Our Mission
At Laelaps AI, we believe robotics is entering a transformative decade, much like the arrival of the internet. Fueled by advances in AI, cloud computing, and hardware, we see a future where autonomous systems handle the dangerous and critical tasks that humans shouldn't have to. Our mission is to build the intelligent software that makes this possible, creating a world that is safer, more secure, and more resilient.
We're a strong founding team based in Zurich, backed by visionary investors and advisors. We are engineering the future of security today!
The Role
As our founding full-stack engineer, you will be the main architect of the Laelaps AI platform. This is a role with wide scope and autonomy, where you will own product features end-to-end, from the operator's real-time dashboard in React to the Python backend services and the critical data pipelines that connect them. You will not only write code but also establish the engineering standards that will define our software engineering culture.
Your core challenge? Bridging the physical and digital worlds. You'll work hand-in-hand with our robotics team to build the communications infrastructure that allows our robots and cloud intelligence to operate as a single, cohesive entity. This is your chance to shape a product from its first lines of code and build something that has a tangible impact in the real world.
What You'll Build & Own
Core Product Engineering:
Frontend: Develop real-time dashboards and control interfaces for security operators using TypeScript and React.Backend: Design and build robust APIs, services, and data persistence layers using Python or Node.js. You'll handle everything from authentication to auditing.Data & Streaming: Engineer the pipeline for ingesting high-volume video and telemetry data (RTSP/WebRTC), ensuring reliability with robust eventing and back-pressure handling.The Robotics Bridge:
Integrate our cloud platform with the robotics team's ROS 2/DDS ecosystem, creating clean and resilient interfaces.Fine-tune Quality of Service (QoS) settings to balance latency and reliability for mission-critical commands and data.Engineering Culture & Reliability:
You will define the workflow and standards for software engineering at Laelaps AI. This means automating CI/CD and establishing best practices for testing, documentation, and safe, frequent releases.You'll build and manage our observability stack (metrics, logs, traces) and lead our incident response workflows to ensure the system is always reliable.Leadership:
As a founding software engineer, you will be on a direct path to the Head of Software Engineering position as we expand. You will work closely with the founders on hiring and mentoring future engineers, and will have significant autonomy within the team.
Who We're Looking For
We're looking for an ambitious and action-oriented builder who is obsessed with solving complex problems. You thrive in the beautiful chaos of a startup, learn at lightning speed, and are excited to tackle new challenges rather than just sticking to what you know.
Your Experience and You:
You have a strong track record of creating and designing scalable real-time software architectures, and shipping production software end-to-end. We care more about what you've built (in projects, startups, or open source) than formal credentials.You are proficient in TypeScript/React and at least one backend language (Python is preferred).You have hands-on experience with Docker, CI/CD pipelines, and deploying to cloud (AWS/GCP/Azure) or edge environments.You've worked with real-time systems like WebSockets or message queues and understand the trade-offs between latency and performance.You identify with our mission and are willing to go the extra mile to achieve it.You're a genuine team player. We know it's a cliché, but for a founding team, it's everything. Being a bit quirky is a plus.Bonus Points (Nice to Have, Not Required):
Previous exposure to ROS 2/DDS or bridging robotics platforms to the cloud.Experience with video streaming pipelines (RTSP/WebRTC) or embedded systems.Familiarity with Kubernetes, Infrastructure as Code, and modern observability tools (Prometheus, Grafana).Familiarity with robot learning concepts (locomotion, perception, navigation) or simulation environments like IsaacSim.A security-first engineering mindset.What We Offer
Compensation: A competitive salary combined with meaningful, founding team member level equity.The Right Tools: All the best hardware and software you need to do your job effectively.Location: We work in-person in Zürich, Switzerland. We are open to discussing relocation and work authorization for the right candidate.Mission: A chance to be part of a team that works on strengthening our collective security and resilience.Team Culture: Join a closely-knit, international founding team (from Germany, Lithuania, and Greece) that has made Zürich their chosen home. We're serious about our mission but don't take ourselves too seriously. Our interests range from festivals and techno nights to fashion weeks and scuba diving. We're excited to hear about yours!Founding team: Three technical co-founders with PhDs in Physics, AI, and Robotics; educated at Cambridge, Imperial College London, UCL, and UC San Diego.
