Founding Product Engineer
Clera· Germany·
About the Role
A fast-moving, pre-Seed energy intelligence startup is looking for a Founding Product Engineer to join their early team in Munich. The company builds an AI-powered platform that helps industrial companies optimise energy procurement and reduce costs — combining real-time market intelligence, portfolio management, and data-driven decision support.
As one of the first engineers on the team, you'll have significant influence over product direction, technical architecture, and company culture. You'll work directly with founders and customers, owning features end-to-end — from concept through deployment.
What You'll Do
Take full ownership of the product lifecycle — from design and scoping through to deployment.
Translate product objectives into concrete requirements through close collaboration with customers.
Design simple, iterative solutions to complex energy procurement problems.
Develop performant backend services for a data-intensive, real-time application.
Build intuitive, elegant user interfaces for a complex decision-support system.
Train time-series forecasting models for power consumption and renewables production.
Develop linear optimisation algorithms aimed at reducing customer energy costs.
Help define and evolve the core tech stack (currently: PostgreSQL, TypeScript, React, Python; FastAPI and Supabase in use).
What We're Looking For
Required
2+ years of software engineering experience delivering scalable web applications, ideally in an early-stage startup environment.
Proven ability to independently deliver full product features in direct collaboration with customers.
Strong fundamentals across backend and frontend — you're a true generalist with a product mindset.
Experience building backend services for data-intensive applications.
Experience building frontend UIs for complex, data-rich decision-support tools.
Comfortable with ambiguity, rapid iteration, and wearing many hats in a fast-paced environment.
Genuine curiosity for energy markets and the intersection of software, data, and sustainability.
Nice to Have
Hands-on experience with time-series forecasting and/or linear optimisation.
Familiarity with FastAPI, Supabase, or similar modern tooling.
Background as a startup CTO, technical co-founder, or early engineer at a high-growth startup.
Corporate engineering background with a clearly demonstrated startup mindset and grit.
Interest or experience in the energy, cleantech, or industrial sectors.
Location
This is a hybrid role based in Munich, Germany. The team works together on-site the majority of the week, with flexibility for occasional remote days. Candidates must be willing and able to commute to the Munich office regularly.
Visa sponsorship is not available for this position.
Compensation & Benefits
Salary: €85,000 – €140,000 per year, depending on experience and seniority.
Early-stage equity opportunity as a founding team member.
Significant technical and product ownership from day one.
Work directly with founders and customers on problems that matter — energy cost and sustainability for industrial companies.