Senior Product Engineer

Vanilla Steel

YOUR MISSION We are a Berlin-based startup transforming how industrial materials are bought and sold across Europe. One of the oldest industries in the world still runs on Excel, PDF and email. We are replacing that with AI that runs the buying and selling workflow end to end, increasing liquidity, speeding up transactions and reducing waste for hundreds of steel and metal distributors.  We have strong early traction, real enterprise customers and committed investors. We are a lean, technical team scaling our enterprise pilots and building the AI infrastructure underneath them. Your job as Senior Product Engineer is to make sure we deliver on that traction and stay ahead. You partner closely with Co-founder Simon, who owns sales; you own that we ship, that enterprise customers succeed, and that the product stays in front. This is a senior, hands-on role with three pillars. 1. Build and ship with AI * Ship production software using AI as a force multiplier — prototypes, integrations, customer-facing flows — and get them live, not just specified. * Move our AI from assisting people to running the buying and selling workflow as autonomous agents. * Integrate our pipeline deep into customer systems and ERPs (SAP, Odoo, Microsoft Dynamics), and design for fast onboarding so a new customer reaches value in days, not months. * Our stack: Python, FastAPI, Pydantic AI, Pydantic Logfire, JavaScript/Node, React, GCP, Kubernetes. You won't be expected to master all of it on day one, but you should be comfortable navigating it with AI tooling. 2. Lead technical communication with enterprise customers * Own the technical relationship with three to five enterprise customers: run the discovery workshops, scope the work, run first-line UAT, and steer executive, procurement and IT conversations. * Translate customer reality into clear build decisions and engineering reality into clear customer expectations. Hold the line on scope when a request will not move the metric that matters. * Represent the product credibly to senior stakeholders, and to investors when a customer also sits on our cap table. 3. Help build the product org * Drive the shipping cadence: a weekly or biweekly release rhythm with engineering, and sequence delivery against engineering capacity with our Head of Tech. * Make the strategic product calls — what we build next, and what we deliberately do not. * As we scale enterprise customers, help grow how the team works and the product function around you. YOUR PROFILE You are a builder who ships with AI and can run an enterprise customer relationship and help shape how we build. Two non-negotiables: technical capability and product sense. Everything else sits behind those. * Excellent written and verbal communication in English and in German (C1 or C2 must have, native not required). You can run a technical workshop with a German industrial customer end to end. * Berlin-based or willing to relocate. The role also includes regular travel to customer sites in Central Germany (~2–3 days per month). * 5+ years building product, with at least 2 years in genuinely technical roles (engineering, technical PM at a real engineering company, solutions architect, forward-deployed engineer). * Deep LLM/AI experience: you build and ship real software with LLMs and agents in production, not just prototype or chat with them. You can walk us through something you shipped and how you built it. Bonus if you have shipped an agentic or autonomous system. * AI coding tools: you use Cursor, Claude Code or comparable as your primary development environment - not occasionally, but as the way you build. This is how you ship independently without engineering support. * Strong technical instincts: you read code, evaluate an architecture, and hold your own in a design review with engineering. * First-line UAT discipline: you have personally signed off (or rejected) enterprise releases and can describe the framework you used. * Comfortable owning several enterprise customers in parallel without dropping balls, and pushing back on scope when needed. * Able to simplify complexity and make fast, sound decisions under pressure. Nice-to-have: background in an AI-first company; ERP integrations (SAP, Odoo, Microsoft Dynamics) or procurement / order-management workflows; early-stage or founding-engineer experience, industrial B2B, metals, supply chain or manufacturing experience. WHY US? * Ownership of named enterprise accounts, judged on outcomes rather than hours. * Direct technical impact: you see what you ship in production within weeks. * Senior co-founders who are technical operators, not pitch-deck founders. Decisions happen fast. * Competitive base, performance bonus, and meaningful equity at a Series A company. * Regular travel to customer sites (mainly Central Germany). * Subsidised Urban Sports Club membership and Deutschlandticket. * Hybrid work format, office in the heart of Prenzlauer Berg, Berlin. * Regular team events, company breakfasts and Friday drinks.

