Vinyamo AG in Zurich is looking for a researcher specializing in psychological models and measurement, on a 40–60% basis, with a PhD in Psychology, Cognitive Science, or a related field, such as Philosophy of Mind.
Description
What actually helps people heal, grow, and live well? The honest answer is that nobody fully knows. The paths are many: medicine, therapy, meditation, movement, spiritual practice, community. Each holds real wisdom, but which one will work for you depends on everything that makes you you, and no research has ever been able to account for that. So people spend years guessing.
For the first time, machine learning makes it possible to bring these worlds together: the rigour of science and the richness of real life. Stories, emotions, and lived experience used to be dismissed as data because no one could work with them at scale. Now we can.
Vinyamo is building the platform that learns from both, across every modality, without loyalty to any single one, to create a comprehensive model of human experience. One that can meet anyone, wherever they are, on whatever path they walk, and show them their own fastest route to a life that fits.
Why this opportunity is rare
Vinyamo is funded by its founder, a mission-driven entrepreneur with a proven track record, with the runway to see this through and build it well, free of the clock a funding round puts on a company. This allows for long-term vision, focus, freedom, and innovation that the wellbeing space rarely sees. Building it right also means building it right on the inside: a small team, and a culture that lives our purpose.
What you will do
- Develop the psychological models that merge with our machine learning setup.
- Design the questionnaires and measures behind the platform, and run studies to a lesser extent.
- Anticipate, from a psychological perspective, how the data is collected and how it should be interpreted.
- Find out how to measure a state or a condition from a short voice note or an AI call, with the accuracy a long questionnaire gives.
- Work with the engineers on what the platform collects, and directly with the founder.
Who will thrive here
- You are excited about merging psychological ideas with AI.
- You have a PhD or postdoc background in psychology, cognitive science or a neighbouring field, and you have designed and run studies.
- You have experience with data processing or programming.
- You are at ease with technology and open to unconventional methods.
- You think out of the box and prefer a startup path to the standard one.
- You've done real work on yourself. Whatever your path, through therapy, meditation, coaching, ceremony, sport, art or life itself, this mission feels personal to you.
What we offer
- Salary CHF 95,000 to 115,000 at 100 percent, pro rata to the workload.
- Get paid to meditate: 30 minutes daily, during working hours.
- CHF 500 a month for your own development.
- Six weeks of vacation, a 40-hour week, workload from 40 to 60 percent.
- Two days a week together in a lovely office ten minutes walk from Zurich HB, the rest wherever you work best.
- A culture intentionally designed to be the opposite of the burnout startup: psychologically safe, human, and all the more innovative for it.
An honest note
This is an early-stage experiment. In a decade, Vinyamo could be a household name that has improved millions of lives. Or we could learn within a year that it's too ambitious, and stop. That's the nature of working on what the world calls impossible: no guarantees, only the chance to change things. This suits someone the attempt itself excites.
Practical
Employer: Vinyamo AG, Limmatquai 116, Zurich. Format: 40 to 60 percent. Contract: permanent. Start: as soon as possible. Eligibility: Swiss or EU citizenship, or a valid Swiss work permit.
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