Founding Engineer
About the Role
An early-stage, AI-native B2B SaaS startup in the procurement technology space is looking for a Founding Engineer to join the team in Berlin. The company is building an AI-first supply chain platform that connects category managers to real-time supplier data and enterprise systems — and is already working closely with real customers.
As a founding engineer, you'll own core product areas end-to-end, influence architecture and engineering culture from day one, and ship iteratively with direct customer feedback. This is a rare opportunity to shape a product, a team, and a technical culture at the very beginning.
⚠️ Visa sponsorship is not available. Candidates must be eligible to work in Germany without employer sponsorship.
What You'll Do
Own core product areas end-to-end — from AI agent orchestration to the category manager-facing UI.
Design reliable LLM workflows with evaluation loops, guardrails, and observability built for production.
Build real-time supplier data pipelines, normalization layers, and integrations with enterprise ERP systems.
Ship to production daily and collaborate directly with customers to iterate based 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 the founding team on major technical decisions.
Mentor teammates and grow into an engineering leadership role as the company scales.
What We're Looking For
Required:
Strong full-stack foundation — comfortable with front-ends, back-ends, and the seam between them.
Proficiency in TypeScript (front-end and back-end) and Python; experience with Next.js and modern APIs.
Hands-on experience building SaaS products end-to-end in a startup environment.
Proven experience designing and operating AI/LLM infrastructure: retrieval, embeddings, evaluation loops, monitoring, and safety guardrails.
Experience building data pipelines, normalization, and integrations with enterprise systems.
Domain knowledge in ERP, procurement, or related enterprise software.
Strong written and verbal communication skills; comfortable working directly with customers and cross-functional teams.
Builder mindset — you default to shipping, learning from users, and iterating fast.
Comfortable with ambiguity; able to define what to build as well as how to build it.
Nice to have:
Hands-on experience with procurement or supply chain domain specifics (e.g. sourcing, spend analysis, contract management).
Prior experience as a founding or very early engineer at a startup.
Appetite for engineering leadership and mentorship as the team grows.
Location
Berlin, Germany — on-site
Must be eligible to work in Germany without employer visa sponsorship.