Founding Staff Engineer
About Mercura
Mercura is building AI software for the backbone of our economy.
Backed by Y Combinator, we raised a heavily oversubscribed round at one of the highest valuations in our cohort. As one of Europe's fastest growing startups, we surpassed $2M in ARR in in our first year. Now, we are looking for team members ready to go all-in to help us reach our next milestone: $10M ARR by the end of 2026.
One of our co-founders, Lukas, grew up in a trades family that has been active in the construction industry for over 115 years. Having worked on the construction site himself, he learned first-hand how slow and manual quoting still is in the industry.
In an era where AI becomes ubiquitous, we set out on a deeply personal mission: bring AI to the backbone of our economy - to the companies that keep our world running. To amplify human expertise and free people to do what only humans can do.
About the role
As a Founding Staff Engineer, you will be the technical backbone of Mercura's engineering team - spanning multiple products and development streams. This is a deeply hands-on role for engineers who lead by doing: writing production code, solving the hardest architectural problems, and making the people around them meaningfully better.
We're looking for a highly technical engineers who want to ship core systems, strengthen architecture across products, and leave every codebase they touch in better shape than they found it. If you want outsized technical ownership without moving into management, this is your role.
What you will be working on
Technical Leadership in Code: Own the most complex and highest-leverage engineering work across Mercura's product suite - building core systems, shared frameworks, and critical infrastructure that other engineers build on top of.
Cross-Product Architecture: Define and evolve architecture decisions across multiple products. You'll make the calls that prevent architectural dead-ends two years from now.
Hands-On Execution: Spend the majority of your time writing and shipping code. You lead by example - when something is hard, you're in the trenches.
Engineering Quality: Eliminate technical debt by refactoring abstractions and raising reliability, standards across all teams.
Technical Mentorship: Elevate the engineers around you through code review, pairing, and direct feedback. Help teams deliver consistently without burning out or accumulating hidden risk.
AI Systems: Contribute to the architecture and implementation of Mercura's AI capabilities - from LLM pipelines to data infrastructure - at the intersection of performance and product quality.
What we offer
Learn to build a company: Over five Mercura alumni have gone on to found their own companies and raise millions after their time with us. At Mercura, you’ll take on real responsibility and gain the hands-on experience only possible in a high-growth startup.
Guaranteed career advancement opportunities in a rapidly growing team
An ambitious team that feels like family and sees their work as more than just a job
Real shares in our company with the most favorable tax treatment - no VSOP/ESOP
Free team dinner (up to 4x/week)
UrbanSportsClub membership and access to a company bike - join our team workouts 3x/week
Easy relocation to Munich - our office is located in the Werk1 Startup Incubator, where you can rent a 1-bedroom apartment right next to the office for just €800/month
Access to any AI or productivity tools you need
What we're looking for
Technical Skills & Experience:
8+ years of software engineering experience, with a track record of solving genuinely hard technical problems in production
Deep expertise across the stack - strong in backend systems, APIs, and infrastructure, comfortable in frontend when needed (Python, React, TypeScript)
Proven experience designing and evolving systems across multiple products and teams
Experience improving system performance, reliability, and scalability at scale
Cloud & DevOps fluency: containerization (Docker), cloud infrastructure (Azure/AWS/GCP), infrastructure as code (Terraform)
Experience building or integrating AI systems, LLMs, or large-scale data pipelines is a strong plus
Commitment & Mindset:
Deep technical ownership: You hold the bar. You notice when things are slipping and do something about it - without being asked
Leads through doing: Your authority comes from your output and your judgment, not your title. You mentor by being the best engineer in the room
Multiplier mentality: You measure your success not just by what you ship, but by how much better the team ships after working with you
Mission-driven: Your work is part of how you define yourself. You're fully committed to achieving ambitious goals amid uncertainty
Pragmatic and decisive: You know when to go fast and when to go slow. You make architectural calls with incomplete information and stand behind them
You want to work in-person in Munich with a higher intensity than in a 9-5 job
Your team & mentors
You will work with
Sean (Co-Founder & CTO; Silver Medallist at the International Physics Olympiad (IPhO))
Kolya (prev. SWE at SF-based startup Etleap)
Gabriel (built Maastricht University's course selection system; Oxford graduate)
Admir (Bronze Medallist at the International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI))
Nico (prev. Engineering at SaaS startups Luminovo & Fides)
Your mentors will be
Rohan Ramanath (General Manager AI Product at Nubank, prev. co-founder Hyperplane)
Daniel Ribeiro Silva (Senior Director of ML at Nubank, prev. co-founder Hyperplane)
Why Mercura
Join an ambitious team that feels like family: Your future colleagues are experienced operators, ex-founders, Science Olympiad medallists, and top graduates from places such as Google, Bain, MIT, TUM, Harvard, CDTM, and Cambridge. We bring extraordinary people together and deeply invest in your growth as your mentors, teammates and friends. We care, trust, and support one another like family, and we make sure that fun is at the heart of everything we do.
Work with the latest tech: AI is at the core of our product, and use the latest tech across our product and processes to tackle meaningful challenges and shape how users interact with AI.
Thrive in a high-growth, high-commitment environment: We’re growing extremely fast because we always put our work and our customers first. If you excel in fast-paced settings and want to grow as part of something big from day one, Mercura is for you.
Build something with real-world impact: We ship code that directly helps a massive, yet overlooked manual industry run more efficiently and sustainably. With us, you can work on AI that contributes to economic growth and stability on a huge scale.
Build a company: As an early team member, you will have a direct, lasting impact on our culture, processes, technology, and product. Joining us offers immense rewards: ownership, financial upside, and hands-on experience building a company from the ground up. Our track record speaks for itself - over five Mercura alumni have gone on to found their own companies and raise millions after their time with us.
About the Founders
We are Lukas, Stefan & Sean, the co-founders of Mercura.
We share a deep commitment to excellence and the discipline to pursue what others might consider impossible.
Two of us come from non-academic families, and we all know what it means to create our own paths and overcome barriers. This experience shapes our belief in equal opportunity and fuels our dedication to social mobility.
Lukas (left) is responsible for business development at Mercura. With his background as a Data Scientist at Allianz and at Google in Silicon Valley, he brings extensive expertise in data and AI.
Lukas’ family has been active in the construction industry for over 100 years, giving him a deep understanding and passion for the sector's specific needs.
Sean (middle) is responsible for technical development at Mercura. As a top 0.01% physicist, Sean earned a Silver medal for Germany at the International Physics Olympiad (IPhO), began researching with the Max Planck Institute at the age of 16, and has since published at leading machine learning conferences.
Stefan (right) leads product development at Mercura. Previously, he worked in management consulting at Bain & Company, where he helped manufacturers improve their operations.
Stefan leverages his research experience at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard Business School to develop innovative solutions for the industry.
At Mercura, we believe that the best ideas emerge when people from different backgrounds collaborate together. We hire based on ability, mindset, and values, and we live by one simple rule: the best idea wins.
Beyond Mercura, we actively support initiatives that promote diversity and gender equity and commit a portion of our personal income each year to organizations expanding opportunity for others.
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Our company values
Customer first. We stay close to our customer’s reality and use their feedback to build what truly matters and earn their lasting trust.
Ownership. We take responsibility end-to-end and act proactively to pursue the most ambitious goals.
Enjoy the ride. We build a culture where people can be themselves, have fun doing meaningful work, and celebrate wins along the way.
Let the best ideas win. We challenge each other respectfully and judge ideas by merit, not who said it.
Down-to-earth. We are approachable, humble, and hands-on, bringing both heart and mind to everything we do.