CEO / Business Co-Founder (f/m/d) role at startup IXPLAIN

<p><strong>IXPLAIN</strong><br> Kaiserslautern, Germany (DFKI) | On-site / Hybrid | Co-Founder / Equity | Deep Tech / Explainable AI</p> <p><strong>About iXplain</strong><br> iXplain is an AI platform for time series analysis that doesn't just detect what is happening in sensor data, but explains why. It combines state-of-the-art machine learning (classification, forecasting, regression, anomaly detection) with Explainable AI and a neuro-symbolic rule engine to turn raw industrial signals into clear, actionable recommendations, already demonstrated in water quality monitoring, energy grids and automotive production.</p> <p>**The opportunity<br> **iXplain grew out of DFKI (German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence) and has a functional demonstrator, shown at Hannover Messe 2025, with live discussions underway in the water and manufacturing sectors. The technology is proven; the company is not yet founded. We are looking for a CEO / Business co-founder to turn a validated research demonstrator into a company, own the commercial relationship with our first industrial partners, and build the business around technology our 3-person research team has already built.</p> <h2>Tasks</h2> <p><strong>What you will own</strong></p> <p><strong>Company build-up</strong><br> - Lead the incorporation of iXplain as a company and define its go-to-market strategy and business model.<br> - Own fundraising strategy and investor relations for the seed stage.<br> Commercial validation<br> - Validate iXplain with real industrial partners in water, energy and automotive/manufacturing, turning early discussions (post-Hannover Messe 2025) into paying pilots.<br> - Define how iXplain integrates into customers' existing workflows and systems.<br> Business leadership<br> - Build the commercial organization, pricing and sales process from scratch alongside the technical co-founders (Dr. Dominique Mercier, CTO; Dr. Tobias Wirth, Advisor).<br> - Represent iXplain to investors, partners and industrial customers as CEO.</p> <h2>Requirements</h2> <p><strong>What you bring</strong></p> <p><strong>Core experience</strong><br> - Entrepreneurial / business leadership experience, ideally as a founder or in early-stage B2B SaaS or industrial-tech commercialization.<br> - Track record in business development and closing deals with industrial or enterprise customers.<br> - Comfortable operating without a playbook, pre-product-market-fit.<br> Especially valuable<br> - Domain expertise in water, energy, or automotive/manufacturing industries.<br> - Experience fundraising from VCs or deep-tech grants (e.g., EXIST, German public funding).<br> - Ability to speak the language of both data-science researchers and industrial buyers.</p> <h2>Benefits</h2> <p><strong>Why join iXplain</strong><br> - Own the CEO seat of a deep-tech AI company with a working, demonstrated product, not a slide deck.<br> - Backed by DFKI's research and IP in Explainable AI and neuro-symbolic reasoning.<br> - Equity-based co-founder role with real influence on strategy, hiring and company direction from day one.</p> <p>iXplain welcomes co-founder candidates regardless of gender, age, ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, sexual identity, or any other characteristic. This is a search for the right partner to build the company with, not a conventional hire.</p> <p>Find more <a href="https://www.arbeitnow.com/english-speaking-jobs">English Speaking Jobs in Germany</a> on Arbeitnow</a>