Research Engineer

About Pallon

At Pallon, a spin-off from ETH Zurich, we’re creating AI that automatically detects defects in sewer inspection videos and advises cities on when & how to fix them. By providing more precise, objective data, we aim to fix wastewater leaks, reduce CO2 emissions, and prevent urban flooding. Our mission is to make cities more sustainable and resilient.

The Role

This is a hands-on, high-impact role. You’ll make decisions on model selection, system architecture, and performance tradeoffs, while also diving deep into the code and data — whether that’s reading research papers, optimizing GPU training performance, debugging a tricky edge case, or reviewing videos to understand the remaining failure cases.

In this role, you will:

• Research and develop computer vision methods for scene understanding (like 3D reconstruction, SLAM, object detection, segmentation) to solve real-world problems.
• Work hands-on to turn your research into robust, production-ready code.
• Help improve how we do research, design software, and maintain code quality.
• Share your knowledge and help mentor other engineers on the team.
  
  

Requirements

We are looking for candidates with:

• Either: a PhD focused on Machine Learning or Computer Vision with publications at well-known conferences.
• Or: 5 years of industry experience taking Machine Learning projects from research to production, coupled with a degree in Computer Science, Mathematics, or similar.
  
  

Successful candidates will also demonstrate:

• Strong collaborative and communication skills, contributing to an environment of mutual learning.
• The ability to work independently but know when to team up or ask questions.
• Solid software engineering experience building real-world systems as part of a team.
  
  

Our Tech Stack

You don’t need to have experience with all of this — but here’s what we use today:

• Deep Learning: Python, Pytorch
• Computer Vision: C , OpenCV, Ceres, Eigen
• Infrastructure: Slurm, our GPU cluster, Kubernetes, Docker
  
  

Benefits & Team Culture

As a part of Pallon, you will:

• Contribute to a positive impact on society and the environment.
• Develop a novel product that changes a whole industry.
• Be part of a motivated, smart, fun, and supportive team of software engineers and AI researchers.
• Own a part of Pallon and have a part in our success with our Employee Stock Option Plan (ESOP).
• Work for the Underworld, not the Devil: exploring sewers virtually and in real life during our Pallon offsites.
• Work from home or enjoy access to our beautiful office space located in Zürich.
  
  

Inclusion statement

At Pallon, we highly value equality of opportunity and inclusivity, and we would like to particularly encourage women and candidates from under-represented backgrounds to apply, even if you don’t match with 100% of the requirements.