research and development in vision-related fields, requiring advanced degrees and working in academic or industry settings. Optometrists, on the other hand, are healthcare professionals providing direct patient care, requiring a Doctor of Optometry degree and licensure. Understanding these differences helps clarify career paths and job expectations in the eye care industry.

What is vision science?

Vision science is an interdisciplinary field that studies how visual systems process information. It encompasses research on the anatomy, physiology, and functioning of the eyes and brain, as well as optical, computational, and psychological aspects of vision. Vision scientists work to understand how we perceive visual information, how visual disorders arise, and how technology can enhance or restore vision. Careers in vision science may involve research, clinical practice, or developing new diagnostic and corrective tools.

What does a vision scientist do?

A vision scientist researches how the visual system processes information, studying aspects like visual perception, eye function, and neural mechanisms. They often work in laboratories or academic settings, using tools such as eye trackers and imaging technology, and may conduct experiments or develop models to understand vision-related phenomena.

What can you do with a Vision Science degree?

A Vision Science degree prepares individuals for careers in eye care, research, and vision technology. Graduates can work as optometrists, vision researchers, ophthalmic technicians, or in roles involving visual perception and eye health, often requiring clinical skills and knowledge of optics and anatomy.

What job makes $10,000 a month without a degree?

In vision science, most roles require at least a degree, but some related jobs like optical sales managers or high-end opticians can earn around $10,000 monthly with experience and strong sales skills. These positions often involve managing teams, business development, or working in luxury optical settings, and may require certifications or specialized training rather than a formal degree.

What can I do with a master's in Vision Science?

A master's in Vision Science prepares individuals for roles such as vision researcher, optometric technician, or vision scientist in clinical, research, or industry settings. Graduates often work in eye care clinics, research laboratories, or product development, utilizing skills in optics, visual perception, and data analysis. Additional certifications or advanced degrees may be required for certain clinical positions.

What are some typical collaborative projects a Vision Science professional might work on with other departments?

Vision Science professionals frequently collaborate with teams in ophthalmology, neurology, psychology, and engineering, depending on the setting. For example, they may work closely with ophthalmologists to develop and test new diagnostic tools, partner with engineers to refine visual aids or imaging technologies, or collaborate with psychologists to study visual perception and cognition. These interdisciplinary projects help broaden the impact of their research and often lead to innovative solutions in visual health and technology.
What are popular job titles related to Vision Science jobs in California? For Vision Science jobs in California, the most frequently searched job titles are:
What job categories do people searching Vision Science jobs in California look for? The top searched job categories for Vision Science jobs in California are:
What cities in California are hiring for Vision Science jobs? Cities in California with the most Vision Science job openings:
Vision Science jobs near you

Research Scientist - Vision Language Model

Institute of Foundation Models

Sunnyvale, CA • On-site

$150K - $450K/yr

Full-time

Posted 19 days ago

Job description

About the Institute of Foundation Models
We are a dedicated research lab for building, understanding, using, and risk-managing foundation models. Our mandate is to advance research, nurture the next generation of AI builders, and drive transformative contributions to a knowledge-driven economy.
As part of our team, you'll have the opportunity to work on the core of cutting-edge foundation model training, alongside world-class researchers, data scientists, and engineers, tackling the most fundamental and impactful challenges in AI development. You will participate in the development of groundbreaking AI solutions that have the potential to reshape entire industries. Strategic and innovative problem-solving skills will be instrumental in establishing MBZUAI as a global hub for high-performance computing in deep learning, driving impactful discoveries that inspire the next generation of AI pioneers.
Position Summary
As a Research Scientist in the Vision Language Model (VLM) team, your role will be central to advancing state-of-the-art multimodal foundation models that integrate visual understanding, reasoning, and agentic capabilities. You will work on the research and development of large-scale VLM systems, spanning model architectures, data recipes for pre-training and post-training, and evaluation benchmarks. The role combines cutting-edge research with practical engineering, emphasizing large-scale data processing, filtering, and weighting pipelines, distributed training systems, and reinforcement learning algorithms and systems for multimodal reasoning and agent development.
Key Responsibilities
  • Research and development of next-generation Vision Language Models across pre-training, instruction tuning, reasoning, and agents.
  • Develop novel architectures and training methodologies for integrating visual understanding, language reasoning, and tool-use capabilities.
  • Research efficient multimodal learning techniques, including data-efficient training, long-context modeling, model modularity, and inference optimization.
  • Build and improve large-scale multimodal datasets, synthetic data generation pipelines, and evaluation benchmarks for VLM capabilities.
  • Investigate multimodal reasoning, agentic behavior, OCR, grounding, document understanding, chart understanding, and visual question answering capabilities.
  • Contribute to technical reports, research publications, and open-source software.
  • Represent MBZUAI at research conferences and industry events, showcasing advancements in multimodal foundation models and large-scale AI systems.
  • Mentor junior researchers and collaborate across teams to drive impactful research initiatives.

Academic Qualifications
PhD or equivalent research experience in Machine Learning, Computer Vision, Natural Language Processing, or Multimodal AI.
$150,000 - $450,000 a year
Salary Range
The posted salary range represents the company's good faith estimate of the compensation for this position upon hire. The actual compensation offered may vary within this range depending on individual qualifications, including but not limited to relevant skills, experience, education, certifications, geographic location, and specific business needs.
Professional Experience
Minimum
  • Experience working with large language models and/or vision-language models, including pre-training, fine-tuning, evaluation, or inference.
  • Strong Python and PyTorch development skills for large-scale machine learning research.
  • Experience with distributed training systems and large-scale model optimization.
  • Familiarity with multimodal datasets and data processing pipelines involving images, text, and video.
  • Understanding of modern deep learning architectures, including Transformers, attention mechanisms, and multimodal fusion techniques.
  • Experience with ML infrastructure, including model evaluation, debugging, optimization, and large-scale experimentation.
  • Problem-solving and research skills with the ability to independently drive research/engineering projects.
  • Effective communication and collaboration skills for working across research and engineering teams.

Preferred Skills
  • Hands-on experience training or fine-tuning large Vision Language Models or multimodal foundation models at scale.
  • Experience with distributed learning frameworks and infrastructure such as PyTorch Distributed, Megatron, Triton, or CUDA.
  • Research experience in multimodal reasoning, agentic systems, tool use, OCR, grounding, document understanding, or multimodal retrieval.
  • Experience with synthetic data generation, multimodal data curation, or automated evaluation frameworks for VLMs.
  • Familiarity with efficient training and inference techniques such as FlashAttention, quantization, tensor parallelism, pipeline parallelism, or memory optimization.
  • Experience contributing to open-source ML software and large-scale research codebases.
  • Strong publication record in leading AI conferences such as NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, CVPR, ICCV, ECCV, ACL, EMNLP, or related venues.
  • Experience collaborating across research, infrastructure, and product-oriented teams to deliver state-of-the-art multimodal systems.

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