Robot Deployment Engineer

RAI Institute; Zürich; On-site; CHF 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

RAI Institute in Zurich is seeking a Field Deployment Engineer to ensure reliable robot operation for research and engineering teams. You will own hardware interfaces, bring-up, fleet deployment tooling and data capture, ensuring consistent robot behavior and repeatable experiments.

This engineering role focuses on software development, hardware integration and fleet deployment, requiring hands-on work with robots, ROS2, C++, Python and Linux, in a collaborative, fast-paced environment.

Qualifications

• MSc in robotics, CS, electrical or mechanical eng, or equivalent.
• Hands-on experience with real robots.
• Working experience with ROS2.
• Strong C++ and Python.
• Strong Linux skills.
• System-level thinking across software, hardware and algorithms.
• Contributions to open-source robotics software.
• Collaborative mindset, working with researchers and engineers.

Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain hardware interfaces for robots, sensors and actuators.
• Integrate custom sensor payloads and hardware, from first power-on to reliable daily use.
• Bring up, debug and maintain real robots across the fleet.
• Ensure robot configuration and usage is standardized across the prototype fleet.
• Own and improve the deployment tools for the robots we use every day.
• Build tools to operate and debug robots.
• Identify recurring hardware and software problems and work with other teams to implement solutions.
• Be the first to play with new hardware to stay on top of new sensing, compute and actuation technologies.

Skills

ROS2

C++

Python

Linux

Edge devices

Hardware interfaces

Deployment tooling

Debugging

Open-source contributions

Collaboration

Education

MSc in robotics, CS, electrical or mechanical eng, or equivalent

Tools

NVIDIA Jetson

Real-time systems

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 work in physical AI, on both existing commercial robots and our own custom hardware, from actuators and sensors to the software that runs them. As a Field Deployment Engineer you will make these robots work reliably for our research and engineering teams. We are onsite in our Zurich office.

In this role you will take ownership of the layer between our robots and the teams that depend on them: hardware interfaces, bring-up, fleet configuration, deployment tooling and data capture. The goal is that every robot behaves consistently, and that every experiment starts from a known, working state. This is an engineering role: you spend your time writing software, integrating hardware and improving how the whole fleet is deployed.

What You’ll Do

• Develop and maintain hardware interfaces for robots, sensors and actuators.
• Integrate custom sensor payloads and hardware, from first power-on to reliable daily use.
• Bring up, debug and maintain real robots across the fleet.
• Ensure robot configuration and usage is standardized across the robots in our prototype fleet.
• Own and improve the deployment tools for the robots we use every day.
• Build tools to operate and debug robots.
• Identify recurring hardware and software problems and work with other teams to implement technical or process solutions.
• Be the first to play with new hardware to stay on top of new sensing, compute and actuation technologies

What You’ll Need

• MSc in robotics, computer science, electrical or mechanical engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• Hands-on experience with real robots.
• Working experience with ROS2.
• Strong C++ and Python.
• Strong Linux skills.
• System-level thinking: you reason about how software, hardware and algorithms interact, and you can trace a failure across layers.
• Experience with edge devices such as the NVIDIA Jetson family.
• Familiarity with custom electronics, communication protocols and real-time systems.
• A collaborative mindset, working closely with researchers and engineers.
• Contributions to open-source robotics software.

Note: Candidates are not expected to meet every qualification in the above list. If you do not have all of these qualifications you are still encouraged to apply.

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.