---
title: 'Senior Electronics Engineer – Functional Safety at RIVR'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/senior-electronics-engineer-functional-safety-rivr-zurich-6559gbs405j8'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-14'
---

# Senior Electronics Engineer – Functional Safety at RIVR

- **Company:** RIVR
- **Location:** Zurich, Switzerland
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-08-21
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-14
- **Apply:** https://jobs.lever.co/rivr/d5c46417-896e-4418-83af-529ada547a57

## 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.

Job Description As a Senior Electronics Engineer – Functional Safety, you will own the hardware-level Functional Safety design for our robots’ custom electronics. You will design fault-tolerant circuits at the schematic and PCB level — implementing redundant architectures, hardware diagnostics, and safe-state mechanisms — and perform the quantitative reliability analysis to substantiate that your designs meet the required Safety Integrity Level. This is a hands-on circuit design role, not a systems-level safety concept or process management position.

## What You’ll Be Doing

- Design fault-tolerant circuits for safety-critical subsystems, selecting appropriate safety architectures (e.g., 1oo2, 1oo2D) based on the required SIL target.
- Implement hardware diagnostic and monitoring mechanisms to detect dangerous failures.
- Design circuits that enforce a defined safe state when a fault is detected.
- Apply Common-Cause Failure mitigation techniques at the component and PCB level.
- Perform FMEDA on your own schematics — identifying failure modes per component and calculating Safe Failure Fraction (SFF) and Diagnostic Coverage (DC).
- Build Reliability Block Diagrams and compute SIL metrics to verify your designs meet the target.
- Select and derate components based on failure rate data, mission profiles, and expected lifetime.
- Advise system architects on hardware safety constraints and review PCB layouts for safety compliance.
- Collaborate with electronics, firmware, and systems engineering teams to integrate safety functions into the overall robot design.
- Create and maintain Functional Safety documentation for your hardware modules.

## What You Must Have

- Master’s degree or higher in Electrical Engineering, Electronics, or a closely related field.
- 5+ years designing electronics hardware for Functional Safety–certified products.
- Proven work under IEC 61508 (preferred), ISO 13849, or ISO 26262.
- Delivered PCB-level hardware that achieved SIL 2 or SIL 3 (or equivalent PL d/e, ASIL B–D) certification.
- Background in analog, power, and/or mixed-signal circuit design.
- Hands-on experience implementing safety architectures in schematics — not just block diagrams.
- Ability to perform FMEDA and SIL metrics calculations on your own designs.
- Understanding of failure rate data sources and component derating for reliability.
- Strong problem-solving skills and ability to debug fault-tolerant hardware.
- Comfortable working cross-functionally with firmware, mechanical, and systems teams.

Get Some Bonus Points

- Experience with safety-rated ICs (safe supply supervisors, safety MCUs, smart drivers with diagnostic feedback).
- Has contributed to or authored a Safety Manual for a hardware module.
- Familiar with Proven-in-Use argumentation for off-the-shelf components.
- PCB layout skills relevant to safety (creepage/clearance, redundant channel routing).
- Experience with circuit simulation (SPICE) to verify fault response behaviour.
- Experience in robotics, automotive, aerospace, or medical device sectors.
- PhD degree in a relevant engineering discipline.

RIVR, part of Amazon is committed to building a diverse and inclusive team that values every perspective. If you’re passionate about driving innovation in robotics and creating meaningful impact, we encourage you to apply and bring your unique self to our team. We believe the best work is done when collaborating and therefore require in-person presence in our office locations.

## 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)

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