Senior AI Engineer (m/f/x) – Focus: Software Engineering

appliedAI Initiative

ÜBER UNS The appliedAI Initiative elevates Europe’s industry to become shapers in the age of AI, creating a future that we desire to live in. Through our ecosystem of strong partners, comprehensive programs, services and solutions we advance companies holistically on their AI journey. With our uniquely diverse, interdisciplinary, and driven team, we build on deep technical expertise while specializing on applicability of the solutions. We share a mindset of collaboration and openness with our ecosystem of leading companies and tech players. Our common goal is to strengthen the European landscape, jointly creating unique knowledge for applying trustworthy AI. We believe that AI Agents will be the dominant topic for AI in the near future and that appliedAI with its partner ecosystem will impact how this technology is being used in industry and beyond in Europe. DEINE AUFGABEN You build the AI systems other engineers learn from. At appliedAI, our industrial engagements sit at the demanding intersection of regulated environments, plant-grade infrastructure, and rapidly evolving AI capability — and you thrive there. In this role, you take end-to-end ownership of production AI delivery for our most complex industrial clients, while setting the engineering standard that elevates the entire AI Engineering team. Your tasks will include: * Architecting and implementing production-grade AI solutions for industrial clients — spanning classical ML, GenAI applications, validated RAG, and agentic systems — with deliberate attention to OT/edge constraints, validation gates, on-prem and hybrid deployments, and MLOps maturity * Defining and championing engineering excellence across the team: code quality, design reviews, evaluation harnesses, observability, security, and MLOps standards * Leading technical delivery from target architecture through production hardening and client handover, working in close collaboration with engagement leads on scope and value * Building reusable engineering accelerators — templates, libraries, and evaluation frameworks — that multiply the impact of the wider AI Engineering team * Mentoring mid-level and senior engineers, facilitating technical guilds, and driving a culture of shared knowledge and continuous improvement DEIN PROFIL * 10+ years of software engineering experience, with at least 5 years building and operating AI/ML systems in production environments * Deep engineering foundation across distributed systems, APIs, data pipelines, cloud-native architecture (Azure, AWS, or GCP), containers, CI/CD, and MLOps * Strong command of Python and the modern AI stack — including PyTorch, LangChain/LangGraph, vector stores, evaluation frameworks, and platforms such as Azure AI Foundry * A demonstrable track record leading complex, end-to-end AI engineering in client-facing settings — experience in industrial or regulated contexts is a strong advantage * Pragmatic and code-first in your approach; opinionated about quality, evaluation, security, and operational maturity * Fluent in English; working proficiency in German is a strong plus DEINE VORTEILE * A highly qualified and motivated team of ~90 people is on a journey to change the rapidly evolving European AI Landscape * Experience the best of both worlds with our hybrid work model: You can choose to work from our vibrant offices - either at the IPAI in Heilbronn or the House of Communication in Munich - while also enjoying the flexibility to work remotely a few days each week * Opportunity to shape a variety of projects and the development of new, original content based on the latest developments in AI and its adoption in businesses * An atmosphere that encourages to think and experiment in new ways with software, hardware, and processes * A highly visible initiative that helps you build a large and high-level network of start-ups, partners, and tech companies * No fixed budget for growth – you decide how you want to develop, whether through training, certifications, conferences, or new challenges * Sports membership with Wellpass to access thousands of sports facilities all over Germany (and beyond), as well as online courses * JobRad: Lease a bike for a cheaper rate via JobRad and we cover the bike insurance on top  * Sabbatical option: You can take a sabbatical of up to 3 months after min. 3 years of employment - because sometimes 30 vacation days are not enough to explore the beauty of this world * PME Familienservice: A 24/7 support for a successful work & life in any life situation. Benefit from free support in areas like life coaching, child care and many other options * Mobility budget: Every month we contribute to your individual mobility usage with public transport or shared mobility offers within the app Moovster * Workation: Work from anywhere for up to 3 months per year - combining working at a nice place and spending your leisure time in the evening like vacation KONTAKT Lucas Fernandes - Senior Talent Acquisition Specialist appliedAI Initiative GmbH, August-Everding-Str. 25, 81671 München

