Founding Staff Engineer

Mercura builds AI software for technical suppliers - the distributors and manufacturers who supply contractors to build new hospitals, schools, homes, and power plants.

This industry runs on expertise built over decades. But too much of that expertise gets buried in manual work - processing vague requests, keying data into ERPs, answering phone calls - instead of serving customers. Some of the best teams turn down up to 30% of incoming business simply because they can't keep up. Mercura changes that.

Backed by Y Combinator, we surpassed $2M in ARR in our first year. Now we're looking for people ready to go all-in to reach our next milestone: $10M ARR by end of 2026.

One of our co-founders, Lukas, grew up in a fourth-generation trades family and worked on construction sites himself. That’s where he learned first-hand how slow and manual this work still is.

No skilled person should spend their time on work that software should handle. We're building the tools that give experts their time back - so they can focus on what they do best, and keep the physical world running at the speed it deserves.

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.

• 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.

• 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 growth in a fast-scaling team where top performers move up fast

• An ambitious, tight-knit team that takes their work seriously and genuinely enjoys working together

• Real shares in our company with the most favorable tax treatment - no VSOP/ESOP

• Free team dinner

• UrbanSportsClub membership and access to a company bike

• Easy relocation to Munich - our office is located in the Werk1 Startup Incubator, where you can rent an apartment right next to the office

• Access to any AI or productivity tools you need

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

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)

• 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.

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.

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.