Founding Engineer, NLP Systems & Infrastructure

About the Role

Join an early-stage AI and deep-tech team as its first technical hire, turning a research-grade prototype into reliable production software for enterprise and public-sector use. You will lead architecture and delivery hands-on, then build and manage the engineering team.

What You'll Do

• Design and own production architecture for orchestrated data and NLP pipelines, AI/ML integrations, CI/CD, observability, and cloud or on-premises deployment.
• Set the engineering roadmap while balancing delivery speed, quality, and security.
• Build the initial production system hands-on and validate infrastructure and security decisions.
• Hire and manage an engineering team, setting technical direction, standards, and a constructive team culture.
• Work closely with founders and users to iterate on the product.

What We're Looking For

• At least 5 years building and operating production data-intensive or NLP systems, including ingestion, deduplication, entity resolution, queues, and orchestrated pipelines.
• Python as your primary language, with experience in automated testing, CI/CD, and observability, including data and model drift monitoring.
• Production experience with PostgreSQL and at least one graph database, vector store, or search engine.
• Experience with embeddings, vector search, and language model integrations, including managing cost, versioning, and non-determinism.
• Ability to build clean APIs and functional analyst-facing interfaces using React, Vue, or similar technologies.
• Experience architecting production systems with cloud and on-premises deployment options. Docker, Kubernetes, or Helm experience is helpful.
• Willingness and eligibility to obtain German security clearance. Eligibility is subject to German clearance requirements.
• Experience with open-web or platform data acquisition, early-stage startups, or German-language work is beneficial.

Compensation & Benefits

Base salary

€60,000 to €120,000 annually. Visa sponsorship is available.

Location

On-site in Munich, Bavaria, Germany.