Role ID:TT-TEL-PE-BER-001
Location: Berlin, Germany (On-site)
Employment Type: Full-time
Relocation: Relocation support available for outstanding international candidates. Visa sponsorship may be considered for exceptional profiles.
About the Opportunity
We are looking for an exceptional Product Engineer who wants to build products—not just write code.
This is not a traditional software engineering position. You'll join a fast-moving AI startup where engineers own the entire product lifecycle, from identifying customer problems to designing, building, shipping, and continuously improving solutions.
There are no traditional product managers. Engineers work directly on customer challenges, make product decisions, and take complete ownership of what they build.
If you're someone who enjoys moving fast, solving real business problems, and taking responsibility from idea to production, this role offers an opportunity to have significant product impact from day one.
What You'll Do
Own features from concept through production and iteration.
Identify customer pain points and proactively build solutions.
Collaborate closely with engineers, founders, and customers to improve the product.
Design pragmatic technical solutions that balance engineering quality with business value.
Ship production-ready features rapidly and iterate based on user feedback.
Make product decisions, prioritize trade-offs, and continuously improve the customer experience.
Use AI tools to increase engineering productivity and accelerate development.
Contribute to a highly collaborative, in-person engineering culture.
What We're Looking For
Required Experience
Strong full-stack software engineering experience.
Experience owning products or features end-to-end.
Strong product thinking and customer-first mindset.
Excellent problem-solving abilities.
Ability to make pragmatic engineering decisions.
High level of autonomy and ownership.
Comfortable working in an extremely fast-paced startup environment.
Strong communication skills in English.
Ideal Background
We're especially interested in candidates who have:
Built side projects, startups, open-source projects or participated in hackathons.
Demonstrated high ownership and measurable business impact in previous roles.
Experience working in early-stage or high-growth startup environments.
Previously wanted to transition from engineering into product ownership—or product managers returning to hands-on building.
A "figure it out" mentality with evidence to support it.
Strong engineering fundamentals (experience with TypeScript and Python is advantageous but not mandatory).
Technical Skills
Experience with some of the following is beneficial:
Full-stack development
TypeScript
Python
Modern web technologies
APIs
Cloud-based applications
AI-assisted software development tools
Strong engineering ability is valued more highly than experience with any specific programming language.
What Makes You Successful
You'll thrive in this role if you:
Love taking ownership rather than waiting for direction.
Enjoy solving customer problems, not just technical challenges.
Move quickly while making thoughtful trade-offs.
Learn new technologies independently.
Prefer building and shipping over endless planning.
Are motivated by impact and business outcomes.
Enjoy working closely with your team in person.
This Role May Not Be Right For You If You
Prefer remote or hybrid working.
Need highly structured processes and detailed direction.
Are primarily motivated by technology rather than customer outcomes.
Prefer traditional development processes with extensive approvals before shipping.
Are looking for a standard 9-to-5 engineering environment.
Prefer working within clearly defined product specifications instead of creating them.
Interview Process
Recruiter screening call
Live online coding challenge including system design.
Full-day on-site interview in Berlin covering:
Coding
System Design
Product Thinking
Career Deep Dive
Professional reference checks.
Why Join?
Build AI products with real customer impact.
Own features from idea to production.
Work alongside ambitious, highly talented engineers.
Learn at an accelerated pace in a high-growth startup environment.
Make meaningful product decisions instead of simply implementing specifications.
Join a company where ownership, speed, and execution are at the core of the engineering culture.
Skills Required
- Strong full-stack software engineering experience
- Experience owning products or features end-to-end
- Strong product thinking and customer-first mindset
- Excellent problem-solving abilities
- Ability to make pragmatic engineering decisions
- High level of autonomy and ownership
- Comfortable working in an extremely fast-paced startup environment
- Strong communication skills in English
- Built side projects, startups, open-source projects or participated in hackathons
- Demonstrated high ownership and measurable business impact in previous roles
- Experience working in early-stage or high-growth startup environments
- Experience with TypeScript and Python
- Experience with modern web technologies, APIs, and cloud-based applications
- Familiarity with AI-assisted software development tools
What We Do
REF Digital is a Montreal-based digital agency that helps businesses thrive in a digital-first economy. They specialize in designing and engineering bespoke e-commerce platforms, apps, and digital experiences engineered for lasting impact. Formed from the digital team of Groupe LG2, the agency combines strategy, technology, and design to help brands navigate the digital economy and propel their online presence to a new level.
