Founding Engineering Team Lead (HandsOn)

About This Opportunity

We are representing a recently funded cybersecurity startup in Berlin that is building a next-generation AI-powered risk management platform from the ground up. Our client is an early-stage organization founded by experienced security leaders, and they need a Founding Engineering Team Lead who can balance hands-on technical contribution with people leadership.

This is a rare opportunity to join as a founding team member and architect the core identity, security, and enforcement foundations of an enterprise platform. You'll work in a hybrid setup in central Berlin, coding 70% of the time while leading a small, high-performing team through the critical early stages of product development.

Responsibilities

• Lead and grow a small engineering team while remaining deeply hands-on with code
• Design and build production backend and platform systems from scratch, primarily in GoLang
• Own the engineering roadmap and balance speed, quality, and security in delivery
• Set architectural direction and establish engineering standards across the platform
• Contribute directly to critical features, integrations, and core infrastructure
• Build security platform architecture including service boundaries, deployment models, and access controls
• Establish lightweight processes that enable fast execution without bureaucracy
• Mentor engineers through code reviews, pair programming, and technical guidance
• Remove blockers across backend, frontend, data, and DevOps workstreams
• Collaborate with executive leadership on technical and strategic decisions
• Support hiring, onboarding, and technical evaluation of new engineers
• Build and configure cloud-native systems with monitoring, logging, and observability
• Troubleshoot complex production incidents across infrastructure and application layers
• Support compliance readiness through logging, controls, and evidence collection

What We're Looking For

Required Skills and Experience:

• 10+ years of professional software engineering experience
• 3+ years leading engineering teams while maintaining hands-on technical involvement
• 3+ years of production experience with GoLang
• 3+ years working with AWS in production environments
• Strong code quality standards and architectural review experience
• Ability to context-switch between deep technical work and people leadership
• Hands-on experience with Docker, Kubernetes (EKS), and containerized workloads
• Experience with CI/CD pipelines (GitHub Actions or similar)
• Experience with monitoring and observability tools (Grafana, OpenTelemetry, Prometheus)
• Familiarity with AI coding assistants (Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, or similar)
• Track record supporting production SaaS platforms
• High ownership mentality and comfort operating under ambiguity
• Startup or scale-up environment experience
• Low ego, high commitment, and true startup mentality
• Excellent English communication skills

Nice to Have:

• Previous founding or early-stage Engineering Manager experience
• Background in cybersecurity, identity systems, or enterprise SaaS
• DevOps, SRE, or data engineering exposure
• Experience scaling teams and technical systems simultaneously
• Security architecture or identity security expertise
• Familiarity with compliance frameworks (NIS2, DORA, ISO 27001, SOC 2)
• Knowledge of OAuth/OIDC, SSO, SCIM, RBAC/ABAC, and identity protocols
• Experience with cloud identity and security controls (IAM, CloudTrail, Azure AD/Entra ID)
• Hands-on with SIEM platforms (Splunk, Microsoft Sentinel, IBM QRadar)
• Experience with permission models, identity graphs, or access control frameworks
• Understanding of Zero Trust, least privilege, and continuous verification principles
• Experience with AI/LLM security, agent systems, or willingness to learn quickly
• German language skills

How We Work With You

When you apply through Get A Job.ai, our talent team will review your profile and conduct an initial screening conversation. If there's a strong match, we'll submit your candidacy to our client with your approval. Throughout the process, we'll provide guidance and feedback to help you succeed.

Please do not attempt to contact the client directly. All communication and coordination should go through Get A Job.ai to ensure a professional and organized process for everyone involved.

Pay

Compensation details will be discussed during the screening process and are competitive with the Berlin market for founding engineering roles. Our client also offers founding team member equity (ESOPs) as part of the total package.

Location: Berlin, Germany (Hybrid)

Get A Job.ai is an equal opportunity recruiter. We work with clients and candidates regardless of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, or any other protected characteristic. We are committed to fostering inclusive hiring processes.