Product Manager - Humanoid Platform
About the job
- Product management experience on developer-facing products such as software development kits, application programming interfaces, developer platforms, or embedded tooling.
- A strong technical foundation, including the ability to read and navigate a C++ codebase and participate in architecture discussions.
- A working understanding of robot software stacks, including real-time control loops, sensor and actuator interfaces, and the differences between software behavior in simulation and on hardware.
- Experience working with external developer communities or business-to-business technical customers, ideally supporting integration into third-party hardware or platforms.
- Willingness to travel to customer sites across Europe and beyond, up to 15%.
- Define the desired developer experience for engineers working with humanoid robots.
- Own the product roadmap for developer tooling, including software development kits, application programming interfaces, command-line tools, graphical user interfaces, diagnostics, and integration frameworks.
- Own the productized path to deploying policies on robots at scale, including measuring differences between real hardware and its model, closing that gap, determining which pipeline components should be self-served, and providing runtime observability tooling.
- Support hardware design engagements with robot manufacturers by translating simulation-based capability analysis into actionable design recommendations for mechanical teams.
- Work hands-on with robots by running integrations, reproducing bugs, and validating that tooling works in real-world conditions.
- Establish documentation, tutorials, and reference architectures that enable customer teams to self-serve where possible, and monitor adoption using quantitative signals and qualitative feedback to prioritize the backlog.
- Spend time in the testing space with robots, visit customer sites to understand integration pain points, and translate findings into a roadmap that accelerates subsequent deployments.
- Manage product scope across the lifecycle, from evaluating a robot platform before it exists in hardware through onboarding, integration, production monitoring, and maintenance.
- Experience in robotics, control theory, system identification, motion planning, or actuator modelling.
- Hands-on experience with robots, embedded systems, or other physical products where software meets the real world.
- Exposure to safety certification or regulated-machinery requirements.
About the company
Flexion Robotics builds the AI brain for humanoid robots, creating an autonomy stack that lets robots understand natural-language tasks, plan movements, and control their whole body through reinforcement learning and sim-to-real training. The stack has three layers: a command layer that uses language models for task decomposition, a motion layer with vision-language-action models trained largely on synthetic data, and a low-latency whole-body control layer with modular skills. The company differentiates itself with a strong ETH Zurich–trained team and a full-stack approach that covers language understanding, motion planning, and real-time control, plus partnerships and funding to commercialize the autonomy stack with OEMs. Its goal is to achieve useful, widespread autonomy for humanoid robots by scaling robot fleets and establishing a US presence through OEM collaborations.
Company Size
51-200
Company Stage
Series A
Total Funding
$57.4M
Headquarters
Zurich, Switzerland
Founded
2025
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Simplify's Take
What believers are saying
- September 2026 careers pages list nine roles, including US research scientist and forward-deployed robotics.
- The company raised $50 million in November 2025, funding compute and robot-fleet expansion.
- Flexion says it already works with major OEM partners, supporting near-term pilots.
What critics are saying
- Flexion still lacks named customers, paid deployments, and audited autonomy metrics as of September 2026.
- Unitree hardware dependence and simulator-to-reality failures can stall commercialization before 2027.
- OpenAI, Google, Tesla, and Figure can outspend Flexion, crushing its OEM partnerships.
What makes Flexion Robotics unique
- Flexion’s November 2025 Series A paired DST Global Partners with NVentures backing.
- Its stack spans language planning, vision-language-action, and whole-body control through reinforcement learning.
- September 2026 hiring shows Zurich R&D plus San Francisco research, signaling global execution.
