We’re Blue River, a team of innovators driven to change agriculture by creating intelligent machinery. We aren’t just working on technology; we use it to make a positive impact on the world. Through innovating and optimizing solutions for our customers, we’re creating a space where environmental and economic sustainability intersect. We leverage the strengths of John Deere, our parent company, to guarantee our innovations are improving as many farms as possible. Not only does our work have a lasting impact on customers and the environment, but it’s all done through a brand our customers trust and love. Vector is an internal team at Blue River led by Lee Redden, Co-Founder of Blue River, which focuses on dynamic system controls and machine learning to allow machines to perform never-before-seen tasks.
Team member Q&A.
How much do candidates need to know about your industry?
Does the company represent a thesis about how the world is changing?
Tell me about a team member who is thriving and why?
How much agency or impact does each individual engineer have at the company?
What makes the team effective?
What does the average day look like for someone?
Where do feature ideas come from?
What problems are you solving at Blue River?
How should candidates prepare for interviews?
How is what you’re making more like tech and less like farming?
Learn more
Useful links
- See how Blue River is building the "Boston Dynamics" of Construction and Agriculture to bring in the future of highly dynamic and capable machines in this video.
- Listen to The Road to Autonomy Podcast and hear our Co-Founder, Lee Redden, discuss how See & Spray technology can help farmers optimize farms.
- Read this article to learn more about Blue River’s history, mission, and the acquisition by John Deere.
- Check out this interview with Chris Padwick, our Director of Computer Vision Machine Learning, to find out more about the type of work we do, our relationship with John Deere, and where we’re headed.
- Learn more about how Blue River and the Vector team is helping powering change at John Deere in this interview with Jahmy Hindman, Chief Technology Officer at John Deere.
- Watch this video of interviews with team members to discover more about Blue River’s culture and what it's like to work here.
- Read this profile on Lee Redden to learn more about our co-founder.
- Check out our profile on Top Workplaces where we've been voted one of the best Bay Area companies to work for.
- Read this Wired article about how John Deere is doubling down on Silicon Valley and robots.
Team size & roles
- Systems Software Engineer - Controls: 3
- Machine Learning Scientist: 2
Meet the team →
Collaboration Practices
- Daily 30-minute standup
- Project-level OKRs
- Hands-on creation at an offsite test facility
- Slack
Hours & location
- Mixed on-site and remote
Tools we use
Controls Team:
- C++
- Python
- Model Predictive Control (MPC)
- CasADi
- State Estimation
- Rigid Body Dynamics
- MATLAB / Simulink
- ROS
- Controls System Design
ML Scientist:
- Python
- Deployed Machine Learning Solutions
- Neural Networks
- Deep Learning
- Natural Language Processing
- Experience with Classical Controls
Company-level stats
- B2C
- B2B
- Technical founder(s)