Staff Engineer (Product-Focused)

At Hearth Mind Talent, we’re partnering with an early-stage, mission-driven AI company building high-impact, user-facing AI products for public procurement and tender processes, a space that is critical to the economy, yet historically slow, manual, and opaque.

They’re looking for a Staff-level Product Engineer to help design and build scalable systems that connect LLM-powered intelligence with polished, production-grade product experiences.

This is a rare opportunity to join very early, work side-by-side with founders, and shape both the technical architecture and the engineering culture from the ground up.

What You’ll Be Doing

• Own the design and implementation of full-stack product features, integrating LLMs into performant, reliable systems built on a modern cloud-native stack (Frontend: TypeScript, React, Tailwind | Backend: Python, FastAPI | Infra: AWS)
• Architect and evolve core systems with a strong focus on scalability, reliability, and clean interfaces
• Strong foundations in asynchronous workflows are essential
• Experience with orchestration tools (e.g. Temporal) is a strong plus
• Own features end-to-end, from technical design and implementation to deployment and iteration
• Work closely with founders and customers to deeply understand user needs and translate them into robust technical solutions
• Raise the engineering bar through thoughtful design discussions, code reviews, and operational best practices
• Proactively identify and lead improvements across the stack, architecture, and team processes

What We’re Looking For

• A high-calibre full-stack engineer with 8+ years of experience building and scaling production systems
• Strong background in system design, software architecture, and API best practices
• At least 5 years shipping real products and 3+ years designing systems
• Proven ability to turn complex, ambiguous problems into reliable, real-world applications
• Experience working in secure, data-intensive, or high-availability environments
• Clear indicators of high performance and ambition (e.g. startup leadership, open-source impact, ownership of complex systems)
• Comfortable in high-ownership, fast-moving environments where quality and speed both matter
• Strong communication skills and a direct, thoughtful approach to collaboration and feedback
• Motivated by building something meaningful — both a product and a culture

Nice to Have

• Hands-on experience with LLM-powered applications (LangChain, LlamaIndex, prompt engineering, etc.)
• Familiarity with LLM evaluation frameworks and metrics
• Strong product intuition and UX sensibility
• Previous experience in an early-stage startup (founder or early hire)
• Working knowledge of German (initial product language)

Why this role is special

• Real ownership from day one. You’ll help define the product and the technical direction, not just ship tickets, but working closely with the founders with minimal process and zero red tape.
• A role that grows with you. As the company scales, so does your scope, influence, and impact. This is a chance to shape something early and grow alongside it.
• Meaningful upside. Competitive compensation and strong equity, designed for people who want to think and operate like true owners.
• A mission with real-world impact. You won’t be optimising clicks or dashboards, you’ll be helping businesses win government work and enabling smarter, more transparent public spending across Europe.