AI Research Software Engineer

About

The Apertus Initiative, a joint effort between EPFL and ETH Zürich, seeks talented engineers to join our team developing the next generation of open foundation models. Working with the world's most powerful public AI supercomputer (Alps), we aim to create open and transparent LLMs and multimodal AI models that benefit Swiss society while maintaining technological sovereignty.

Main duties and responsibilities

We are looking for AI Research Software Engineers with expertise in one or more of the following areas:

• Distributed AI training and optimization
• Data curation (text and multimodal)
• Model evaluation and benchmarking
• Inference systems and deployment
• Reasoning
• Multi-modal AI models

Profile

• MSc in Computer Science, Data Science, AI or related field (exceptional BSc candidates will also be considered)
• Experience in AI and neural network architectures
• Strong programming skills in Python and knowledge of PyTorch or similar ML frameworks
• Experience with software development practices, including version control systems, debugging, testing, and deployment.
• Excellent problem-solving abilities and strong analytical skills.
• Ability to work effectively in a team as well as independently.

Please note that only applications meeting the criteria of the advertisement will be considered.

We offer

• A stimulating academic environment at one of the world's leading technical universities
• The opportunity to work with state-of-the-art supercomputing infrastructure and cutting-edge AI research
• Collaboration with top researchers and engineers from EPFL, ETH Zurich, CSCS, and other Swiss institutions
• Flexible working arrangements, including options for remote work
• Professional development opportunities, including conference attendance and specialized training
• The chance to contribute to open-source projects with global impact
• Access to the broader Swiss academic ecosystem and industry partnerships
• Being part of Switzerland's sovereign AI development, working on technology with national significance

Informations

• Contract Start Date : as soon as possible
• Activity Rate Min : 80.00
• Activity Rate Max : 100.00
• Contract Type: CDD
• Duration: 1 year, renewable
• Reference: 2192