Founding Engineering Team Lead (HandsOn)

Founding Engineering Team Lead (HandsOn)

Posted: • Job reference: a50601e2ac4e08efde7243a5eacc7ed9

Location: Berlin, Germany

Listing type: Basic • EU work permit required: No

At TechBiz Global, we are providing recruitment service to our TOP clients from our portfolio. We are currently seeking a Founding Engineering Team Lead to join one of our clients' team in Berlin. If you're looking for an exciting opportunity to grow in a innovative environment, this could be the perfect fit for you.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead and grow a small, high‑performing engineering team while remaining hands‑on
• Design, build, and review production backend and platform code alongside the team
• Own delivery of the engineering roadmap, balancing speed, quality, and security
• Act as a technical leader by setting architecture direction and enforcing engineering standards
• Contribute directly to critical features, integrations, and platform foundations
• Establish lightweight engineering processes that enable fast execution without bureaucracy
• Mentor engineers through code reviews, pairing, and technical guidance
• Contribute hands‑on in design and build architecture, configure systems, code 70% of the time in GoLang
• Remove blockers and unblock delivery across backend, frontend, data, and DevOps
• Collaborate closely with CEO, CPTO, and product leadership on technical and execution decisions
• Support hiring, onboarding, and technical evaluation of engineers
• Foster a culture of ownership, pragmatism, and low ego
• Build whole Security platform setup from scratch
• Partner closely with backend and AI engineers to design secure service boundaries and deployment models
• Troubleshoot and resolve complex production incidents across infrastructure, networking, and application layers
• Build PoCs and validate infrastructure and security design decisions in an early‑stage environment
• Support compliance readiness by enabling controls, logging, and evidence collection for security frameworks
• Continuously improve platform cost efficiency, reliability, and operational maturity
• This role reports directly to CEO & CPTO

Must Have Skills

• 10+ years of professional software engineering experience
• 3+ years of experience leading engineering teams while remaining hands‑on
• 3+ years of GoLang experience
• 3+ years experience with AWS in production environments
• Strong code quality bar and experience with architectural reviews
• Ability to context‑switch between technical topics and people leadership
• Strong execution mindset and comfort operating under ambiguity
• Hands‑on coding mentality; can build things from scratch including security architecture yourself
• Hands‑on experience with Docker, Kubernetes (EKS) and containerized workloads
• Experience with CI/CD pipelines (GitHub Actions or similar)
• Experience with monitoring, logging, observability (Grafana, OpenTelemetry, Prometheus)
• Experience with Coding CoPilots (Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, AWS CodeWhisperer, Codex, etc.)
• Knowledge of Experience supporting production SaaS platforms
• High ownership mentality, startup mindset, and ability to move quickly
• Experience in startup or scale‑up environments
• Low ego, high commitment, and a true tech startup mentality
• Excellent English communication skills

Nice‑to‑Have Requirements

• Previous experience as a founding or early‑stage Engineering Manager
• Experience in cybersecurity, identity, or enterprise SaaS platforms
• Exposure to DevOps, SRE, or data engineering
• Experience scaling teams and systems simultaneously
• Experience with security architecture, identity security, or security engineering
• Familiarity with compliance frameworks (NIS2, DORA, ISO 27001, SOC 2)
• Understanding of OAuth/OIDC, API tokens, IdP, scopes, SSO, SCIM, roles, RBAC/ABAC, service accounts
• Familiarity with cloud identity and security controls (e.g. IAM, CloudTrail, Azure Active Directory / Entra ID)
• Hands‑on with SIEM platforms such as Splunk, Microsoft Sentinel, or IBM QRadar
• Experience designing permission models, identity graphs, or access control frameworks
• Knowledge of tokenization, Zero Trust principles, least privilege, and continuous verification
• Experience with Security related to AI/LLM systems, agent logic, or willingness to learn fast
• Familiarity with AI agent behavior, LLM security, or agent sandboxing
• Previous experience in cybersecurity, identity startups
• You are a fan of rock or metal music
• Excellent German communication skills

Benefits

• Founding Team Member Equity — ESOPs in a well funded cybersecurity company.
• Competitive Compensation — salary aligned with market, flexible early‑stage arrangements possible.
• Founding Team Member Status — shape the company from day one and own critical security technical decisions.
• Fresh Funding Secured — immediate runway to build, hire, and execute fast.
• Security Contribution — contribute to security tech architecture across identity, AI agents, and enforcement.
• High Autonomy — freedom to design and build without corporate overhead.
• Work with a Technical CEO and CPTO — fast iteration, strong alignment, clear direction.
• Cutting‑Edge Domain — identity security, SaaS‑to‑SaaS access, AI agent governance.
• Massive Learning Curve — quickly gain depth in cybersecurity, identity, and AI systems.
• Fast Career Path — opportunity evolve into higher leadership as we scale the engineering team.
• Berlin Location — top‑tier tech environment with strong cybersecurity and AI ecosystems.
• Direct Impact — your architecture and code become the foundation of the entire platform.
• Best Equipment and Tools — high quality equipment and modern tools to help you do your best work from day one.
• Team Offsets — Regular team offsets designed to build strong connections, alignment and shared momentum.