Founding Product Engineer

About the Role

We're a fast-growing, Vienna-headquartered AI communication startup building an AI phone assistant platform for SMEs across Europe — and we're looking for a Founding Product Engineer to join our engineering team. This is a high-ownership, end-to-end role at the intersection of product thinking and full-stack engineering. You'll help shape the product from hypothesis to production, working closely with customers, partners, and sales to deliver features that create real, measurable business value.

We're a remote-first team with an optional office in Vienna. You'll need meaningful overlap with Central European Time (CET). Our product is German-language-first, so native-level German proficiency is essential.

What You'll Do

• Own features end-to-end — from hypothesis and prototype through architecture, implementation, and production release.

• Lead product discovery by designing and running rapid experiments to validate ideas before committing to large-scale builds.

• Maintain close, recurring contact with customers, partners, and the sales team to surface real pain points and translate them into product decisions.

• Design and implement tracking and analytics to enable data-driven iteration.

• Drive architecture choices across the full stack and take responsibility through to release.

• Prioritize pragmatic, scalable solutions that balance speed of validation with long-term quality.

• Take radical ownership of your initiatives — move things forward without waiting for sign-offs.

What We're Looking For

Must-haves (dealbreakers):

• 3+ years of experience in Product Engineering delivering end-to-end software features.

• Strong full-stack proficiency: Node.js, TypeScript, NestJS, and React.

• Native-level German fluency (Deutsch auf Muttersprache-Niveau) — essential for our German-language product and customer interactions.

Required:

• Experience integrating software with external systems (CRMs, calendar tools, databases, APIs).

• Ability to gather customer feedback and convert pain points into prioritized product decisions.

• Comfort identifying, tracking, and analyzing product metrics to drive data-informed choices.

• Proven experience owning the full development lifecycle from architecture to production.

Nice to have:

• Experience working with AI/LLM integrations (e.g., OpenAI or similar) — this is a strong advantage.

• Familiarity with GDPR compliance and EU AI Act considerations in product development.

• Background working in remote-first, asynchronous environments at early-stage or high-growth startups.

Compensation & Benefits

• Salary: €80,000 – €120,000 annually, depending on experience.

• Equity: Meaningful equity stake as part of a high-growth founding team environment.

• Remote-first flexibility with optional office access in Vienna.

Please note: visa sponsorship is not available for this role.

Location

Fully remote, with a preference for candidates based in Germany or able to work with significant CET overlap. An optional co-working office is available in Vienna, Austria.