Founding Engineer
Role summary by JobGrid
Founding Engineer at clera: San Francisco, United States; On-site; Senior; IT; Full Stack Engineer. This listing is part of JobGrid's Software engineer jobs from public company career pages. JobGrid adds normalized role facts, source context, and a path to the employer application page so candidates can compare the listing before applying.
- Location and workplace: San Francisco, United States, On-site
- Role classification: IT, Full Stack Engineer, Senior
- Source freshness: checked by JobGrid on 2026-06-05.
- Application path: candidates continue to the employer application page with non-personal referral tags.
About the Role
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.
What You'll Do
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 We're Looking For
Required: Proficiency in TypeScript (front-end and back-end) and Python for full-stack development.
Required: Hands-on experience building SaaS products end-to-end in a startup environment.
Required: Experience designing and operating AI/LLM infrastructure — retrieval, embeddings, latency/cost/quality trade-offs, monitoring, and safety guardrails.
Required: Domain knowledge in ERP, procurement, or related enterprise software.
Required: Strong written and verbal communication skills; comfort working directly with customers and cross-functional teams.
Required: Willingness to take ownership in a founding-team environment, thrive in ambiguity, and contribute across multiple disciplines.
Nice to have: Experience with Next.js and modern APIs; background in strategic procurement or supply chain contexts.
Dealbreaker: Must be eligible to work in Germany without employer visa sponsorship — no visa sponsorship is available.
About the Company
This is a well-funded, pre-Series A B2B SaaS startup in the procurement intelligence and supply chain space. The platform uses agentic AI to analyze suppliers, benchmark cost drivers, and surface negotiation leverage for strategic procurement teams — connecting category managers to real-time supplier data and enterprise systems. The team is small, the impact is large, and the engineering culture is still being written.
Location & Work Arrangement
This role is on-site in Berlin, Germany. Candidates must be based in or willing to relocate to Berlin. No visa sponsorship is available; eligibility to work in Germany is required.