Applied Research Software Engineer – GenAI R&D for Future-Proof Teaching

Your responsibilities will include hands-on product development, where you'll ship new features in a React and TypeScript front-end designed for both desktop and mobile users. You will also extend Python-based agent pipelines (e.g., LangGraph) and integrate diverse large language models (LLMs) and multimodal vision models. Additionally, you'll build and maintain data flows specifically tailored for recognizing handwritten mathematics, diagrams, and code, and manage systems that provide timely feedback or rubric-based scoring.

In your role focusing on open-source engineering, you'll design clean, modular APIs and publish all contributions under permissive licenses. You will actively review pull requests, enhance documentation, and help grow a vibrant, engaged contributor community.

Regarding infrastructure and operations, you'll take ownership of Linux servers operating within Docker Swarm, automating builds and deployments through GitHub Actions. You'll also reinforce the robustness of monitoring and logging systems to ensure reproducibility, with Kubernetes experience being a beneficial skill.

For R&D prototyping, you will evaluate emerging models and tools, quickly develop proofs of concept, and strategically transition promising ideas into production-ready solutions.

Finally, you'll engage in collaboration and mentoring by pair-programming with master’s students, sharing best practices, and working closely with course instructors to iteratively refine projects.

Required skills & experience

• Modern React (Hooks, responsive design) and strong TypeScript.
• Solid Python skills and familiarity with Node.js for implementing services and agent logic.
• Confident on Linux and fluent with Docker Swarm (compose-to-swarm workflows, secrets, volumes, overlay networking).
• Comfortable with LaTeX for maths-heavy content.
• Experience connecting LLMs and multimodal models (prompting, RAG, structured output).
• Git and GitHub Actions (or similar) and a test-as-you-go mindset.
• Able to work on site at ETH Zurich (primarily in Oerlikon) at least three days per week on average, with flexibility to work remotely the remaining days.
• Master’s degree in computer science, applied information, data science, or another STEM degree with corresponding experience.
• Excellent spoken and written English.
• Curiosity.

Nice to have

• Conversational German for campus interactions.
• Kubernetes or other container-orchestration experience.
• Experience with R and Maxima.
• Familiarity with interactive homework or learning-content management systems.
• Background in handwriting recognition, exam workflows, or computer vision.
• Notable open-source contributions, especially in ed-tech.
• Understanding of Swiss or European university teaching contexts.