Founding Product Engineer
Clera
<h3>About the Role</h3><p style="min-height:1.5em">This is a founding engineering hire at an early-stage, AI-powered platform built for industrial energy procurement and cost optimisation. You'll join a small, high-conviction team and take genuine ownership — from shaping the architecture to shipping features directly with customers. The platform handles real-time energy market data, forecasting, portfolio management, and optimisation at enterprise scale.</p><p style="min-height:1.5em">If you're a generalist engineer with a strong product mindset, comfort with ambiguity, and a curiosity for data-intensive domains, this role is a rare opportunity to have outsized impact from day one.</p><p style="min-height:1.5em"><em>Note: Visa sponsorship is not available for this role.</em></p><h3>What You'll Do</h3><ul style="min-height:1.5em"><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Own the full product lifecycle — from design and requirements through to deployment and iteration.</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Translate product objectives into clear, actionable requirements in close collaboration with customers.</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Design simple, iterative solutions to complex energy procurement and market problems.</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Build performant backend services for a highly data-intensive application.</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Develop intuitive, elegant user interfaces for a sophisticated decision-support system.</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Train time-series forecasting models for power consumption and renewables production.</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Develop and refine linear optimisation algorithms to reduce customer energy costs.</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Help define and evolve the core tech stack — including <strong>PostgreSQL, TypeScript, React, and Python</strong>.</p></li></ul><h3>What We're Looking For</h3><p style="min-height:1.5em"><strong>Must-haves:</strong></p><ul style="min-height:1.5em"><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">2+ years of software engineering experience delivering scalable web applications in an early-stage startup environment.</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Proven track record of delivering full product features independently, working directly with customers.</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Strong software engineering fundamentals — you write robust, maintainable, scalable code.</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Hands-on experience building backend services for data-intensive applications.</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Experience building frontend UIs for complex, data-rich decision-support tools.</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">A genuine product mindset: you think about outcomes, not just outputs.</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Comfort thriving in a fast-paced, early-stage environment with high ambiguity and rapid change.</p></li></ul><p style="min-height:1.5em"><strong>Strong advantages:</strong></p><ul style="min-height:1.5em"><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Experience with time-series forecasting and/or linear optimisation.</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Familiarity with <strong>PostgreSQL, React, Python</strong>; exposure to <strong>FastAPI, TypeScript, or Supabase</strong> is a plus.</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Background as a CTO, founding engineer, or startup founder.</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Corporate background (e.g. industrials, energy, consulting) paired with a demonstrated startup mindset and grit.</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Curiosity for energy markets, industrial technology, or data-intensive B2B applications.</p></li></ul><h3>Location</h3><p style="min-height:1.5em">This role is based in <strong>Munich, Germany</strong>. You'll work on-site the majority of the week, with flexibility for occasional remote days. Fully remote arrangements are not available for this position.</p><h3>Compensation & Benefits</h3><ul style="min-height:1.5em"><li><p style="min-height:1.5em"><strong>Salary:</strong> €85,000 – €140,000 per year, depending on experience.</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Meaningful early-stage equity participation.</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Direct influence over product direction, tech stack, and company culture.</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">A lean, high-calibre team working on a complex, high-stakes problem in the European energy transition.</p></li></ul><p>Find more <a href="https://www.arbeitnow.com/english-speaking-jobs">English Speaking Jobs in Germany</a> on Arbeitnow</a>