Founding Product Engineer

<h3>About the Role</h3><p style="min-height:1.5em">A fast-moving, pre-seed energy intelligence startup is looking for a <strong>Founding Product Engineer</strong> to join as one of its earliest technical hires. The company builds an AI-powered platform that helps large industrial companies optimise their energy procurement costs — combining real-time market intelligence, portfolio management, and flexible energy flow control.</p><p style="min-height:1.5em">In this role you'll own the full product lifecycle end-to-end: from understanding customer problems and shaping requirements, through system design and implementation, to deployment. You'll work directly alongside the founding team and customers to turn complex energy market dynamics into elegant, scalable software. This is a high-ownership, high-impact position at a company with strong early traction in the European industrial energy market.</p><p style="min-height:1.5em">The role is primarily <strong>on-site in Munich</strong>, with occasional flexibility for remote work.</p><h3>What You'll Do</h3><ul style="min-height:1.5em"><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Take full ownership of product features — from discovery and design through to deployment.</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Collaborate directly with customers to translate product objectives into concrete, actionable requirements.</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Design simple, iterative solutions to complex energy procurement and market problems.</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Develop performant backend services for a highly data-intensive application.</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Build intuitive, elegant user interfaces for a complex decision-support system.</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Train time-series forecasting models for power consumption and renewables production.</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Develop linear optimisation algorithms aimed at reducing customer energy costs.</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Help choose and shape the core technology stack (PostgreSQL, TypeScript, React, Python).</p></li></ul><h3>What We're Looking For</h3><p style="min-height:1.5em"><strong>Must-haves:</strong></p><ul style="min-height:1.5em"><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">2+ years of software engineering experience delivering scalable web applications in an early-stage startup environment.</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Proven track record of delivering full product features independently, in close collaboration with customers.</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Strong software engineering fundamentals — you write robust, maintainable, and scalable code.</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Experience building backend services for data-intensive applications.</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Experience building frontend UIs for complex decision-support or analytical products.</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">A genuine product mindset — you think about user outcomes, not just technical correctness.</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Comfort with ambiguity and a bias for action; you thrive in fast-paced, early-stage environments.</p></li></ul><p style="min-height:1.5em"><strong>Nice-to-haves:</strong></p><ul style="min-height:1.5em"><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Hands-on experience with time-series forecasting and/or linear optimisation.</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Familiarity with PostgreSQL, TypeScript, React, and/or Python.</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Experience with FastAPI or Supabase.</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Background as a startup CTO, technical co-founder, or generalist engineer.</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Interest in energy markets, sustainability, or data-intensive B2B applications.</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Corporate background is welcome <em>with</em> demonstrated startup grit and mindset.</p></li></ul><h3>Compensation &amp; Benefits</h3><ul style="min-height:1.5em"><li><p style="min-height:1.5em"><strong>Salary:</strong> €85,000 – €140,000 per year (depending on experience)</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Early employee equity participation</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">High-ownership, founding-team role with significant influence over product and technical direction</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Work directly with founders and enterprise customers in a fast-growing market</p></li></ul><p style="min-height:1.5em"><em>Please note: visa sponsorship is not available for this role.</em></p><h3>Location</h3><p style="min-height:1.5em">Munich, Bavaria, Germany. The role is primarily <strong>on-site</strong> the majority of the week, with occasional flexibility for remote work. Candidates must be willing and able to work on-site in Munich regularly.</p><p>Find <a href="https://www.arbeitnow.com">Jobs in Germany</a> on Arbeitnow</a>