Applied Research Engineer - 3D Generation & Physically Based Simulation

About Arbrea Labs

Arbrea Labs is an ETH spin-off from the Computer Graphics Lab at ETH Zurich. We are a team of specialists in computer graphics, computer vision, physically based simulation, and artificial intelligence, building state-of-the-art AI, AR, and 3D tools for medical aesthetics and plastic surgery.

Our software lets surgeons and aesthetic doctors capture a patient with an iPad or iPhone and, in well under two minutes, generate a digital human avatar to pre-visualize potential outcomes for breast, facial, and body procedures improving communication, trust, and patient satisfaction. Our products, including the Arbrea Suite, Arbrea Breast, Arbrea Face, Arbrea Body, and myArbrea, are used by leading clinics worldwide, and our new Arbrea 3.0 release brings them together into one seamless ecosystem.

Backed by world-class talent from ETH Zurich and Disney Research and supported by Innosuisse and Venturelab, we are looking to expand our team with key people who have strong technical skills and a real drive to learn and get involved in a start-up environment. We consider full-time candidates as well as interns who may transition fully into the team.

About the Role

As an Applied Research Engineer with focus on 3D generation & physically based simulation at Arbrea Labs, you will build the engines and the data generation pipelines that make our digital human avatars look and behave like real bodies. Your work sits at the interface between research and production: generating large-scale synthetic 3D human data to train our reconstruction and simulation AI models, and developing physically based simulations of soft tissue, implants, and body deformation that drive realistic, real-time surgical outcome previews across devices.

As one of the key people on the team, you will have a strong influence on the core technology behind our entire product ecosystem. This will give you, together with the team, the opportunity to grow into world leaders in AI- and AR-driven medical aesthetics. You will work with friendly, passionate, and easy-going colleagues who are very willing to offer guidance and have a beer at regular team events. The environment is flexible, with offices in a leading technology hub, attractive salaries, and employee participation plans.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement 3D simulation systems for anatomical modeling.
• Develop physics-based algorithms for soft tissue deformation and biomechanical behavior.
• Research and prototype next-generation AI-based simulation technologies, bridging classical physics solvers with emerging neural-dynamics approaches.
• Contribute to the architecture and technical direction of Arbrea’s simulation platform.
• Collaborate with AI engineers, product teams, and medical experts to improve simulation realism.
• Cultivate Technical Agility: Rapidly adapt to new simulation methodologies. Learn quickly and adapt as our pipeline grows, occasionally leaning into adjacent 3D reconstruction and body digitization workflows to ensure seamless integration with the core simulation engine.

Requirements

• MSc or PhD in Computer Graphics, Simulation Engineering, Physics, Computer Science, or related field.
• Strong experience with Python and numerical computation libraries (e.g., NumPy or deep learning frameworks), or similar.
• Solid understanding of physics simulation, numerical methods, and 3D geometry processing.
• Experience with graphics engines and rendering pipelines.
• Strong mathematical and analytical skills.
• Excellent communication skills in English.
• Willing to take ownership and be part of a rapidly growing venture.

Nice to Have

• Synthetic and procedural 3D data generation, ideally of human bodies and faces (e.g. parametric body models such as SMPL).
• Physically based simulation: FEM, soft-body / soft-tissue mechanics, deformation, MPM, and real-time approximations.
• Computer graphics and rendering (real-time, path tracing, and/or differentiable rendering). Experience with tools such as Blender, Houdini, Unity, or Unreal, and/or established simulation frameworks.
• Experience designing and implementing Deep Neural Networks is a plus, especially in the context of neural simulation and differentiable rendering.
• C++ and GPU programming (e.g. CUDA) are a plus.
• 3D reconstruction, tracking, and inverse modelling is a plus.

What We Offer

• Opportunity to build industry-leading simulation technology.
• Flexible and innovation-driven work environment.
• International team of highly skilled applied researchers and engineers.
• Access to cutting-edge technologies and applied research projects.
• Competitive salary and benefits package.