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12%Swiss Robotics startups 2026: 8 companies shaping the future of Physical AI. 02.10.2026 Rita Longobardi Powered by the world-class talent and research of ETH Zurich and EPFL, Switzerland has become a global hotspot for robotics innovation. Today, a new wave of startups is combining robotics, AI, and advanced engineering to develop the next generation of intelligent machines. With over 50 venture-backed robotics startups and 8 companies featured in the Top100 Swiss Startup Ranking 2026, the ecosystem is gaining international reach. Where Physical AI becomes reality. Switzerland has developed into the Silicon Valley of robotics. The country is home to more than 50 venture-backed robotics startups, more than any other nation relative to its population. At ETH Zurich and EPFL, ideas are rapidly transformed into machines that walk, fly, or dive. A new generation of engineers is combining advances in hardware, software, artificial intelligence, and sensing technologies to develop humanoids, soft robots, and autonomous systems, laying the foundation for a new wave of Physical AI solutions. Swiss Robotics at a Glance: * 50+ venture-backed robotics startups * ETH Zurich & EPFL drive robotics research and innovation * 8 robotics startups in the Top100 Swiss Startup Ranking 2026 Switzerland's robotics champions. Since 2011, a jury of 100 investors and industry experts has identified Switzerland's most promising startups early, recognising the companies with the potential to become future global leaders. The Top100 captures companies not older than five years, but the story does not end with the ranking. Many former Top100 startups have since grown into internationally established robotics companies: ANYbotics, Auterion, Distalmotion, Dufour Aerospace, Ecorobotix, Embotech, Flyability, Fotokite, H55, Verity Studios, Voliro, and Wingtra are among the companies that have grown from promising Swiss startups into established players on the international stage. Their work spans industrial robotics, autonomous vehicles, drones, aerial mobility, surgical robotics, agricultural technology, and inspection systems, illustrating the breadth of Switzerland's robotics ecosystem. "The next generation of logistics robots will work hand in hand with humans. These collaborative systems can move and grasp objects; they can also be directed using everyday language and find their way to the assigned task independently." Franziska Bossart Amazon Innovation Fund Most promising Swiss Robotics startups 2026, according to investors. The Top100 Swiss Startup Ranking showcases the 100 Swiss startups with the greatest potential. One hundred startup investors and industry experts each nominate 10 startups that are no older than five years. From industrial robotics and autonomous systems to drones and aerial mobility, the 8 robotics companies in this year's Top100 Swiss Startup Ranking show the breadth of innovation emerging from Switzerland's technology ecosystem. Nikita Rudin, Co-founder & CEO of Flexion Robotics, ranked #6 and awarded on stage as the hottest robotics startup of 2026, and Patrick Thevoz, Co-founder & CEO of Flyability Meet the 8 robotics startups in the Top100 2026. Flexion Robotics | Robotics | Zurich Flexion Robotics builds the autonomy stack for humanoid robots, from command to control, from manipulation to locomotion, across any hardware and task. mimic robotics | Robotics | Zurich mimic revolutionizes the robotics industry by developing robots that seamlessly integrate into human environments and rapidly learn new tasks. Tethys Robotics | Robotics | Zurich Tethys Robotics develops autonomous underwater robots that enable precise, reliable inspections in challenging environments. RoBoa | Robotics | Zurich RoBoa develops snake-like robots that navigate confined spaces, enabling safer and more efficient inspections. Flink Robotics | Robotics | Zurich Flink Robotics develops intelligent software solutions that make robots adaptable to a wide range of material-handling tasks. Gravis Robotics | Robotics | Zurich Gravis Robotics develops autonomous systems that enable heavy machinery to perform construction and mining tasks more efficiently. CDDS | Robotics | Zurich CDDS develops fully autonomous kinetic interceptor drones that neutralize Group 1 and 2 threats (up to 25kg drones) through direct mid-air collision. FireDrone | Robotics | Zurich FireDrone addresses the need for safe and efficient tools in extreme temperature environments such as firefighting and industrial inspection. "In both fields - computer vision and locomotion - the two ETHs are international leaders." Roland Siegwart ETH Professor Investors continue to back Swiss Robotics. The sector continues to attract significant capital. Gravis Robotics raised CHF 162 million in August 2026, followed by Auterion with CHF 83 million in September 2025 and Flexion Robotics with CHF 40 million in December 2025. Verity, Wingtra and ANYbotics also secured CHF 30 million, CHF 21 million and CHF 16 million, respectively. These rounds span companies at very different stages, from early-stage startups such as Flexion Robotics and mimic robotics to more established players such as Gravis Robotics and Auterion. They also show that investor appetite extends well beyond the companies currently eligible for the Top100 ranking. From investment