Field operations and customer success associate | Feldeinsatz und Customer-Success-Mitarbeiter:in

About the Role

We are looking for a recent graduate that is excited to wear many hats in our startup and support operations: getting their hands wet during fieldwork, supporting customers, owning and driving the projects we have with clients and making sure we deliver on time, and managing sensor inventory in the lab and field.

This is primarily an operational role, but we’re looking for someone with a technical background. This is not an engineering role.

Tasks

What You'll Do:

Fieldwork

• You will own all fieldwork responsibility: from scheduling a field visit to a client site (usually somewhere along a river in the Alps), to renting/packing the car with sensors and safety equipment, selecting the optimal location for installation, updating sensor firmware and settings, making sure sensor is sending data correctly via LoRa or satellite, installing the sensor in the river along with other material to protect the sensor, and collect water samples
• You will find flaws in our sensor deployment setup, and then come up with better solutions and communicate these solutions to the product team
• You will create better and more robust sensor deployment setups if needed
• You will keep collected samples and field equipment organized

Customer success

• You will follow up with customers and make sure their product is working as it should
• You will troubleshoot any issues that the customers face with the sensors
• You will document any issues that arise and communicate them to the product & engineering teams
• You will document any feature requests from the customers and communicate them to the product team

Project management

• You will keep track of our current customer projects (contacts, next steps, identification of sensors deployed, which sensors are online and/or need to be fixed)
• You will be the driver for delivering outcomes to the clients by:

1. Requesting new features from the software team and telling the client when the feature will be ready, then making sure the feature gets delivered
2. Requesting bug fixes from the engineering team and then giving the client a date when the bug is fixed, then following up with the client to make sure their issue is solved

Inventory management

• Creating and keeping track of our sensor inventory in the lab and in the field
• And knowing how many sensors we need to order from our manufacturing partner based on the number of clients we have in the pipeline
• Place sensor orders with our manufacturing partner on time so that sensors arrive before a project is due to begin
• Create a smooth ordering process from the manufacturing partner
• Oversee basic budget management, expense reporting, and invoice tracking from the manufacturing partners
• Manage day-to-day logistics

Who You Are

• You enjoy working in the field, rain or shine
• You enjoy speaking to clients and enabling their success
• You’re a fast learner
• You’re highly organized, reliable, and enjoy bringing order to chaos
• You’re a strong communicator and a natural multitasker
• You’re comfortable taking initiative and asking for help when needed
• You thrive in an early-stage, fast-changing environment

Requirements

Requirements

• Must speak German and English (C level or native), with preference to candidates that are also fluent in French
• Must have a valid driving license and be comfortable driving manual cars and confident driving on mountain roads to reach field sites
• Degree in a technical field (engineering, science, or equivalent) from a Berrufslehre, Hochschule or Fachhochschule (or equivalent)
• Must be comfortable handling a drill while standing in a river
• Comfortable using Microsoft Office (Word, Powerpoint, Excel)
• Comfortable using productivity tools (Google Workspace, Slack, Notion, etc.)
• Can swim

Nice to Have

• Swiftwater Rescue Technician Certificate
• Experience with IoT or sensor-based systems
• Experience navigating rivers on foot
• Previous startup experience

Benefits

Role Details

• Commitment: 100% FTE.
• Compensation: competitive base salary plus meaningful equity, depending on experience.
• Growth: this role has the opportunity to grow into a key operational role as the company scales.
• Reporting line: you report directly to the founders.
• Location: based in Zurich with 25% travel time (with one day flexible/remote)
• Starting date: candidates that can start by September 1st or earlier will be prioritised. The role must be filled by October 1st 2026 at the latest.
• Work-permit: Swiss/EU nationals with a work permit are prioritized since we do not have the capability to sponsor a work permit for third-country candidates.
• Relocation: We do not sponsor relocation
• Benefits: 25 days of vacation, and pension contributions

About Riverkin

We are a well-capitalized startup building real-time sensing and data infrastructure for rivers. Our own field-deployed sensors collect live water-level and sediment data, while our platform turns that data into decision-ready insights for customers. We work across two core use cases: hydropower, where better sediment data can support flushing, asset protection and compliance; and flash-flood risk, where local river data can help hydropower, first responders and municipalities understand what is happening before conditions become critical. We are a small, hands-on team working across hydrology models, sensing products, hardware, field engineering, software and market development with real customer deployments.

Our process has three stages: 1) a screening call, 1) an online 45min interview, and 3) a final on-site interview in Zurich with the entire team**.**

Riverkin is a well-capitalized Swiss startup building real-time sensing and data infrastructure for rivers. Our own field-deployed sensors collect live water-level and sediment data, while our platform turns that data into decision-ready insights for customers. We work across two core use cases: hydropower, where better sediment data can support flushing, asset protection and compliance; and flash-flood risk, where local river data can help first responders and municipalities understand what is happening before conditions become critical. We are a small, hands-on team working across hydrology, hardware, field engineering, software and market development.