--- title: 'Engineering Manager - Software/Cloud at RIVR' canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/engineering-manager-software-cloud-rivr-zurich-6jq022nk8mjn' type: 'job' last_seen: '2026-09-07' --- # Engineering Manager - Software/Cloud at RIVR - **Company:** RIVR - **Location:** Zurich, Switzerland - **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-07 - **Apply:** https://jobs.lever.co/rivr/210d7a90-8f3f-4d00-8b95-7a5b81fae140 ## Job description RIVR, part of Amazon is a robotics company pioneering Physical AI through real-world doorstep delivery. Founded in 2024 as an ETH Zurich spin-off, RIVR developed wheeled-legged robots designed to operate in complex, unstructured environments such as stairs, gates, doors, and uneven urban terrain. We believe that achieving general physical intelligence requires solving real customer problems in the real world, where robots can learn from rich operational data at scale. Following our acquisition by Amazon in March 2026, we are continuing this mission with greater reach and speed. By combining custom robot hardware, onboard autonomy, and cloud-based coordination, RIVR, part of Amazon is building the next generation of safe, reliable autonomous robots for last-mile delivery ## What you’ll be doing - Lead, mentor, and grow a team of 5–8 DevOps, backend and full-stack engineers, conducting regular 1-on-1s, managing performance, and fostering a culture of high ownership, psychological safety, and candid feedback. - Partner closely with other teams to design seamless, end-to-end features for robot operations and real-world delivery experiences. - Collaborate with the bigger software org to structure projects, align timelines and adjust execution. - Represent your team in technical and product discussions with Senior and Principal stakeholders. - Own the team’s sprint planning, backlog grooming, and roadmap execution, while protecting your team from distractions, removing blockers proactively, and ensuring the steady velocity of high-quality software features. - Be closely connected with the technology in your team, use your judgement to evaluate technical decisions and short-long term tradeoffs. - Raise the bar for system availability, latency, and observability, while overseeing the team’s on-call rotations, running post-mortems for production incidents, and continuously improving CI/CD pipelines. - Maintain a business-oriented mindset, translating complex logistical and operational requirements into concrete, scalable technical milestones that deliver immediate value to the field. ## What you must have - 4+ years of experience formally leading engineering teams, managing sprints, and coaching developers. - 7+ years of professional experience building and operating large-scale backend systems in a Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) or microservices context. - Proven experience architecting solutions on AWS. - Proven experience operating a complex SOA architecture at scale. Deep familiarity with failure modes in distributed systems and mechanisms to reduce the blast radius of outages and regressions. - Experience with building and operating ML training infrastructure, integrating it in the SDLC. Experience with handling sensitive data and ensuring its safety and compliance. - Proven ability to delegate and grow, yet remain connected to the technology details. - Strong judgement: you identify and call-out one-way doors, you can independently check Senior Engineers’ assumptions and designs, you anticipate the impact and future cost of shortcuts and weight them against your immediate priorities. - A deep sense of Ownership, a relentless drive to Earn Trust, and a passion for Developing the Best talent. - Exceptional communication skills, with the ability to articulate complex technical ideas clearly to both technical teams and non-technical stakeholders. Get some bonus points - Exposure to cloud services communicating with physical edge devices such as robots. - Background in robotics, IoT, fleet management, or real-time data streaming systems. - Familiarity with observability tools (OTLP, Grafana, Prometheus) optimized for physical devices experiencing intermittent connectivity. - Experience with Security topics in the context of cloud systems. - Experience navigating organizational growth or integrating startup systems into large enterprise environments. ## About RIVR ## Company Overview - **One-liner**: RIVR builds autonomous wheeled-legged robots powered by Physical AI to automate doorstep delivery, from the street to the door. - **Entity Type**: Private (acquired by Amazon in March 2026; previously venture-backed with $29M total funding) - **Headquarters**: Zurich, Switzerland - **Founded**: 2023 (originally as Swiss-Mile, rebranded to RIVR) - **Founders**: Marko Bjelonic (CEO), Lorenz Wellhausen (CTO Software), Giorgio Valsecchi (CTO Hardware), Alexander Reske (COO) ## Core Business - **Primary industry**: Robotics Engineering / Physical AI for last-mile delivery - **Target customers**: B2B – logistics providers, e‑commerce companies, grocery delivery services (e.g., Swiss Post, Migros Online) - **Mission**: “Pioneering Physical AI to