to exit. Beyond funding rounds and rankings, successful exits offer another measure of the ecosystem's maturity. They show that technologies developed by Swiss robotics startups are attracting leading global industrial and technology companies. For example, Zurich-based Sevensense Robotics was acquired by ABB, bringing its AI-powered 3D vision technology for autonomous mobile robots into ABB's robotics and automation portfolio. The deal highlights how Swiss robotics technologies are finding applications within global industrial platforms. | Startup | Acquired by | | RIVR Technologies AG | Amazon | | Daedalean AG | Destinus | | Sevensense Robotics AG | ABB | Recent funding rounds and acquisitions demonstrate the strength of Switzerland's robotics ecosystem. Yet the most exciting developments may still lie ahead. As investors continue to back ambitious founders and new technologies, the startups emerging today have the potential to become tomorrow's global robotics leaders. Discover all Swiss robotics startups on www.startup.ch. From early funding to global expansion. From first funding to international growth, Venture Kick, Venture Leaders, and Top100 provide Swiss startups with access to capital, expertise, networks, and global markets, helping promising ideas become internationally competitive companies: Venture Kick is a philanthropic three-stage funding model supporting Swiss startups with up to CHF 150,000 in initial funding. Selected companies can also access an additional CHF 150,000 through InnoBooster and CHF 850,000 in equity from Kickfund. Since 2007, Venture Kick has invested CHF 100+ million to support 1,234+ startup projects from Swiss universities. For 20 years, Venturelab and its partners have selected ten of Switzerland's most promising startups per sector for the Swiss National Startup Team. The Venture Leaders Technology roadshow brings the 10 most promising Swiss biotech startups to an investor and business development roadshow in Boston. As Switzerland's benchmark for startup excellence, Top100 Swiss Startups identifies and showcases the entrepreneurs driving its future. Through events, networking, and global visibility, the platform empowers the world shapers of tomorrow. Get in touch. You have questions about Top100 or would like to exchange ideas with Top100? Feel free to contact me.
Flexion Robotics raised a $7.35M seed round from Frst, Moonfire, and redalpine involving Flexion Robotics with investors including Frst, Moonfire Ventures, Redalpine. Nordic9.com tracks European startup funding, M&A and investor activity.
David Hoeller and Nikita Rudin nervously called Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang to announce they were leaving to start Flexion Robotics. The pair had worked on robotics at the chip giant, helping develop simulation technology. Huang didn't try to retain them but criticised their planned startup name, Checkpoint, calling it bad. He also warned them about the challenges ahead, saying they didn't realise how tough the journey would be. Nvidia later invested in Flexion, which has now raised over $57 million and opened a San Francisco office after hiring researchers from companies like Meta. Former Nvidia employee Bing Xu received similar directness when leaving to found INT21. Huang spent two hours trying to convince him to stay and told him poor communication was his biggest weakness.
Zurich-based startup Flexion has raised $50 million, bringing its total funding to $57.35 million. Founded in January by former Nvidia researchers, the company is developing a universal "intelligence layer" for humanoid robots that works across different robot bodies and tasks. Flexion's system uses synthetic data from physics simulations and combines linguistic processing, motion generation and full-body control based on transformer architecture—the same technology behind large language models. Unlike traditional approaches requiring manual programming or remote control, the platform enables autonomous robot operation. The company plans to licence its software annually per robot rather than building hardware itself. Fresh capital will fund a Bay Area office, team expansion in Zurich and a larger testing robot fleet. The robotics sector attracted over $10.7 billion globally by November, reflecting strong investor interest.
Ex-Nvidia engineers build office robot that actually works. * Flexion Robotics, a Swiss startup founded by former NVIDIA robotics engineers, introduced a humanoid robot designed specifically for office environments rather than factories. * AI training combines simulation, imitation learning, and reinforcement learning, allowing robots to learn reusable skills instead of being programmed for one specific task. * Demonstrated capabilities include retrieving packages, opening doors, climbing stairs, riding elevators, unpacking deliveries, filing documents, organizing workspaces, carrying supplies, and performing repetitive office tasks autonomously. * Unlike many humanoid demonstrations that rely heavily on teleoperation, Flexion claims its robots require minimal human intervention after training and can adapt learned skills to new office scenarios. * Office automation is emerging as the next commercial battleground alongside manufacturing, with companies targeting labor shortages, repetitive administrative work, and lower deployment costs for humanoids.