Applied Scientist – State Estimation & Integration

RAI Institute; Zürich; On-site; CHF 90,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

RAI Institute in Switzerland seeks exceptional Master's and PhD graduates to join our team as the critical bridge between algorithmic research and on-robot deployment. You will build the computational foundations and state estimation suites for our multi-modal sensor systems and ensure these algorithms run seamlessly on physical hardware.

If you have a deep passion for writing clean, performant software, solving complex state estimation problems, and deploying your solutions directly onto

Qualifications

• Master's degree or PhD in Robotics, Computer Science, Computer Vision, Computational Science & Engineering, or related field; early-career and junior candidates welcomed.
• Exceptional core software engineering foundations with proficiency in Modern C++ and Python, including system architecture, data structures, and memory management.
• Solid understanding of state estimation and optimization techniques, with familiarity in factor graph optimization (ideally including experience with GTSAM).
• Proven software engineering experience (e.g., internships, open-source contributions, or complex project work).
• Strong interest in building robust tools for both cutting-edge robotics research and real-world deployment.

Responsibilities

• Develop and integrate robust, real-time state-estimation pipelines for multimodal sensor systems.
• Write robust, low-latency modern C++ code for real-time execution directly on robotic hardware, optimizing for embedded platforms like the Jetson family.
• Apply classical optimization (factor graphs) and learning algorithms to practical robotics problems.
• Profile, benchmark, and eliminate performance bottlenecks in resource-constrained Linux environments.
• Design and build clean, scalable software components using modern software engineering practices and ROS 2.
• Collaborate with researchers to provide a solid foundation for building advanced robotic systems.

Skills

Modern C++

Python

State estimation

ROS 2

Real-time systems

Education

Master's degree in Robotics/CS/Computational Science & Engineering

PhD (completed or near completion)

Tools

ROS 2

GTSAM

Jetson

Job description

Our Mission

Our mission is to solve the most important and fundamental challenges in AI and Robotics to enable future generations of intelligent machines that will help us all live better lives.

Our Mission

Our mission is to solve the most important and fundamental challenges in AI and Robotics to enable future generations of intelligent machines that will help us all live better lives.
We are looking for exceptional Master's and PhD graduates to join our team full-time as the critical bridge between algorithmic research and on-robot deployment. This role sits at the intersection of state estimation, sensor calibration, and high-performance systems engineering. You will build the computational foundations and state estimation suites for our multi-modal sensor systems (RGB cameras, LiDARs, IMUs) and ensure these algorithms run seamlessly on physical hardware.
If you have a deep passion for writing clean, performant software, solving complex state estimation problems, and deploying your solutions directly onto advanced robotic platforms, you will want to join us.

What You’ll Do

• Play a key role in developing and integrating robust, real-time state-estimation pipelines for multimodal sensor systems.
• Write robust, low-latency modern C++ code for real-time execution directly on robotic hardware, optimizing for embedded platforms like the Jetson family of devices.
• Apply classical optimization (e.g., factor graphs) as well as learning algorithms to practical, real-world robotics problems.
• Profile, benchmark, and eliminate performance bottlenecks in resource-constrained Linux environments.
• Design and build clean, scalable software components using modern software engineering practices and ROS 2.
• Work collaboratively with researchers to provide a solid foundation for building advanced robotic systems, making complex algorithms easy to use and deploy.

What You’ll Need

• A Master's (MS) degree or a completed (or soon-to-be-completed) PhD degree in Robotics, Computer Science, Computer Vision, Computational Science & Engineering, or a related field; early-career and junior candidates with a few years of experience are highly encouraged and welcomed to apply.
• Exceptional core software engineering foundations with mandatory proficiency in Modern C++ and Python, including system architecture, data structures, and memory management.
• Solid understanding of state estimation and optimization techniques, with familiarity in factor graph optimization (ideally including experience with GTSAM).
• Proven software engineering experience (e.g., industry internships, significant open-source contributions, or complex project work demonstrating system design capabilities).
• A strong interest in building robust tools that support both cutting-edge robotics research and real-world deployment.

Bonus

While strong core software engineering and state estimation fundamentals are required, experience in any of the following areas is a massive plus:

• State Estimation & Fusion: Experience with multi-sensor state estimation, visual-inertial odometry (VIO), or SLAM algorithms.
• Hardware Acceleration & ML Systems: Experience with GPU programming, CUDA, parallel processing, or optimizing embedded neural network inference and hardware-level ML acceleration.
• Open Source Contributions: Significant open source projects that showcase your problem-solving skills in robotics, computer vision, or high-performance computing.
• Physics & Simulation: Familiarity with computational physics, rendering pipelines (e.g., Gaussian splatting), or scalable software infrastructure for GPU-based simulation.

We provide equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibit discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.

We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses and identifying potential inconsistencies or verification signals in application materials based on available information. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.