CTO (f/m/d)

<h2><strong>About TACTILIA</strong></h2><p style="min-height:1.5em">At TACTILIA, we are building the industry-ready robotic hand that closes one of the biggest gaps in Physical AI. Spun out of SCHUNK, the global market leader in gripping technology, we combine a decade of robotic-hand expertise and real industrial access with the speed and ambition of a deep-tech startup.</p><p style="min-height:1.5em">This isn't a research project waiting for its first customer. We already have a product, customers are ready to use it, and we are launching now. Your work will directly shape the product, roadmap, and development process that make that possible.</p><p style="min-height:1.5em">You will join at the moment when the hard robotics questions become real product decisions: how do we turn customer needs into a highly capable robotic hand that is reliable, manufacturable, and ready to deploy on a real shop floor?</p><p style="min-height:1.5em"></p><h2><strong>The Role</strong></h2><p style="min-height:1.5em">As a Chief Technology Officer, you will own TACTILIA's technology strategy, product architecture, and engineering execution. You will lead a multidisciplinary organization across project management, systems engineering, mechanics, electronics, sensorics, embedded and robotics software, AI, product management, applications and testing. Your responsibility is to turn a highly capable robotic hand into a reliable, manufacturable, serviceable and scalable industrial product.</p><p style="min-height:1.5em">This is a leadership role with substantial technical depth. You do not need to be the deepest specialist in every discipline, but you must have first-hand experience with both hardware and software development and the judgment to make sound system-level decisions across both.</p><p style="min-height:1.5em"></p><h2><strong>What you will do:</strong></h2><p style="min-height:1.5em"><strong>Set the technology direction.</strong> Define TACTILIA’s technology strategy and product roadmap from the current platform to a scalable industrial product.</p><p style="min-height:1.5em"><strong>Lead the whole stack.</strong> Lead the teams across project management, systems, mechanics, electronics, sensorics, embedded and robotics software, AI, product, applications and testing.</p><p style="min-height:1.5em"><strong>Make the architecture work</strong>. Own the system architecture and the interfaces between hardware, software, AI and applications.</p><p style="min-height:1.5em"><strong>Turn R&amp;D into product. </strong>Drive the transition from advanced prototypes to reliable, manufacturable, serviceable and customer-ready products.</p><p style="min-height:1.5em"><strong>Make the right trade-offs</strong>. Balance performance, reliability, cost, safety, manufacturability and speed of execution.</p><p style="min-height:1.5em"><strong>Build the organization. </strong>Recruit, develop and lead the engineering and product organization across Zurich and Munich.</p><p style="min-height:1.5em"><strong>Create clarity and accountability. </strong>Establish effective priorities, processes, decision-making structures and technical standards across the teams.</p><p style="min-height:1.5em"><strong>Own resources and execution.</strong> Manage engineering budgets, headcount and priorities in line with the company’s product and business goals.</p><p style="min-height:1.5em"><strong>Stay close to customers.</strong> Translate customer requirements and field experience into product decisions and future technology direction.</p><p style="min-height:1.5em"><strong>Represent TACTILIA externally.</strong> Act as the technical face of the company with customers, partners, SCHUNK, investors and the robotics community.</p><p style="min-height:1.5em"><strong>Stay close to the hard problems</strong>. Remain sufficiently hands-on to challenge important technical decisions and unblock the team when necessary.</p><p style="min-height:1.5em"></p><h2><strong>What you bring:</strong></h2><p style="min-height:1.5em"><strong>You can lead across hardware and software. </strong>You have deep practical understanding of both disciplines and the credibility to guide experts across mechanics, electronics, sensors, embedded systems, controls, AI and applications.</p><p style="min-height:1.5em"><strong>You have led complex engineering organizations. </strong>You have successfully led multidisciplinary teams, ideally with responsibility for 20 or more people, multiple functions and a significant budget.</p><p style="min-height:1.5em"><strong>You have shipped physical products. </strong>You have taken complex robotics, mechatronics, medical or industrial hardware from development or prototype stage into customer use, production or product maturity.</p><p style="min-height:1.5em"><strong>You understand human-like robotic systems.</strong> Ideally, you have experience in humanoid or biomedical robotics, particularly with anthropomorphic mechanisms, sensor and actuator systems, robotic hands or tendon-driven devices.</p><p style="min-height:1.5em"><strong>You think in systems</strong>. You can connect mechanics, electronics, sensing, control, software, AI and customer applications into a coherent product architecture.</p><p style="min-height:1.5em"><strong>You build teams that execute.</strong> You have a track record of recruiting strong people, developing leaders and creating a culture of ownership and high standards.</p><p style="min-height:1.5em"><strong>You know how to scale engineering.</strong> You bring experience from a startup, scale-up or industrial technology company and understand how to combine speed with disciplined execution.</p><p style="min-height:1.5em"><strong>You make sound decisions under uncertainty.</strong> You are pragmatic, commercially aware and able to distinguish between the perfect solution and the right solution.</p><p style="min-height:1.5em"><strong>You communicate with every audience.</strong> You can engage credibly with engineers, customers, executives, investors and industrial partners.</p><p style="min-height:1.5em"><strong>You have a strong technical foundation. </strong>A degree in engineering, computer science, robotics, mechatronics or a related field is preferred.</p><p style="min-height:1.5em"><strong>You are ready to build internationally. </strong>You are fluent in English and comfortable working across the Zurich and Munich locations. German is an advantage.</p><p style="min-height:1.5em"></p><h2><strong>Bonus:</strong></h2><ul style="min-height:1.5em"><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Dexterous manipulation, grasp planning, or robotic hands</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Tactile sensing and contact-rich manipulation</p></li></ul><p style="min-height:1.5em"></p><p style="min-height:1.5em">The next chapter of robotics won't be built in a lab. It will be built by people who care about what happens when technology meets the real world.</p><p style="min-height:1.5em">At TACTILIA, you'll work on one of the hardest open problems in robotics: giving machines the dexterity, reliability and robustness to interact with the physical world at industrial scale.</p><p style="min-height:1.5em">The technology is taking shape, the team is being built, and the standards around robotic hands and their skills are still open. That means your decisions will have a lasting impact — not just on a product, but on what comes next for Physical AI.</p><p style="min-height:1.5em"><strong>Build the hand. Define the standard. Shape what comes next.</strong></p><p style="min-height:1.5em">If you're excited by the challenge of building robotic hands that works reliably in the real world, we'd love to hear from you.</p><p>Find more <a href="https://www.arbeitnow.com/english-speaking-jobs">English Speaking Jobs in Germany</a> on Arbeitnow</a>