Founding Engineer – Product & Process

Department: Engineering

Location: Berlin

Employment Type: FullTime

About the Role

This is a founding-team engineering role at a seed-stage company building an AI-powered operating platform for the German tax advisory industry. The company acquires established, profitable tax advisory firms and transforms them using proprietary automation technology — creating a modern, tech-enabled group of accounting and tax practices serving SMEs.

As a Founding Engineer – Product & Process, you will turn real-world tax advisory workflows into executable, scalable systems. You'll own the full journey from rapid prototype to hardened production workflow, and directly shape how automation adds leverage across acquired firms. This is a high-ownership, high-impact role at the intersection of deep backend engineering and domain-rich process design.

What You'll Do

• Analyze workflows across accounting, payroll, reporting, and client communication to identify bottlenecks, handovers, failure modes, and unnecessary manual work.

• Rapidly design and build MEPs/MVPs to automate and validate workflows.

• Implement workflow systems using n8n, Temporal, or custom backend services.

• Collaborate closely with tax advisors and engineers in tight, iterative feedback loops.

• Own the full transition from prototype → hardened, production-grade workflow system.

• Make deliberate decisions about when UI matters — and when it's just an implementation detail.

What We're Looking For

Dealbreakers (must-haves):

• 5+ years building and shipping workflow automation or process automation systems in production.

• Hands-on experience implementing workflow systems using n8n, Temporal, or equivalent backend workflow orchestration tools.

• Demonstrated experience working with tax, accounting, payroll, or professional services workflows.

Required:

• Experience designing and building MEPs/MVPs to validate workflow automation concepts.

• Experience transitioning workflow prototypes to hardened, production-grade systems.

• Proficiency in backend development — custom services, APIs, and backend logic for workflow systems.

• Experience analyzing and identifying bottlenecks, handovers, and failure modes in complex multi-step processes.

• Strong computer science fundamentals: algorithms, data structures, and system design.

• Based in Berlin or willing to relocate to Berlin to work from the office.

Nice to Have:

• Experience building or working with UI systems with deliberately scoped UI decisions (knowing when UI is critical vs. a mere implementation detail).

• Experience collaborating directly with domain experts — accountants, tax advisors, or professional services practitioners — to understand and validate workflows.

Ideal mindset: You're product-minded and deeply technical. You're energized by ambiguity, end-to-end ownership, and rapid iteration. You enjoy working side-by-side with domain experts rather than in isolation, and you're comfortable making pragmatic decisions in a fast-moving, early-stage environment.

Location & Work Arrangement

• Location: Berlin, Germany (on-site).

• Candidates must be based in Berlin or willing to relocate.

• Visa sponsorship: Not available.

Compensation & Benefits

Compensation details were not provided for this role. As a founding-team hire at a seed-stage company, equity participation and significant scope of impact are core parts of the offer.