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Vision Science Jobs in California (NOW HIRING)

The ACD is responsible for providing strategic vision, scientific leadership, and administrative oversight for the Division across multiple disciplines within the Departments of Drug Discovery;

Optician/Optometric Assistant

Lemon Grove, CA · On-site

$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 ...

OpticianOptometric Assistant

Lemon Grove, CA · On-site

$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 ...

Optician/Optometric Assistant

Lemon Grove, CA · On-site

$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 ...

Optician/Optometric Assistant

Lemon Grove, CA · On-site

$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 ...

Showing results 41-60

Vision Science information

See California salary details

$24.2K

$47.8K

$78K

How much do vision science jobs pay per year?

As of Sep 14, 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 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 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 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 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 with companies developing visual technologies, utilizing skills in optics, neuroscience, and data analysis.

What can you do with a vision science degree?

A vision science degree prepares individuals for careers in research, clinical practice, or industry related to visual health, perception, and optics. Graduates can work as optometrists, vision scientists, research analysts, or in roles involving eye care technology and visual performance assessment, often requiring knowledge of optics, neuroscience, and laboratory skills.

What does a vision science do?

A vision scientist studies how the visual system processes and interprets visual information, often conducting research in areas like optics, perception, and eye health. They may work in laboratories, healthcare settings, or academia, using tools such as microscopes and imaging devices to understand visual function and develop treatments or technologies related to vision. Strong analytical skills and knowledge of biology, physics, and psychology are essential in this field.

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:

Infographic showing various Vision Science job openings in California as of September 2026, with employment types broken down into 100% Full Time. Highlights an 100% In-person job distribution, with an average salary of $47,757 per year, or $23 per hour.

Research Scientist - Vision Language Model

Sunnyvale, CA • On-site

MBZUAI (Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence)

Full-time

Re-posted 17 days ago


Job description

Job Summary:
MBZUAI is a dedicated research lab focused on building, understanding, and risk-managing foundation models. As a Research Scientist in the Vision Language Model team, you will advance multimodal foundation models that integrate visual understanding and reasoning, working on the research and development of large-scale VLM systems.
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.
Qualifications:
Required:
• PhD or equivalent research experience in Machine Learning, Computer Vision, Natural Language Processing, or Multimodal AI.
• 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:
• 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.
Company:
Official account of Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence. Dedicated to research, innovation, and empowering brilliant minds in AI. Founded in 2019, the company is headquartered in Abu Dhabi, ARE, with a team of 51-200 employees. The company is currently Growth Stage.