Founding Research Scientist, Computer Vision (PhD)

Apply on YC · Original job listing

• Role: Engineering / Full stack
• Experience: Any (new grads ok)
• Visa: Will sponsor
• Skills: Python, Computer Vision

About

Rudus is an AI-powered takeoff platform for structural and site concrete. We accelerate concrete takeoffs by 70%+ with AI trained specifically on structural and civil drawings- counting, measuring, and reading sheets so estimators can focus on winning bids.

The Role

You'll own the research behind our drawing-understanding stack: detecting structural and site elements on noisy real-world plan sets, pattern-matching footings and curb runs, interpreting schedules and cross-sheet details, and comparing drawing revisions. Your models ship into production and get evaluated by professional estimators on real bids — feedback loops measured in days, not review cycles.

What You’ll Do

• Advance detection and autocomplete models for structural elements (footings, slabs, columns, walls) and site elements (curbs, paving, sidewalks, joint layouts)
• Build document-understanding systems for schedules, specs, and section details, including cross-sheet reasoning
• Solve geometry problems: auto-scale detection, boundary completion, smart exclusions, revision diffing
• Design training and eval pipelines on customer drawing data, improving accuracy project over project

What We’re Looking For

• PhD (or equivalent research experience) in computer vision, ML, or a related field
• Track record turning research into working systems- strong Python required
• Experience with document AI, object detection, vectorized/CAD-like data, or multimodal LLMs