AI for Science Engineer

Immigration Policy Lab; Zürich; On-site; CHF 110,000 - 160,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Excellent working conditions

Diversity & sustainability

Job summary

ETH AI Center in Zurich seeks an AI for Science Engineer to build frontier AI systems that help researchers across ETH accelerate their research. You will partner with research labs to understand challenges and co-develop agentic pipelines: planning, orchestration, data curation, and open interfaces that researchers can steer.

The role is about shipping AI solutions, not just infrastructure. You will work with external research and industry partners, requiring strong software engineering,

Qualifications

• PhD or equivalent research track with ability to engage with researchers.
• Experience deploying agentic AI systems end-to-end.
• Strong software engineering and data pipeline skills.

Responsibilities

• Partner with ETH labs to identify high-impact AI use cases.
• Build planning and orchestration components for scalable workflows.
• Make systems traceable with reproducible runs and clear interfaces.
• Support researchers with data prep and model optimization.
• Contribute to evaluation/benchmarking of AI models on scientific tasks.
• Develop open-source recipes and templates to accelerate adoption.
• Stay at frontier of agentic AI and prototype new patterns.
• Contribute to teaching and student projects.

Skills

Agentic AI

LLM-based systems

Python & software engineering

GPU computing

English communication

Education

Doctorate in Computer Science or related field

Master's degree with strong relevant experience

Tools

LLM APIs

HuggingFace

PyTorch

RAG pipelines

CI/CD

Job description

AI for Science Engineer

80%-100%, Zurich, fixed-term

The ETH AI Center is one of the largest AI centers in Europe with over 130 Professors from all 16 departments of ETH Zurich and over 1500 associated PhD students & post-docs. Our mission is to foster interdisciplinary AI research and pave the way from science to society.

Project background

As AI for Science Engineer you build the frontier AI systems that help researchers across ETH accelerate their research with frontier AI. You will partner with research labs to understand their scientific challenges and co-develop agentic solutions: multi-step pipelines that plan and orchestrate simulations and experiments, curate data, evaluate models, or chain domain-specific tools in ways that weren't possible before.

This role is ideal for an engineer who wants to ship AI solutions, not just infrastructure — someone who sees a research challenge and immediately starts thinking about what combination of agents, models, and pipelines could solve it. Part of the work is carried out together with external research and industry partners.

Job description

• Partner with research labs across ETH to identify high-impact use cases for agentic AI and co-develop novel pipelines and tools.
• Build planning and orchestration components that turn research goals into executable workflows under constraints such as cost, latency, and fidelity, and adapt as new results come in.
• Make what the system does inspectable: traceable runs, reproducible results, and interfaces that let researchers understand and steer the work.
• Support research teams with data preparation and curation, and help them optimize, specialize, and deploy models — fine-tuning, distillation, quantization, and efficient inference.
• Contribute to the evaluation and benchmarking of AI systems on scientific tasks, including open and closed frontier AI models.
• Develop and open-source reusable recipes, reference architectures, and templates that lower the barrier for others to build on.
• Stay at the frontier of agentic AI: evaluate emerging frameworks, prototype new patterns, advise research teams.
• Contribute to teaching and student projects.

Profile

• Preferably a doctorate in computer science or a computational discipline; a master's degree with strong relevant experience is equally welcome. Our main counterparts are researchers, so being able to engage with them on their own terms matters.
• Experience building and deploying agentic or LLM-based systems end to end, not only using them - typically 1–3 years of relevant experience, though exceptional recent graduates are encouraged to apply too.
• Strong software and systems engineering skills: services, APIs, data pipelines, containers, CI/CD.
• Hands-on experience with modern AI/ML tooling (LLM APIs, agent frameworks, RAG pipelines, PyTorch, HuggingFace) and with model optimization and efficient inference.
• Experience with GPU computing and high-performance or distributed computing environments.
• Exposure to planning, scheduling, workflow engines, or reasoning systems, and to scientific computing workflows, is an advantage; open-source contributions are a strong plus.
• An effective communicator who bridges researchers and engineers — proactive, delivery-oriented, and keen to enable others to do their best work.
• Fluency in English.

We offer

If you are a highly motivated individual with a passion for AI and a desire to make a significant impact in a rapidly evolving field, we would love to hear from you. Join the ETH AI Center and work at the front‑of‑the‑line of AI research in Europe, collaborating with leading faculty, global partners, and a rapidly growing ecosystem in Zurich.

ETH Zurich is a family-friendly employer with excellent working conditions. You can look forward to an exciting working environment, cultural diversity and attractive offers and benefits.

We value diversity and sustainability

In line with our values, ETH Zurich encourages an inclusive culture. We promote equality of opportunity, value diversity and nurture a working and learning environment in which the rights and dignity of all our staff and students are respected. Visit our Equal Opportunities and Diversity website to find out how we ensure a fair and open environment that allows everyone to grow and flourish. Sustainability is a core value for us – we are consistently working towards a climate‑neutral future.

About ETH Zürich

ETH Zurich is one of the world’s leading universities specialising in science and technology. We are renowned for our excellent education, cutting‑edge fundamental research and direct transfer of new knowledge into society. Over 30,000 people from more than 120 countries find our university to be a place that promotes independent thinking and an environment that inspires excellence. Located in the heart of Europe, yet forging connections all over the world, we work together to develop solutions for the global challenges of today and tomorrow.