appliedAI Initiative

ÜBER UNS The appliedAI Initiative elevates Europe’s industry to become shapers in the age of AI, creating a future that we desire to live in. Through our ecosystem of strong partners, comprehensive programs, services and solutions we advance companies holistically on their AI journey. With our uniquely diverse, interdisciplinary, and driven team, we build on deep technical expertise while specializing on applicability of the solutions. We share a mindset of collaboration and openness with our ecosystem of leading companies and tech players. Our common goal is to strengthen the European landscape, jointly creating unique knowledge for applying trustworthy AI. We believe that AI Agents will be the dominant topic for AI in the near future and that appliedAI with its partner ecosystem will impact how this technology is being used in industry and beyond in Europe. DEINE AUFGABEN As an AI Engineer in the Professional Services organization, you will apply AI in real-world settings and take solutions from proof of concept to production rollout across our customers’ organizations. This is an engineering role with a clear focus on software engineering: scalable services, robust APIs, reliable pipelines, and operational excellence—beyond notebooks and prototypes. Your tasks will include: * Design, build, and operate production-grade AI features and services end to end. * Implement clean, testable software integrating ML/LLM components (APIs, microservices, event-driven systems). * Develop reliable data/feature pipelines; enforce data quality, lineage, and reproducibility. * Productionize models with strong evaluation, safety, and observability practices. * Optimize for reliability, latency, throughput, and cost; instrument metrics, logs, and tracing. * Collaborate closely with AI strategists and program managers to deliver measurable impact for customers. * Contribute to pre-sales by providing technical input for scoping, effort estimates, and solution options. * Guide partner teams from PoC to scalable, maintainable solutions deployed in production. * Explicit focus: robust, end-to-end enterprise solutions. DEIN PROFIL * STEM degree (preferably Computer Science or Engineering). * 2–5+ years in a comparable engineering role. * Strong experience in Python; solid grasp of software design and professional engineering workflows (Git, testing, code review, CI/CD). * Experience delivering machine learning projects in production or near-production settings. * Foundational knowledge in statistics and machine learning; experience with ML/LLM integration a plus. * Understanding of cloud-native development (Docker, Kubernetes), APIs/microservices, and data stores. * You thrive in high-performing teams and have the drive to learn, improve, and contribute to appliedAI. * Excellent technical, analytical, and problem-solving skills; clear communication with customers and teammates. * Fluent English, ideally fluent German. DEINE VORTEILE * A highly qualified and motivated team of ~90 people is on a journey to change the rapidly evolving European AI Landscape * Experience the best of both worlds with our hybrid work model: You can choose to work from our vibrant offices - either at the IPAI in Heilbronn or the House of Communication in Munich - while also enjoying the flexibility to work remotely a few days each week * Opportunity to shape a variety of projects and the development of new, original content based on the latest developments in AI and its adoption in businesses * An atmosphere that encourages to think and experiment in new ways with software, hardware, and processes * A highly visible initiative that helps you build a large and high-level network of start-ups, partners, and tech companies * No fixed budget for growth – you decide how you want to develop, whether through training, certifications, conferences, or new challenges * Sports membership with Wellpass to access thousands of sports facilities all over Germany (and beyond), as well as online courses * JobRad: Lease a bike for a cheaper rate via JobRad and we cover the bike insurance on top  * Sabbatical option: You can take a sabbatical of up to 3 months after min. 3 years of employment - because sometimes 30 vacation days are not enough to explore the beauty of this world * PME Familienservice: A 24/7 support for a successful work & life in any life situation. Benefit from free support in areas like life coaching, child care and many other options * Mobility budget: Every month we contribute to your individual mobility usage with public transport or shared mobility offers within the app Moovster * Workation: Work from anywhere in the EU/EWR area for up to 3 months per year - combining working at a nice place and spending your leisure time in the evening like vacation KONTAKT Lucas Fernandes - Senior Talent Acquisition Specialist appliedAI Initiative GmbH, August-Everding-Str. 25, 81671 München

Cortea

ABOUT US We’re Cortea, a Berlin startup transforming audits with AI. Manual, document-heavy audits waste expert time while demand keeps rising. Our AI-powered software and specialized AI agents remove the repetitive work so auditors can focus on judgment. Backed by top-tier VCs with >15m funding, with a working product and paying customers, we’re rapidly scaling. We value first-principles thinking, speed, trust, and kindness. We build side by side in our Berlin office. YOUR ROLE We're looking for an experienced engineer who's happy anywhere in the stack and turns complex audit workflows into product auditors rely on every day. You pick up whatever a problem needs, from the data model to the interface to the agents behind it. A lot of what we build has no reference implementation. You're comfortable wading into something nobody has solved yet and shipping a first version that actually works. Our engineering team is a small, flat group of builders: strong ICs who open a laptop when they see a problem instead of scheduling a meeting. Everyone owns real product and architecture decisions, and that's exactly what we want more of. WHAT YOU'LL DO * Build the interfaces auditors work in, partnering with design to turn complex flows into something that feels effortless * Build and improve the agents at the core of the product, plus the harnesses and eval pipelines around them * Make the long-running workflows behind the product reliable and debuggable, so failures surface fast instead of silently * Use AI heavily in your own workflow to move faster, without ever shipping output you can't stand behind * Drive the how in RFCs and technical discussions with other engineers, and partner with product on the what QUALIFICATIONS You'll fit here if you: * Have 5+ years shipping production web applications across the stack * Write production APIs and model the data behind them so it holds up under multi-tenancy and load * Are strong on the frontend and can build genuinely complex UI * Get how LLM agents actually work: agents, harnesses, tool use, and measuring quality with evals * Keep up with where AI is moving and bring the latest tools into how you work to make yourself faster * Bring a strong product mindset and real ownership of outcomes * Make architectural decisions, weigh trade-offs, and build things other engineers can extend * Are comfortable with ambiguity and work things out from fundamentals when there's no established answer Nice-to-haves that are a plus: * Hands-on experience building agents, harnesses, or eval pipelines * Data-dense or workflow-heavy B2B products * Scaling multi-tenant systems as data and traffic grow * Audit, finance, compliance, or another domain where being wrong is expensive * Early-stage startup or fast-moving engineering environment No one checks every box. If you ship across frontend, backend, and data and own what you build, let's talk. OUR TECH * React, TS, Tailwind, TanStack * Python, Postgres, Temporal, Kafka, Redis * GCP, Azure, k8s * GitHub, Linear, Slack, Notion WHAT WE OFFER * High impact & growth: Front-row seat to scaling an AI startup with real ownership from day one * Mission-driven culture: First-principles thinking, bold ideas, and a supportive team * Attractive compensation: competitive salary + meaningful equity * Personal development: Learning budget for courses and conferences * True Berlin startup environment: Central Berlin office, team lunches, retreats, flexible vacation INTERVIEW PROCESS * First Call — Intro to Cortea with our Founders Associate Liza * Second Call — Technical interview with our Member of Technical Staff Jendrik * Third Call — Deep dive into our culture with our Co-Founder Philipp * On-site Half-Day (Berlin) — Meet the team and work on a real problem together