ICE

ABOUT ICE SERVICES ICE Services is a music technology company built by rightsholders, for rightsholders. We simplify the complexities of the music royalty chain through an innovative suite of licensing, processing, and copyright services, enabling our customers to accurately and efficiently compensate songwriters and composers for the use of their works.  A joint venture between PRS, STIM, and GEMA, ICE Services is the result of a big vision for the industry that harnesses years of combined experience in the multi-territory music market. Serving over 330,000 rightsholders and leveraging a copyright database comprising 55 million musical works, ICE Services’ operations touch 250+ territories to distribute more than €1bn in royalties per year, with a total of over €5bn distributed to date.   We’re based in the UK, Germany, and Sweden.     ABOUT THE ROLE As a Senior Backend Engineer, you will play a pivotal role in the development and enhancement of our new copyright product. Your responsibilities will include hands-on product engineering, working with a team of talented product engineers, designing and implementing complex systems, and collaborating with cross-functional teams to deliver exceptional products to our customers. If you thrive in a collaborative environment and possess a keen eye for detail, this is an excellent opportunity to contribute to groundbreaking projects and shape the future of the ICE Services' product portfolio. We’re building a strong foundation for our company on these products. Bringing the technical expertise in-house and being part of a modern, product-centric technology organisation that works based on agile methodologies and principles are key pillars of our technology strategy. We’re creating the kind of teams talked about in Inspired by Marty Cagan, and following principles in Accelerate by Nicole Forsgren. TECHNOLOGY STACK Our copyright product is primarily running in AWS with the following technologies: • Java SpringBoot Microservices • DynamoDB • OpenSearch • Postgres • S3 • Kinesis • SNS • SQS • Docker / ECS / EKS • Serverless frameworks   KEY RESPONSIBILITIES: * Architect and Implement: Work as part of a product engineering team to design and implement complex software systems, ensuring scalability, reliability, and performance. * Collaboration: Collaborate with product managers and cross-functional teams to define product requirements and create comprehensive technical specifications. * Code Reviews: Conduct thorough code reviews, providing constructive feedback to maintain code quality and adherence to best practices. * Technical Ownership: Take ownership of critical technical decisions and provide expert guidance in selecting appropriate technologies and tools. * Development Practices: Champion best development practices, includ- ing code documentation, unit testing, and version control. * Risk Mitigation: Identify and mitigate technical risks, proactively ad- dressing potential challenges throughout the product development lifecycle. * Industry Trends: Stay up-to-date with the latest industry trends and advancements, integrating new technologies to enhance product offerings and maintain a competitive edge. * AI-Assisted Engineering: Embrace AI-powered tools (e.g., coding assistants, automated testing, intelligent search) as productivity multipliers, and explore opportunities where AI can enhance our copyright products. * Mentoring: Mentor and coach junior engineers, fostering a culture of continuous learning and professional growth.   REQUIREMENTS AND QUALIFICATIONS: * Experience: 5 to 7 years of relevant experience in product engineering. Previous experience in a senior or lead engineering role is highly preferred. * Technical Expertise: Demonstrated expertise in programming languages such as Java alongside proficiencies in web technologies, database management, and cloud platforms. * Proven Track Record: A history of designing, developing, and delivering successful software products from concept to launch. * Collaboration Skills: Ability to work collaboratively with product managers, designers, and other stakeholders to translate product requirements into technical solutions. * Communication Skills: Clear and effective communication skills, both written and verbal, to convey technical concepts to technical and non-technical audiences alike. * Innovation: A passion for innovation, including openness to leveraging AI-powered tools and technologies in daily engineering work. Commitment to staying abreast of emerging technologies and industry trends. * Quality Focus: A strong commitment to code quality, unit testing, and other best practices in software engineering. * Adaptability: The ability to thrive in a fast-paced and rapidly evolving environment, with a willingness to take on new challenges and responsibilities. * Problem-Solving: Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills to resolve complex technical challenges.   WHAT WE OFFER: * Competitive local benefits based on your location * We promote flexible working regarding time and/or place * Both mental and physical health initiatives * Corporate pension scheme  * Comprehensive training and development opportunities  * Industry insider events, team socials and company events * Enhanced holiday allowance  We welcome candidates from all backgrounds, regardless of age, disability, gender, gender identity, gender expression, race, religion or belief, sexual orientation, socioeconomic background, and any other protected characteristic.  We are committed to making all stages of our recruitment process accessible to candidates with disabilities. Please speak to our recruitment team and we will work with you to make reasonable adjustments to ensure you can perform at your best throughout your application.

