Founding Engineer, NLP Systems & Infrastructure
Clera · Munich · €60,000–€120,000 (stated in the posting)
About the Role
Join an early-stage dual-use AI company as its first technical hire, turning a research-grade prototype into dependable production software for enterprise and public-sector users. You will begin as a hands-on builder with broad technical ownership, then grow the engineering team and take on people leadership.
What You'll Do
Design and own production architecture for data and NLP pipelines, AI/ML integrations, CI/CD, observability, and cloud or on-premises deployments.
Set the engineering roadmap and balance delivery speed with quality and security.
Build and validate the first production release, including infrastructure and security decisions.
Hire and lead an engineering team, set technical standards, and support a positive 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.
Strong Python skills and experience with automated testing, CI/CD, and observability, including monitoring data or model drift.
Experience with PostgreSQL and a graph database, vector store, or search engine, plus embeddings, vector search, and language model integrations.
Ability to build clean APIs and functional analyst-facing interfaces using React, Vue, or a similar framework.
Experience architecting production systems for cloud and on-premises deployment. Docker, Kubernetes, or Helm experience is an advantage.
Willingness and eligibility to obtain German security clearance. Eligibility is subject to German requirements, including nationality restrictions under §13 SÜG.
Experience with open-web or platform data, early-stage startups, German language, or public-sector and dual-use technology is a plus.
Compensation & Benefits
Base salary: €60,000 to €120,000 annually. Visa sponsorship is available.
Location
On-site in Munich, Bavaria, Germany.