Founding Engineer AI & Product Development

Flycatcher | Lugano, Switzerland | Early-Stage Founding Team | Initial Work for Equity

What we do

Flycatcher builds unsupervised anomaly detection software for industrial inspections. Our system runs on edge devices and detects defects without the need for extensive training datasets.​

Incubated at the USI Startup Centre, supported by the NVIDIA Inception program, and funded by Venture Kick, we are a small team working closely with early customers in transportation and logistics (including SBB and Contrepair) to deploy our technology in the real world.

You will be the foundation of our engineering team. We need a talent dense enough to set the technical standard for everyone we hire after you. If you don't push us to be better, this isn't the right fit.

What you'll do

As part of the founding team, your mission is to work elbow-to-elbow with the founders to deliver our current products to customers while building the future platform of Flycatcher. You will wear many hats and lead our engineering efforts across the full technology stack:

• Technical Discovery: Alongside executing the immediate roadmap, you will collaborate closely with the founders to define our technical strategy, actively figuring out the architecture and features needed for our next phase of growth.


• AI & Core Tech: Design and implement computer vision models for real-time defect detection using our Python-native stack (PyTorch, timm, W&B).


• Edge Deployment: Deploy and optimize models on resource-constrained hardware directly at logistics gates (NVIDIA Jetson Orin, TensorRT, ONNX, Docker).​


• Backend & Infrastructure: Build the APIs and data pipelines that connect the edge to the cloud (FastAPI, PostgreSQL, Celery/Redis).


• Product & Frontend: Build the web applications needed to deliver our technology to end users (Next.js, Tailwind CSS), owning features end-to-end, from the core AI model straight to the client's dashboard.


• Lean Operations: Maintain lean MLOps and DevOps infrastructure that supports rapid iteration (GitHub Actions, Terraform, S3/MinIO).

This role requires being with us ~80% of the time. We work closely together, often solving problems collaboratively at the whiteboard, debugging deployments on-site, or in direct conversation with customers.

What we're looking for

• Technical Foundation: Strong background in computer vision and deep learning (MSc/PhD level).


• Builder's Agency: You don't just wait for a Jira ticket to tell you what to do. You have a proactive attitude: you deliver what's needed today while independently identifying the problems we need to solve tomorrow.


• Full-Stack Pragmatism: Hands-on experience building web applications (Next.js/React). You don't need to be a UI designer, but you must be able to ship functional, user-facing code independently.


• Edge AI: Experience with hardware-accelerated inference and edge computing environments.


• Startup DNA: Ability to work independently, think in systems, and make technical decisions with limited resources. You are comfortable with the pace, ambiguity, and "all-hands-on-deck" nature of early-stage startup work.


• Language: Fluent in English (Italian and German are a plus).

What we offer

• The Ground Floor: Meaningful equity as a core member of the founding team. You are joining right as we prepare our pre-seed round, backed by strong early commercial traction.


• The Path to Full-Time: Until the round closes, we operate on a flexible 80% commitment. We care about outcomes, not hours. Your execution speed directly accelerates our funding timeline and the transition to a 100% full-time role with a full salary.


• Impact & Ownership: Direct ownership over Flycatcher's technical direction, architecture, and product development.


• Early-Stage Velocity: Decisions in hours, your code in production within weeks. No silos, no hierarchy.


• A Culture of Builders: Built on ownership, speed, and intellectual honesty. We work closely together, share context openly, and solve problems as a team.


• Elite Ecosystem: Access to NVIDIA Inception resources and active research partnerships with IDSIA, USI, and SUPSI.


• The Lifestyle: Build world-class AI while living in Lugano. Lake, mountains, 300 days of sun. Live where others vacation.

The Endgame: The market for automated inspection is massive, our deep-tech is proven, and we already have tier-1 traction. Now we need the engineering foundation to scale this and put our edge nodes on thousands of logistics gates worldwide.