JUNA

YOUR MISSION As JUNA's Senior Product Manager, you'll take full ownership of our products — one in particular, which is currently an internal sales tool that we're about to grow significantly and open up to customers. You'll step in to cover the role during a maternity leave, and take on lasting ownership beyond that, working side-by-side with our CTO in a small, fast-moving team with no layers between you and the people building or using the product. This is a hands-on, generalist product role: you'll run discovery, prioritize a constantly flowing stream of ideas, consider our business goals and market opportunities, enable idea/design validation by building your own clickable prototypes with AI tooling, and work directly with engineers day to day. * Own the end-to-end product lifecycle for our key product: discovery, idea validation and prioritization, shipping, and iteration. * Handle a continuous flow of ideas and requests while maintaining a roadmap that people stand behind — even when the answer is "not now." * Work directly and daily with engineers, without a technical intermediary. * Build your own clickable, testable prototypes using AI-assisted tools to move ideas from concept to validation fast. * Partner closely with our CEO and CTO, who are both directly involved in roadmap and prioritization decisions. * Help shape our product's evolution from an internal tool into a customer-facing product. What that looks like In the first 3–6 months: * Ramp Up Fast: Get a full picture of our products, their users (internal and future external), and the current roadmap; build working relationships with the tech team, internal stakeholders, and our CEO/CTO. Ship your first AI-assisted prototypes and use them to validate ideas with real stakeholders. * Take the Reins: Independently run initiatives and take over active workstreams. After 12 months: * Trusted Owner: Be the clear, trusted owner of our roadmap. * Multi-Front Operator: Be running several concurrent workstreams smoothly, without things falling through the cracks. * Driving the Transition: Have meaningfully contributed to our product's growth toward customer readiness. YOUR PROFILE What you bring: * Several years of experience as a (senior) Product Manager, ideally including time as the sole or lead PM on a product with limited supporting infrastructure (no dedicated design/research team). * A strong, demonstrable ability to prioritize by impact — you can take competing input from various stakeholders and land on a defensible roadmap. * Hands-on experience using AI-assisted design tools to build clickable, testable prototypes yourself. * Experience managing multiple distinct projects or products concurrently. * Experience working closely with senior stakeholders, ideally including C-level. * Comfort working closely with engineers day to day — deep technical background is however not required. Who you are: * Hands-on and pragmatic — you'd rather build the process you need than wait for one to exist. * Autonomous — you set your own priorities and know when to make the call yourself versus when to escalate. * A clear, confident communicator — especially when the answer to a stakeholder is "not now," you can explain why in a way that keeps people on board. * Comfortable with ambiguity and a flat, still-scaling organization. Bonus points if you have: * Experience in logistics, particularly trucking — familiarity with operational concepts is a plus. * Experience taking a product from internal-only to customer-facing. * Exposure to both B2B/SaaS and more operational or back-office tooling contexts. * Ambition to grow as the team scales. OUR VALUES, IN THIS ROLE * Think outside the truck: challenge the internal-only status quo, prototype fast. * Impact, not activity: cut through noise, prioritize what actually matters. * Own it: end-to-end roadmap ownership, no safety net. * Collaboration drives the core: daily work with engineers, CEO, and CTO. * Customer in the driver's seat: internal or external, understand what they need. WHY US? Ownership from day one: You won't be managing a slice of a product — you'll own one of our most strategically important products, with real autonomy and a direct line to our CEO and CTO. Room to grow: We don't have a Head of Product yet. As we scale, this role has a clear path to grow into broader product leadership. Impact you can see: In a small team, your decisions ship fast and visibly — no waiting for a big org to move. Sustainability: Join a company where your work directly contributes to reducing carbon emissions in logistics. Benefits: Join a great team in our dog-friendly, hybrid work model with an office located at the heart of Kreuzberg, where you'll enjoy a relaxed, no-micromanagement culture, regular company events, access to Urban Sports Club and an L&D budget, and an office stocked with snacks and drinks to keep you energized. At JUNA, we value authenticity, humility, and potential — so even if you don't check every box, we encourage you to apply. We know that diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and experiences are what drive true innovation. Our team is collaborative, international, and always evolving. Come as you are — we're excited to meet you and hopefully welcome you on our journey to transform the logistics industry across Europe.