Engineering Manager - Software/Cloud, RIVR

RIVR Technologies AG; Zürich; On-site; CHF 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

RIVR Technologies AG, a robotics team pioneering Physical AI, is seeking an experienced engineering leader in Zürich, Switzerland. You will design and implement a production-grade Linux distribution from scratch using Yocto/OpenEmbedded and drive hardware enablement for robotics sensors.

Join a fast-growing team focused on real-world deployments and scalable backend systems, with emphasis on high reliability, OTA updates, and distributed architecture in AWS.

Qualifications

• 4+ years leading engineering teams
• 7+ years building and operating large-scale backend systems
• Proven experience architecting solutions on AWS
• Proven experience operating a complex SOA architecture at scale
• Experience with ML training infrastructure in SDLC
• Strong ownership and mentorship skills
• Exceptional communication with technical and non-technical stakeholders

Responsibilities

• Design and implement a production-grade Linux distribution from scratch using Yocto/OpenEmbedded
• Develop and maintain custom Yocto layers and patch bitbake recipes
• Configure Linux kernels to support hardware peripherals
• Hardware enablement for sensors (GMSL cameras, GPS/GNSS, IMUs, LiDAR)
• Implement and manage robust OTA update solutions for fleet deployments
• Collaborate with hardware engineers to bring up new boards and modify Device Trees
• Profile and optimize boot time, memory footprint, and interrupt latency

Skills

Leadership

Backend systems

AWS

SOA/microservices

ML infrastructure

Security practices

Tools

Yocto/OpenEmbedded

Grafana

Prometheus

Job description

RIVR, part of Amazon is a robotics team pioneering Physical AI through real-world deployment and doorstep deliveries. Founded in 2024 as an ETH Zurich spin-off, RIVR developed wheeled-legged robots designed to operate in complex, unstructured environments such as stairs, gates, doors, and uneven urban terrain. We believe that achieving general physical intelligence requires solving real customer problems in the real world, where robots can learn by gathering rich operational data at scale.

Key job responsibilities

• Design and implement a production-grade Linux distribution from scratch using Yocto/OpenEmbedded.
• Develop and maintain custom Yocto layers, write and patch bitbake recipes, and configure Linux kernels to support specific hardware peripherals.
• Hardware enablement for critical robotics sensors, including GMSL cameras, GPS/GNSS modules, IMUs, and LiDAR.
• Implement and manage robust Over-the-Air (OTA) update solutions to ensure safe and atomic fleet-wide deployments.
• Work closely with hardware engineers to bring up new boards, modify Device Trees, and debug low-level interfaces (I2C, SPI, CAN, UART).
• Profile and optimize the system for boot time, memory footprint, and interrupt latency.

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS

• - 4+ years of experience formally leading engineering teams, managing sprints, and coaching developers.
• - 7+ years of professional experience building and operating large-scale backend systems in a Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) or microservices context.
• - Proven experience architecting solutions on AWS.
• - Proven experience operating a complex SOA architecture at scale. Deep familiarity with failure modes in distributed systems and mechanisms to reduce the blast radius of outages and regressions.
• - Experience with building and operating ML training infrastructure, integrating it in the SDLC. Experience with handling sensitive data and ensuring its safety and compliance.
• - Proven ability to delegate and grow, yet remain connected to the technology details.
• - Strong judgement: you identify and call-out one-way doors, you can independently check Senior Engineers’ assumptions and designs, you anticipate the impact and future cost of shortcuts and weight them against your immediate priorities.
• - A deep sense of Ownership, a relentless drive to Earn Trust, and a passion for Developing the Best talent.
• - Exceptional communication skills, with the ability to articulate complex technical ideas clearly to both technical teams and non-technical stakeholders.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• - Exposure to cloud services communicating with physical edge devices such as robots.
• - Background in robotics, IoT, fleet management, or real-time data streaming systems.
• - Familiarity with observability tools (OTLP, Grafana, Prometheus) optimized for physical devices experiencing intermittent connectivity.
• - Experience with Security topics in the context of cloud systems.
• - Experience navigating organizational growth or integrating startup systems into large enterprise environments.