Robotics Field Deployment Lead

Flexion; Zürich; Hybrid; CHF 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive compensation

Enhanced pension plan

Relocation sponsorship

Central Zürich office with robotics設備

Job summary

Flexion is shaping the intelligence layer powering humanoid robotics. You’ll join the Engineering team as the technical lead for key customer deployments, ensuring successful integration of Flexion’s software on customer hardware and continuous field operations.

You’ll bring hands-on coding, bring-up support, and close collaboration with R&D and Product to scale deployments. Required: MS in Robotics or Engineering, strong C++/Python, and proven robotics integration skills with ROS2 and DDS.

Qualifications

• MS in Mechanical Engineering, Computer Science, Robotics, Electrical Engineering, or equivalent.
• Production-level proficiency in C++ and Python.
• Hands-on experience developing software that interfaces directly with robotics hardware (e.g., hardware abstraction layers, motor controllers, sensor integrations).
• Extensive experience with robotics hardware and software integration, focusing on troubleshooting real robots.
• Proficiency in networking concepts (IPv4, TCP/IP, Subnetting) and Linux networking tools.
• Practical experience with perception sensors and pipelines (mono and stereo cameras, LiDAR).
• Knowledge in embedded systems communication protocols (Ethernet, MIPI, I2C, SPI).
• Strong experience with robotics middleware, specifically ROS2 and DDS.
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to manage customer expectations and explain technical resolutions to customers.
• Flexibility to travel to customer sites as needed (~20%).
• Familiarity with Deep Learning and Reinforcement Learning concepts is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Act as the technical owner for key customer accounts, ensuring stable, successful integrations of Flexion’s stack on customer hardware.
• Lead on-site deployments at customer facilities, actively writing code and supporting the software lifecycle from initial bring-up through daily operations
• Triage and resolve full-stack issues across software, hardware interfaces, and system integration (remote and on-site as needed)
• Partner with R&D, and Product to expand deployments and unblock customer rollouts
• Capture logs, failure modes, and field learnings, and relay actionable feedback to engineering to drive product improvements
• Create and maintain technical documentation, deployment runbooks, and operations manuals to enable customer self-sufficiency

Skills

C++

Python

ROS2

DDS

Networking

Embedded systems

Robotics hardware integration

Customer communication

On-site deployments

Field troubleshooting

Education

MS in Robotics

MS in Engineering

Tools

ROS2

DDS

Job description

About Flexion:

At Flexion, we're building the intelligence layer powering the next generation of humanoid robots. Our mission is to accelerate the transition from fragile prototypes to real-world humanoid deployment. We are founded by leading scientists in robot reinforcement learning (ex-Nvidia, ex-ETH Zürich) and backed by leading international VC firms. Within a few months we’ve gone from our first line of code to deploying real humanoid capabilities with our partners. Learn more about Flexion at flexion.ai

The role

Build the software that turns robot intelligence into real-world capability.

As a Forward Deployed Engineer at Flexion, you’ll work at the intersection of software engineering, robotics, and AI. You’ll bring up new robot platforms, deploy learned controllers, and build autonomous workflows that enable robots to perform useful work.

Working closely with our AI team, you’ll write the software that deploys Flexion’s autonomy stack across whole-body control, manipulation, and agentic execution. Your work will span hardware interfaces, robot modelling, inference pipelines, and autonomous task execution—with your code driving robots in the physical world.

You’ll also own technical delivery with customers, working directly with their engineers to turn requirements into working capabilities. From initial scoping to validation on customer hardware, you’ll combine hands-on engineering with clear communication and ownership of the outcome.

Key responsibilities

• Bring Flexion’s intelligence onto real robots. Develop hardware abstraction layers, actuator and sensor interfaces, middleware integrations, and control-loop infrastructure. Own robot bring-up and solve integration challenges across software and hardware.
• Close the loop between simulation and deployment. Investigate differences between simulated and real-world behaviour, identify their causes, and improve robot models, interfaces, inference pipelines, and deployment infrastructure.
• Engineer autonomous capabilities that deliver real work. Turn complex customer tasks into reliable autonomous behaviours by building software that brings perception, learned controllers, manipulation, and task planning together. Solve the challenges of coordinating models, managing execution, and recovering from failures so robots can complete tasks in real-world environments.
• Solve problems in the field. Lead technical work at customer sites, diagnose failures using logs and measurements, and implement fixes that improve the underlying software. Follow complex problems through to tested, reliable solutions.
• Own technical delivery with customers. Define requirements, milestones, and acceptance criteria with customer engineers. Coordinate dependencies with internal teams, communicate progress and technical tradeoffs, and address risks early. Own delivery from initial scoping through validation on customer hardware.

• Strong software engineering skills, with production-level proficiency in C++ and experience building maintainable, tested systems.
• Hands-on experience developing software for robotics hardware, including actuator and sensor interfaces, hardware abstraction layers, or control systems.
• The ability to debug real robots and reason across software, hardware, timing, and system behaviour.
• A solid understanding of control theory and practical experience in robot modelling, simulation, calibration, or system identification.
• Strong Linux development and debugging skills, familiarity with networking and hardware communication protocols, and experience with ROS2 and DDS.
• The ability to collaborate with AI researchers and customer engineers, communicate technical tradeoffs clearly, and take ownership of complex engineering problems and deliverables.
• Experience in customer-facing engineering roles, delivering technical solutions from scoping through deployment.
• A degree in Computer Science, Robotics, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or equivalent practical experience.
• Willingness to travel to customer sites as needed, approximately 20%.

Bonus:

• Familiarity with deep learning and reinforcement learning.
• Experience with robotics simulation tools such as Isaac Sim or MuJoCo.

• Competitive compensation
• Enhanced pension plan
• Enhanced holiday & paid leave perks
• Relocation & permit sponsorship
• Central Zürich office with top-tier robotics testing facilities and infrastructure
• Joining a leading robotics team & exposure to never-done-before research
• Energetic, collaborative culture with a bias for action and regular community events