Founding Engineer

Job Description

Job Description

About the Role

An early-stage, AI-native procurement intelligence startup based in Berlin is looking for a Founding Engineer to join the core product team. You'll own critical product areas end-to-end — from AI agent orchestration to the category manager-facing UI — and play a defining role in shaping architecture, engineering culture, and the roadmap as the team scales. This is a high-ownership, high-impact role with direct exposure to customers and founders from day one.

What You'll Do

• Own core product areas end-to-end, spanning AI agent orchestration through to user-facing interfaces.

• Design reliable LLM workflows with evaluation loops, guardrails, and production-grade observability.

• Build real-time supplier data pipelines, normalization logic, and integrations with enterprise ERP and procurement systems.

• Ship to production regularly and collaborate directly with customers to iterate on real feedback.

• Make architectural decisions across the full stack with a focus on performance, security, and developer experience.

• Define engineering culture, tooling, and processes as the team grows.

• Contribute to the product roadmap and work closely with founders on major technical decisions.

• Mentor teammates and grow into an engineering leadership role as the company scales.

What We're Looking For

• Required: Proficiency in TypeScript (front-end and back-end) and Python for full-stack development.

• Required: Hands-on experience building SaaS products end-to-end in a startup environment.

• Required: Experience designing and operating AI/LLM infrastructure — retrieval, embeddings, latency/cost/quality trade-offs, monitoring, and safety guardrails.

• Required: Domain knowledge in ERP, procurement, or related enterprise software.

• Required: Strong written and verbal communication skills; comfort working directly with customers and cross-functional teams.

• Required: Willingness to take ownership in a founding-team environment, thrive in ambiguity, and contribute across multiple disciplines.

• Nice to have: Experience with Next.js and modern APIs; background in strategic procurement or supply chain contexts.

• Dealbreaker: Must be eligible to work in Germany without employer visa sponsorship — no visa sponsorship is available.

About the Company

This is a well-funded, pre-Series A B2B SaaS startup in the procurement intelligence and supply chain space. The platform uses agentic AI to analyze suppliers, benchmark cost drivers, and surface negotiation leverage for strategic procurement teams — connecting category managers to real-time supplier data and enterprise systems. The team is small, the impact is large, and the engineering culture is still being written.

Location & Work Arrangement

This role is on-site in Berlin, Germany . Candidates must be based in or willing to relocate to Berlin. No visa sponsorship is available; eligibility to work in Germany is required.