Founding Engineer

Clera • San Francisco, CA

12d • Onsite

About The Position

An early-stage, AI-native procurement intelligence startup based in Berlin is looking for a Founding Engineer to join the core product team. You'll own critical product areas end-to-end — from AI agent orchestration to the category manager-facing UI — and play a defining role in shaping architecture, engineering culture, and the roadmap as the team scales. This is a high-ownership, high-impact role with direct exposure to customers and founders from day one.

Requirements

• Proficiency in TypeScript (front-end and back-end) and Python for full-stack development.
• Hands-on experience building SaaS products end-to-end in a startup environment.
• Experience designing and operating AI/LLM infrastructure — retrieval, embeddings, latency/cost/quality trade-offs, monitoring, and safety guardrails.
• Domain knowledge in ERP, procurement, or related enterprise software.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills; comfort working directly with customers and cross-functional teams.
• Willingness to take ownership in a founding-team environment, thrive in ambiguity, and contribute across multiple disciplines.
• Must be eligible to work in Germany without employer visa sponsorship — no visa sponsorship is available.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with Next.js and modern APIs
• Background in strategic procurement or supply chain contexts.

Responsibilities

• Own core product areas end-to-end, spanning AI agent orchestration through to user-facing interfaces.
• Design reliable LLM workflows with evaluation loops, guardrails, and production-grade observability.
• Build real-time supplier data pipelines, normalization logic, and integrations with enterprise ERP and procurement systems.
• Ship to production regularly and collaborate directly with customers to iterate on real feedback.
• Make architectural decisions across the full stack with a focus on performance, security, and developer experience.
• Define engineering culture, tooling, and processes as the team grows.
• Contribute to the product roadmap and work closely with founders on major technical decisions.
• Mentor teammates and grow into an engineering leadership role as the company scales.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Entry Level
• Education Level: No Education Listed