Berlin Mitte · Hybrid (up to 2 days/week remote) · €60,000–75,000 + VSOP equity
Help us decarbonize cement and concrete - not tomorrow, today
alcemy is on a mission to keep 100 million tons of CO₂ out of the atmosphere every year by 2030. Making concrete accounts for around 8% of global CO₂ emissions, and our machine-learning software runs inside cement and concrete plants 24/7 to cut it - without sacrificing quality or driving up costs. We're already live in a third of Germany's cement plants and 30+ ready-mix concrete plants.
You'll own the systems that get plant data into alcemy.
That data comes from external partners, and it arrives messy. You'll build and own the APIs and services that take it in, make sense of it, and feed the machine-learning models behind our recommendations - designing those systems, deploying them, keeping them running, and diagnosing what went wrong when something upstream changes without warning.
It's a backend engineering role with a data problem at the centre of it, and it's refreshingly hands-on with customers: you'll dig into real-world data, explain what you find to non-technical people, and make getting data into alcemy dramatically easier.
What you need is solid production Python, the ability to run what you build, and comfort talking to the people on the other end of the pipe.
- Own the data ingestion systems that bring messy plant data from external partners into something our ML can use
- Build and improve our ingestion APIs, moving us from strict, structured data requirements toward flexible, AI-powered ingestion - so customers onboard with far less friction
- Deploy, monitor and troubleshoot your systems in production, diagnosing and fixing issues when something upstream changes without warning
- Track down data anomalies and explain your findings to customers in plain language
- Build and maintain the APIs and PostgreSQL databases behind our products, and keep production running smoothly
- Work shoulder to shoulder with external partners, customers, sales and customer success - translating between the technical and the non-technical
- Collaborate with the product team on backend work
Requirements
You'll thrive here if... above all, you care about climate change and want your work to count.
Must-haves
- You've deployed production-grade Python applications
- You know how to deploy, monitor and troubleshoot production systems in a cloud environment
- You communicate clearly in writing and in conversation, and you collaborate well across roles
- You're comfortable working directly with customers, sales and customer success - patient, plain-spoken, and at ease with non-technical enterprise teams
- You pick up unfamiliar codebases quickly, and you're keen to contribute early
- You're open to using AI tools to augment how you work
Nice-to-haves
- Exposure to machine learning or data pipeline projects
- Experience with FastAPI, Flask or Django
- PostgreSQL or similar SQL databases
- Experience designing or maintaining integrations with third-party or partner systems
Don't tick every box? We'd still love to hear from you.
How we work
You won't be working alone - you'll build collaboratively alongside senior and junior engineers, owning features end to end: build, test, review, deploy.
Small team, direct customer exposure, fast startup pace - so async communication, clear prioritisation, transparency, and direct feedback are the norm, and how we work is something we shape together, and keep improving.
We use Claude Code responsibly: AI to move fast, engineers always in charge and accountable, no AI-slop merge requests.
We'll ask you to be flexible. We don't have fixed teams or fixed projects here. As the business shifts, we'll ask you to move to where the work matters most and pick up new problems. If you enjoy variety and switching between problems, you'll do well here.
Hybrid by design (Berlin Mitte office, up to 2 days remote, plus offsites and boat trips), with real room to grow along technical-expert or management tracks - and the chance to lead a product area within a couple of years.
Benefits
- 25 days' vacation - plus an extra day for every 2 years here, and the days between Christmas and New Year off
- €1,500/year and 3 days/quarter for your own development
- The Mac of your choice
- An office in the heart of Berlin Mitte
Our Tech Stack
- Backend & data: Python throughout - FastAPI (auto-generated Swagger/OpenAPI), SQLAlchemy, pydantic, pytest, mypy; pandas, polars, numpy, sklearn; uv for dependencies
- Infra: PostgreSQL, AWS on Kubernetes managed with Terraform, ArgoWorkflows for scheduled jobs, GitLab for code
- Frontend: React & Next.js in TypeScript with TailwindCSS; Blueprint.js / Radix UI; TanStack Query or axios; Streamlit for internal tools
Our Hiring Process is fully remote
- Intro call with our Recruiter
- Meet our Hiring Manager
- A take-home task that mirrors the real work you'd be doing
- Technical interview (90 min) with two engineers, including 30 min of live coding
- Team-fit interview (45 min) with two future teammates
At alcemy, we're building a team as diverse as the industry we're transforming. We welcome applications from everyone and assess every candidate on merit alone - regardless of gender, age, ethnic or national origin, religion or worldview, disability, sexual orientation, or gender identity. We especially encourage people who are underrepresented in tech to apply. If you need any adjustments to take part fully in our hiring process, just let us know and we'll make them.
Note: We don't currently offer visa sponsorship, so you'll need a valid EU work visa.
Skills Required
- Production-grade Python application deployment experience
- Experience deploying, monitoring, and troubleshooting production systems in a cloud environment
- Clear written and verbal communication skills
- Ability to collaborate effectively across roles
- Comfort working directly with customers, sales, and customer success teams
- Ability to communicate technical findings clearly to non-technical enterprise teams
- Ability to learn unfamiliar codebases quickly and contribute early
- Willingness to use AI tools to augment work
- Exposure to machine learning or data pipeline projects
- Experience with FastAPI, Flask, or Django
- Experience with PostgreSQL or similar SQL databases
- Experience designing or maintaining third-party or partner-system integrations
What We Do
Concrete is the most widely used building material on our planet. The only thing mankind uses more of is water. With a wave of urban development coming in the next few decades, concrete is also a rapidly growing trillion-dollar market. However, cement and concrete production is responsible for 8% of the global CO2 emissions, making its growth a big cause for concern. Low-carbon concrete exists - but until now it has been too sophisticated to be produced reliably and on a large scale. It contains very little burnt limestone - responsible for the strength of concrete and CO2 emissions. This makes low-carbon concrete vulnerable to fluctuations in raw materials and operating conditions and thus difficult to produce with reliable quality. Adding to the challenge: the final quality of concrete can only be measured weeks AFTER it has been processed on the construction site - far too late to be corrected. This is why our world is still built on more robust, high-carbon concrete. Using alcemy's software, cement and concrete producers receive precise quality predictions already during production. Based on these prediction models, our AI identifies which production parameters need to be adjusted to mitigate the impact of fluctuations. Thus, the quality of cement and concrete can be optimized BEFORE delivery – for the first time in history. The result is significantly more consistent product quality, allowing producers to safely replace burnt limestone with less expensive, low-carbon materials found in nature. In this way, they can also avoid payments for CO2 emission certificates in the EU. Saving costs, bringing production processes up to speed for 21st century concrete recipes, and saving half of Europe’s CO2 emissions goes hand in hand at alcemy. Join us on our journey to make low-carbon concrete a reality!
