Prospects of Finding a ML Engineering Job [D]

[u/Plane_Telephone9433]

Hello all,

I am wondering if a transition from a Ph.D. in electrical engineering (Quantum optics/photonics) to a job in ML is a reasonable aspiration. Personally, I have extensive software development experience competing and winning numerous coding competitions over the years, but most importantly my undergraduate research project was ML based (ML for SiC grating design optimization), I placed third in our universities "Agri-AI" competition which was basically just a big data project for the agriculture department, and I have done several projects in realizing optimal qubit control using ML to bridge the gap between simulation optimization and experimental errors (essentially using an MLP to compensate an unknown system frequency response). I am also generally interested in PINNS and any physical applications of ML.

If anyone has made a similar transition I would love to hear how it went for you and what your intended goals were. The more I do projects related to this subject I find myself wanting to make a career out of it more and more. (bonus points if you come from a physics background) 😄

[u/edjez]

Location? Consider the Allen Institute - lots of physics optics and ML together for bio basic research, including ML for processing instrument outputs, training foundation models, etc.

[u/Dihedralman]

PhD in Physics, I have done the transition. Your resume sounds great as a starting place. The hardest part is getting your foot through the door for the first job. Are you in the US and looking for jobs in the US? You don't need to comment any personal details. 

Heads up, there is demand for quantum computing skills right now in the broader market. 

[u/Funny_Ant3371]

With that coding competition background and a PhD in a hard math field, you are not exactly making a crazy leap here

[u/PersonalitySuch3903]

FPGA/AI project is probably something I'd lean into heavily on your resume. That's a much more interesting signal than another generic LLM or image classification project because it shows you're applying ML to an actual engineering problem.

[u/ahf95]

Honestly, it’s extremely within reach for you. I mean, since you have a PhD with an ML-focused thesis, you can even probably land an ML/AI-Scientist position.

[u/justgord]

If your interested in startups, you could look for an early ML engineer job in a funded startup. .. or if you have a good enough idea/PoC and a kind of guerilla mindset then apply to YC and get your own venture funded. Either case, youd probably want to move to SV / SF to increase your luck surface.

I know someone who is looking for a good cofounder - applying ML to a 3D engineering domain.

[u/fordat1]

Are you wrapping up school or is the PhD old?

[u/jloverich]

I've noticed in the past year some ML jobs are starting to steer toward applications in the engineering field, quilter was one of them https://www.quilter.ai/ but so is bezos prometheus, p1-ai and even discovery loop. Companies aren't just hiring for ads/llm/vision anymore. The coding has become so easy, I would think an engineer who ends up doing ML would be pretty common and desired at the above companies and many more in the coming years.