AI Research Engineer - Dexterous Manipulation (Egocentric Models)
Flexion Robotics Open · verified Oct 22, 2026 At a glance
Mid-level AI Research role at Flexion Robotics. Zürich.
Pay not stated AI Research salary
aimlroles summary, based on the employer's posting.
What you'll do
- Build pre-training methods that learn hand-object interaction and spatial-temporal patterns from large egocentric video datasets
- Develop multimodal models that turn visual input and language instructions into robot movement trajectories
- Create generative action components with diffusion and flow-matching methods to represent varied human movements
- Align human-action video representations with humanoid motion limits, then refine controllers through offline reinforcement learning and simulation
- Turn research on scaling laws and world models into deployable systems that improve robot reliability and autonomy
What you bring
- A master’s or PhD in robotics, machine learning or a closely related area, focused on data-driven manipulation, egocentric vision or foundation models
- Experience with humanoid or dexterous manipulation and contact-rich physical interactions
- Strong Python and PyTorch skills, plus experience distributing training across large neural networks
- Expertise in diffusion models, flow matching and transformers, with practical experience deploying learned controllers on robot hardware
Who this fits
This role suits a research engineer focused on dexterous manipulation, egocentric vision and large-scale models, with hands-on robot deployment experience. You’ll work onsite in the Zürich office; relocation and permit sponsorship are offered.
From the employer
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. In just months, we’ve gone from our first line of code to deploying real humanoid capabilities.
The role
We are seeking an expert in dexterous manipulation and large-scale modeling to lead the development of our physical foundation models. The goal of this position is to leverage internet-scale egocentric video to build Vision-Language-Action (VLA) models that enable our humanoid robots to interact with the world with human-like fluidity. You bring a deep understanding of how to bridge the gap between observing human actions in video and executing high-DOF (20+) motor control.
As a Research Engineer for Dexterous Manipulation at Flexion, you’ll work in our Zürich office to develop and deploy state-of-the-art learning-based controllers. You will take ownership of the model architecture, integrating egocentric priors with real-time robot policies, to ensure our hardware can manipulate objects reliably and flexibly in unstructured environments.
Key Responsibilities
- Scalable Egocentric Pre-training: Architect and implement large-scale pre-training objectives for egocentric video datasets to learn generalizable representations of hand-object interactions and spatial-temporal dynamics.
- VLA Foundation Modeling: Develop and scale multi-modal Foundation Models that unify visual perception and natural language instructions into actionable robotic trajectories.
- Generative Policy Design: Design and optimize generative action heads using Diffusion Models and Flow-matching techniques to capture the multi-modal distribution of complex human movements.
- Humanoid Motion Alignment: Develop novel algorithms to align human-centric video representations with the kinematic constraints of 20+ DoF humanoid systems, ensuring fluid and stable execution.
- Reinforcement Learning & Fine-tuning: Utilize Offline RL and high-fidelity simulation fine-tuning to optimize foundation model performance for high-success-rate physical manipulation.
- Cross-Functional Research: Translate cutting-edge research in scaling laws and world models into production-ready architectures that enhance robot reliability and autonomy.
Requirements
- PhD or Master’s degree in Robotics, Machine Learning, or a closely related field, with a strong focus on data-driven manipulation, egocentric vision, or foundation models.
- Experience with Humanoid or Dexterous Manipulation, including a deep understanding of contact-rich physics.
- Excellent knowledge of Python, PyTorch, and the distributed training of large-scale neural networks (FSDP, NCCL).
- Proven expertise in Diffusion Models, Flow Matching, and Transformers.
- Hands-on experience deploying learning-based controllers on real robot hardware.
- Experience with Reinforcement Learning and simulation environments (e.g., IsaacLab, MuJoCo)
Benefits
- 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 Europe's leading robotics team & exposure to never-done-before research
- Energetic, collaborative culture with a bias for action and regular community events