Technical Co-Founder

ABOUT THE ROLE A Berlin-based pre-seed AI SaaS startup is looking for a Technical Co-Founder to join as the third member of the founding team. The company is building an AI-powered platform that automates the end-to-end lifecycle of public procurement participation — from tender discovery and requirements analysis through to compliant concept and proposal generation — targeting the DACH region. This role carries full technical ownership and a direct impact on product direction, architecture, and go-to-market traction. The platform is built on LLMs, Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), and NLP, and must be fully GDPR-compliant, hosted in EU cloud environments. Incorporation is in preparation and a public funding application is currently in progress. WHAT YOU'LL DO - Design and own the overall system architecture, with a focus on GDPR-compliant EU cloud infrastructure (e.g., AWS Bedrock, Vertex AI — Frankfurt region). - Build the core AI engine that generates complete, compelling proposal concepts from structured company data. - Develop and maintain a reference database for past projects, certificates, and CVs, and integrate them dynamically into generated concepts. - Implement entity resolution, reliability scoring, and confidence quantification across data pipelines. - Work deeply in AI/ML (LLMs, RAG, NLP) and/or broadly across full-stack product engineering — depending on your strengths. - Set technical priorities collaboratively within a small founding team. - Contribute to business strategy during the pre-seed phase alongside the other co-founders. WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR Must-haves (dealbreakers): - 5+ years of experience in product/engineering roles delivering AI-powered software with LLM, NLP, and/or RAG capabilities. - Hands-on experience with GDPR-compliant architecture in EU cloud environments (data handling for NLP/LLM workloads). - Prior experience as a technical founder or technical lead who has built an AI-first product from zero with end-to-end ownership. Required: - Strong, production-grade full-stack development skills for AI-enabled products. - Practical experience integrating LLMs, RAG pipelines, and NLP into real products. - Genuine founder mentality — you want to help build a company, not just work through tickets. - Willingness to join as a technical co-founder with equity as the primary compensation during the pre-seed phase. - German language proficiency (the product operates in the DACH regulatory context: VgV, HOAI, etc.). Strongly preferred: - Experience with enterprise data pipelines and secure data handling in EU cloud environments (DSGVO/GDPR context). - Familiarity with German public procurement law or the architectural/planning office domain. - Pragmatic, ship-first working style — you iterate quickly and avoid over-engineering. COMPENSATION & EQUITY - Equity: 15–20% co-founder equity stake. - Vesting: Standard four-year vesting schedule with a one-year cliff. - Salary: Compensation is heavily equity-weighted during the pre-seed phase; cash salary to be discussed based on funding progress. - Visa sponsorship: Not available. LOCATION - Preferred: Berlin-based (on-site / hybrid). - Remote within the DACH region (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) may be considered for the right candidate.