Founding Product Engineer

<h3>About the Role</h3><p style="min-height:1.5em">This is a founding-level product engineering role at a fast-growing, European-headquartered startup building an AI-powered phone assistant for small and medium-sized businesses. The platform automates inbound and outbound calls, appointment scheduling, customer service, and other communication workflows — with a strong focus on the German-speaking market and a privacy-first, data-sovereign architecture built in Europe.</p><p style="min-height:1.5em">You'll join a lean, high-ownership engineering team at an early stage (recently closed a <strong>Seed / Series A</strong> round backed by prominent European and global investors) and have a direct impact on product direction, architecture, and customer outcomes. The company has grown from a handful of people to ~50 in under two years and is continuing to scale rapidly.</p><p style="min-height:1.5em"><strong>Native-level German proficiency is a firm requirement for this role.</strong> You must be able to work with CET time-zone overlap. An optional office in Vienna, Austria is available.</p><h3>What You'll Do</h3><ul style="min-height:1.5em"><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Own features end-to-end — from hypothesis and prototype through to production release — for a product used by thousands of companies across Europe.</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Lead product discovery by designing and running rapid experiments to validate ideas before committing to large-scale builds.</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Maintain close, recurring contact with customers, partners, and the Sales team to surface real pain points and translate them into product decisions.</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Design and implement tracking and analytics to support data-driven iteration.</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Build across the full stack, driving architecture decisions through to release.</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Prioritise pragmatic solutions that balance speed of validation with long-term scalability.</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Take radical ownership of initiatives and move them forward autonomously, without waiting for sign-offs.</p></li></ul><h3>What We're Looking For</h3><p style="min-height:1.5em"><strong>Must-haves (dealbreakers):</strong></p><ul style="min-height:1.5em"><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">3+ years of product engineering experience delivering end-to-end software features.</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Strong full-stack proficiency: <strong>Node.js, TypeScript, NestJS, and React</strong>.</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em"><strong>Native-level German fluency</strong> (Deutsch auf Muttersprachniveau) — non-negotiable.</p></li></ul><p style="min-height:1.5em"><strong>Required:</strong></p><ul style="min-height:1.5em"><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Experience integrating software with external systems such as CRMs, calendar apps, and databases.</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Ability to gather customer feedback and translate pain points into product decisions in collaboration with customers, partners, and sales.</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Comfort identifying, tracking, and analysing relevant metrics to drive data-driven decisions.</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">End-to-end development experience — from architecture choices to production deployment.</p></li></ul><p style="min-height:1.5em"><strong>Nice to have:</strong></p><ul style="min-height:1.5em"><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Experience integrating LLMs or building AI-powered product features (e.g. OpenAI or similar).</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Familiarity with GDPR compliance and EU AI Act considerations in product development.</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Experience working in a remote-first, asynchronous collaboration environment.</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Background in early-stage or high-growth startup environments.</p></li></ul><h3>Compensation &amp; Benefits</h3><ul style="min-height:1.5em"><li><p style="min-height:1.5em"><strong>Salary:</strong> €80,000 – €120,000 annually, depending on experience.</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em"><strong>Equity:</strong> Meaningful equity stake as a founding-level hire.</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Remote-first culture with optional access to a Vienna office.</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">High-ownership, low-bureaucracy environment with direct impact on product and company direction.</p></li></ul><p style="min-height:1.5em"><em>Visa sponsorship is not available for this role.</em></p><h3>Location</h3><p style="min-height:1.5em">Fully remote, with required overlap during <strong>Central European Time (CET)</strong> working hours. Candidates based in Germany or Austria are preferred. An optional co-working space/office in <strong>Vienna, Austria</strong> is available.</p><p>Find <a href="https://www.arbeitnow.co.uk">Jobs in United Kingdom</a> on Arbeitnow</a>