Founding Engineer
Summary
Build and own the backend and frontend for a real-time AI-driven energy storage platform, deploying optimization algorithms and React dashboards for industrial battery operations.
About the Role
Join a small, fast-moving energy software startup in Munich building an end-to-end platform for industrial battery storage — covering AI-driven operations, real-time optimization, and energy market trading. As a Founding Engineer, you'll own large parts of the core product, shape the technical architecture from the ground up, and have a direct impact on the company's trajectory. This is a hands-on, high-ownership role at the intersection of software engineering, optimization, and the European energy transition.
What You'll Do
Own and build the backend services powering real-time optimization and forecasting for industrial energy assets.
Develop and deploy mixed-integer optimization algorithms and predictive models that process data in real time.
Build frontend dashboards in React/Next.js that allow battery operators to monitor, configure, and control assets.
Design, scale, and operate cloud infrastructure supporting thousands of distributed battery systems.
Set up and maintain observability, monitoring, and CI/CD pipelines for production services.
Collaborate closely with the founding team to define product features and technical requirements.
Iterate rapidly based on feedback from live production deployments.
What We're Looking For
Required:
Experience with real-time data processing and optimization or forecasting systems.
Solid background designing and operating scalable distributed backend systems (Python strongly preferred).
Containerization and modern deployment practices — Docker, Kubernetes, and CI/CD for production services.
Hands-on experience with observability and monitoring tooling (e.g., Prometheus, Grafana, OpenTelemetry).
Strong database design and data modeling skills (PostgreSQL/MySQL or similar).
Frontend proficiency with JavaScript/TypeScript, React, and Tailwind CSS (Next.js a strong plus).
Experience with at least one major cloud provider (AWS, GCP, or Azure).
Prior startup experience — ideally at a company under 3 years old and fewer than 50 employees.
Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Mathematics, or Electrical Engineering (grade better than 2.0 on the German scale or equivalent).
Nice to Have:
Experience in the energy industry (battery storage, grid management, energy markets, or similar).
Production deployment of optimization or forecasting models.
Fluency in German — most end customers operate in German-speaking markets.
Compensation & Benefits
Salary: €70,000 – €100,000 per year, depending on experience.
Meaningful equity participation as a founding-stage team member.
Visa sponsorship available.
Direct influence over product, architecture, and company direction from day one.
Location
This role is on-site in Munich, Germany. The team works together in the office day-to-day — no remote option at this stage.