Research Engineer (Embodied AI)

Location: Zurich Area, Switzerland; based in the Zurich office. On-site role with flexible working hours and the option to work from home when needed. A relocation package is available for the Zurich area.

Company

hirify.global is a Series B embodied-AI company developing Cortex, a VLA model deployed in live warehouse robotic cells across the EU and US.

What you will do

• Build and operate teleoperation systems for dexterous manipulation, including retargeting algorithms that map human hand and arm motion onto robot end-effectors.
• Design and maintain scalable, UMI-style data collection hardware and software used by other engineers.
• Benchmark control and retargeting approaches using rigorous, human-factors-informed methodologies.
• Instrument and support physical robots in the Zurich research hub, including day-to-day work on the control stack.
• Work with the model-training team to define data requirements and improve data quality.
• Build additional tooling and infrastructure when it unblocks the wider team.

Requirements

• MSc or equivalent degree in robotics, mechanical engineering, or a closely related field, completed or in progress, with a thesis or capstone project in manipulation, teleoperation, or retargeting.
• Hands-on experience building a robot-learning data collection device or system, such as UMI or a comparable system.
• Working knowledge of retargeting algorithms for mapping human input onto robot hands or end-effectors.
• 1–2 years of combined research, internship, or industry experience in robotics, mechatronics, or a related engineering discipline.
• Software and systems engineering skills sufficient to build and maintain infrastructure used by other engineers.
• Comfort working as an individual contributor in a small, still-forming team.

Nice to have

• Authorship of a conference submission on manipulation, teleoperation, or retargeting; an MSc thesis submitted to a venue such as CoRL is accepted.
• Teaching or teaching-assistant experience in a robotics course.
• Exposure to large-model training.
• A concrete example of building something outside the formal role brief to support team needs.

Culture & Benefits

• Direct collaboration with founders and leading AI experts.
• Access to large-scale compute clusters and proprietary robotic datasets.
• Free meals at the workplace.
• Flexible working hours and the option to work from home when needed.
• Opportunity to shape embodied-AI systems through work in the Zurich robotics and AI ecosystem.
• Competitive compensation and a relocation package for the Zurich area.