revolutionize doorstep delivery” – combining neural networks with wheeled‑leg robots to master the last 100 yards of delivery. ## Products & Services - **RIVR ONE**: A wheeled‑legged delivery robot that climbs stairs, steps over curbs, opens gates, and carries multiple parcels/groceries securely. Equipped with cameras, LiDAR, and a robotic arm for dexterous manipulation. - **Physical AI Platform**: Reinforcement learning (simulated data + parallel GPU training) and supervised/imitation learning (real‑world data) that enable autonomous navigation and manipulation. A data flywheel collects teleoperation feedback to continuously improve autonomy. - **Global Operations Software**: Cloud infrastructure for fleet management, including 24/7 remote assistance and API integration for custom deployments. ## Market Standing - **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not disclosed (acquired by Amazon; prior valuation unknown) - **Key Metric**: Total funding raised – $29M (Seed round led by Bezos Expeditions and HSG, plus grants from Innosuisse) - **Notable Investors/Partners**: Bezos Expeditions, HSG, Innosuisse; pilot partners include Swiss Post and Migros Online - **Growth Signals**: Acquired by Amazon in March 2026; already has customers requiring “tens of thousands of robots”; workforce of 48 employees with 12.2% monthly headcount growth; 19 active job postings as of mid‑2026 ## Competitive Advantages - **Wheeled‑leg design** offers 5× battery life and speed, and 10× coverage of traditional legged robots, while still climbing stairs and navigating uneven terrain. - **Data flywheel**: Each deployed robot generates real‑world data that feeds supervised and imitation learning, creating a self‑reinforcing improvement loop. RIVR claims it will generate more daily data than YouTube within four years. - **Full‑stack approach**: Proprietary learning algorithms, simulation environments, and hardware co‑design allow tight integration between AI and embodiment. - **Amazon backing**: Post‑acquisition, RIVR gains access to Amazon’s logistics network, resources, and scale, accelerating deployment. ## Strategic Focus - **General Physical AI**: RIVR’s long‑term vision is to build a general‑purpose Physical AI that can handle diverse real‑world tasks, using doorstep delivery as the initial catalyst. - **Scaling deployment**: Moving from pilot (Swiss Post/Migros) to mass production and global rollout, leveraging Amazon’s infrastructure. - **Talent acquisition**: Actively hiring senior AI engineers (reinforcement learning, imitation learning, VLA foundation models), hardware engineers, and robotics software specialists to grow the technical team. ## Why Work Here - **Cutting‑edge technology**: Work on Physical AI, reinforcement learning, and advanced robotics at the intersection of software and hardware. - **Zurich location**: Office and development lab in the heart of Zürich; relocation bonus offered. - **Compensation & perks**: Competitive, transparent salary; Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP); annual performance‑based bonus; five weeks of vacation. - **Team & culture**: Work alongside top engineers from ETH Zurich, Amazon, Meta, and leading robotics labs. Flat hierarchy with a strong technical focus. - **Remote/hybrid policy**: On‑site presence expected (all current job postings are “On‑site – Full”); the robotics lab requires physical presence. - **Growth opportunity**: Being part of an Amazon‑owned company provides stability and resources while still operating with a startup‑like engineering intensity. ## Sources 1. [rivr.ai/careers](https://www.rivr.ai/careers) 2. [rivr.ai/about-rivr](https://www.rivr.ai/about-rivr) 3. [linkedin.com/company/rivr-technologies](https://linkedin.com/company/rivr-technologies) 4. [jobs.lever.co/rivr](https://jobs.lever.co/rivr) 5. [rivr.ai/technology](https://www.rivr.ai/technology) ## Other roles at RIVR - [Head of QA](https://feeny.ai/job/head-of-qa-rivr-zurich-g0ewwjh70nk0) — Zurich, Switzerland - [Robotics Trade Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/robotics-trade-manager-rivr-zurich-d74taspy2ntw) — Zurich, Switzerland - [Hardware Engineering Intern](https://feeny.ai/job/hardware-engineering-intern-rivr-zurich-ebsfbd6aa885) — Zurich, Switzerland - [(Senior) Quality Assurance Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-quality-assurance-engineer-rivr-shanghai-6906w6grj552) — Shanghai, China - [Mechanical Engineer (Junior)](https://feeny.ai/job/mechanical-engineer-junior-rivr-zurich-7yj19pqvm17s) — Zurich, Switzerland - [Senior Software Engineer – Backend](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-software-engineer-backend-rivr-zurich-rh4k76q18at1) — Zurich, Switzerland - [Buyer](https://feeny.ai/job/buyer-rivr-shanghai-kcr16ee1a0zc) — Shanghai, China - [Assembly Operator Intern](https://feeny.ai/job/assembly-operator-intern-rivr-shanghai-r8bhjvf428q7) — Shanghai, China - [Hardware integration Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/hardware-integration-engineer-rivr-shanghai-xz2anwhe3xkz) — Shanghai, China - [Software Engineer – DevOps](https://feeny.ai/job/software-engineer-devops-rivr-zurich-c3gv79vpnrfs) — Zurich, Switzerland