Postdoctoral Associate
Cartesiansystems · Cambridge, MA
About this role
## About Cartesian Cartesian is building spatial intelligence for indoor environments to drive operational efficiency. We’re tackling one of the biggest challenges in the $35T global retail industry: in-store inventory visibility. Our platform delivers accurate indoor positioning and actionable product location insights, helping retailers streamline operations, optimize workflows, and reduce inefficiencies. Leveraging wireless signals, we provide a uniquely scalable, infrastructure-free solution already deployed by international fashion brands. Founded by an MIT engineering professor and alum behind award-winning, patented core technologies, Cartesian spun out in 2023. Originally backed by the prestigious SBIR Award from the US National Science Foundation, we’ve bootstrapped to a live product deployed in over a dozen countries and are aggressively scaling. ## About the Role We’re looking for a **Postdoctoral Associate** to join Cartesian at an exciting moment in our growth. This opportunity lets you contribute to core algorithms, dig deep into a deployed product, and ship changes that reach enterprise customers—while also driving new research directions in spatial AI. This is a hands-on role at the intersection of **machine learning, perception, estimation, and signal processing**, with direct impact on a deployed enterprise product. You’ll gain exposure to the full journey of research in production in a fast-paced, hands-on environment where your work makes a tangible impact. **Note:** This role is product- and impact-driven. Due to the IP-sensitive nature of the core models and algorithms, this role is **not expected to involve publications**. **Location:** In-person at Cartesian HQ in Kendall Square, Cambridge **Role type:** Full-time, PhD postdoctoral position **Duration:** Minimum 1 year ## What You’ll Do - Explore new research directions in sensor fusion and spatial AI aligned with product needs - Develop and improve algorithms for indoor positioning and spatial perception - Run experiments on real-world customer deployments: collect data, analyze failures, propose fixes, and validate improvements - Contribute to production ML and signal processing pipelines (modeling, evaluation, deployment) - Collaborate with engineering and product to ship features to enterprise customers ## Qualifications - About to complete or recently completed a PhD in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Robotics, or a related field - Research track record of published work in top-tier CS/ML, vision, robotics, or related venues - Strong foundations in at least one of: machine learning, perception, sensor fusion, and/or signal processing - Demonstrated research output (e.g., strong publications, open-source projects, or impactful applied work) - Excellent communication skills and ability to work in a small, fast-moving team - Curiosity, ownership, and a bias toward action and real-world impact ## Nice to Have - Startup or early-stage company experience - Experience shipping products (e.g., part of internships) - Experience or strong interest in spatial AI (3D vision, SLAM, mapping, sensor fusion, geometric deep learning, …) ## Why Cartesian - Work on hard, real-world problems with immediate and visible impact - Join a small, highly technical team with significant ownership and autonomy - Build systems that are deployed and used globally - Collaborative, thoughtful, low-ego culture focused on learning and execution - In-person team culture in
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