Founding Engineer
clera · Berlin
This posting has closed on 12 September 2026.
Description
About the Role
This is a founding engineering role at an early-stage AI startup building purpose-built agents for the sea and air freight industry. You will sit at the intersection of customer engagement and product development, helping shape both the technical architecture and the company's strategic direction from the ground up.
What You'll Do
Lead customer conversations and translate insights directly into product features and tech strategy. Design and build full-stack applications while pushing the AI capabilities of the product forward. Transition the product from demo and prototype stage into scalable, production-ready systems. Shape the direction of the product, the technical architecture, and the company as a whole.
What We're Looking For
2+ years of professional software engineering experience building and shipping production applications. Full-stack development skills: Node.js, TypeScript, and React on the frontend; Python on the backend. Hands-on experience with LLM design patterns, vector stores, and model fine-tuning.
Broad product-engineering range rather than a profile concentrated primarily in ML, data, frontend, or analytics. Experience designing, building, and deploying scalable products from MVP to production. Demonstrated ability to lead customer conversations and translate feedback into product requirements.
Background in startup or early-stage environments, comfortable with fast iteration and ambiguity. Strong system-design ability: can move beyond abstractions, reason about scope and constraints, and make startup-appropriate trade-offs without over-engineering. Experience with vector databases or semantic search is a plus.
Location Hybrid role based in Berlin, Germany. Candidates willing to relocate to Berlin are welcome. Visa sponsorship is available.
ABOUT THE ROLE
This is a founding engineering role at an early-stage AI startup building purpose-built agents for the sea and air freight industry. You will sit at the intersection of customer engagement and product development, helping shape both the technical architecture and the company's strategic direction from the ground up.
WHAT YOU'LL DO
- Lead customer conversations and translate insights directly into product features and tech strategy.
- Design and build full-stack applications while pushing the AI capabilities of the product forward.
- Transition the product from demo and prototype stage into scalable, production-ready systems.
- Shape the direction of the product, the technical architecture, and the company as a whole.
WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR
- 2+ years of professional software engineering experience building and shipping production applications.
- Full-stack development skills: Node.js, TypeScript, and React on the frontend; Python on the backend.
- Hands-on experience with LLM design patterns, vector stores, and model fine-tuning.
- Broad product-engineering range rather than a profile concentrated primarily in ML, data, frontend, or analytics.
- Experience designing, building, and deploying scalable products from MVP to production.
- Demonstrated ability to lead customer conversations and translate feedback into product requirements.
- Background in startup or early-stage environments, comfortable with fast iteration and ambiguity.
- Strong system-design ability: can move beyond abstractions, reason about scope and constraints, and make startup-appropriate trade-offs without over-engineering.
- Experience with vector databases or semantic search is a plus. LOCATION Hybrid role based in Berlin, Germany. Candidates willing to relocate to Berlin are welcome. Visa sponsorship is available.
Posting history
Reposted 6 times since 9 September 2026: a posting for this role in Berlin was taken down and the role was posted again.
- 25 September 2026 – open
- 24 September 2026 – open
- 23 September 2026 – open
- 18 September 2026 – open
- 17 September 2026 – open
- 13 September 2026 – closed 19 September 2026
- 13 September 2026 – closed 19 September 2026
- 11 September 2026 – closed 17 September 2026
- 10 September 2026 – closed 16 September 2026
- 9 September 2026 – closed 12 September 2026 (this posting)
Salary context
34 other open postings titled Founding Engineer state a salary: median USD 150,000 to USD 250,000 a year.
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