Founding Engineer – Backend & Platform

Department: Engineering

Location: Berlin

Employment Type: FullTime

About the Role

A seed-stage AI-powered tax advisory tech startup is building Germany's most modern accounting and tax advisory platform — unifying legacy systems into a shared, AI-driven operating system for tax firms. As a Founding Engineer – Backend & Platform, you'll be one of the first engineers shaping the entire backend foundation: the data pipelines, workflow orchestration, and core services that power real tax advisory firms from day one.

You'll work directly with the CTO on system design and core architectural decisions in a true greenfield environment. This is a high-ownership, high-impact role for someone who thrives on building reliable, production-grade systems in a fast-moving early-stage company. Visa sponsorship is available.

What You'll Do

• Design, implement, and operate core backend services spanning accounting, payroll, reporting, and compliance domains.

• Build robust data pipelines to ingest, normalize, and reconcile data from DATEV, banks, and document sources.

• Design and operate workflow orchestration for long-running, stateful, and failure-prone processes.

• Own correctness, observability, and performance of every system you build — metrics, tracing, and logging included.

• Make pragmatic architectural decisions in a greenfield environment with real production constraints.

• Ship to production frequently — your code runs inside live tax advisory firms from day one.

• Collaborate directly with the CTO on system design and the highest-leverage technical decisions.

What We're Looking For

Must-haves (dealbreakers):

• 3+ years of professional experience building and operating production backend systems.

• Strong proficiency in TypeScript for backend development.

• Hands-on experience designing and operating workflow orchestration systems for long-running, stateful, failure-prone processes.

Required skills:

• Strong observability, monitoring, and performance optimization skills for production systems (metrics, tracing, logging).

• Experience integrating DATEV or similar accounting software into a production platform.

• Experience building data pipelines for ingesting, normalizing, and reconciling data from multiple sources (accounting software, banks, documents).

• Demonstrated focus on data integrity, correctness, and reliability in system design.

Nice to have:

• Experience with greenfield backend architecture and end-to-end system design decisions.

• Banking or financial data integration experience.

• Domain knowledge in accounting, payroll, or tax compliance systems.

• Prior founding engineer or early-stage startup experience.

Location & Work Arrangement

This role is based on-site in Berlin, Germany. Visa sponsorship is available for qualified candidates.

Why Join

• Greenfield engineering at the founding stage — you define the architecture, not just implement it.

• Your work ships directly into production at real firms, creating immediate, measurable impact.

• Flat structure with direct access to leadership and technical decision-makers.

• Operate at the intersection of AI, accounting infrastructure, and workflow automation in a large, underserved market.

• Backed by institutional investors at the seed/early stage.