Founding Engineer

WhyBrilliant is sourcing applicants for this role on behalf of WhyBrilliant.

The company's identity may stay confidential until first contact.

Atlas, our AI Recruiter, is running this search and will pick the best candidates from Nova's network. The next step is to speak to Nova .

The Role

Job Title: Founding Engineer

Company: WhyBrilliant — WhyBrilliant is the Berlin-based AI recruiting platform that inverts hiring: talent doesn't apply — companies request the meeting. Its AI agent Nova represents professionals, watching more than a million open roles and reaching out only when one truly fits. Atlas represents companies, turning an open role into a pre-screened shortlist. Founded on the conviction that every professional deserves an agent in their corner, WhyBrilliant is built in Germany, backed by Merantix Capital, and paid only on a successful hire. More at whybrilliant.com.

Location: Berlin

Why this role matters

Backed by Tier 1 AI investor Merantix Capital, our founding team has early traction but needs our first dedicated technical hire to turn a proven prototype into a production-grade market network. As Technical Hire #1, you will bridge the gap between raw LLM capabilities and a scalable, low-latency matching engine powered by ElevenLabs voice models and modern cloud tooling across GCP, AWS, and Vercel. Without you, we cannot transition from a validated concept to a highly defensible, scaling marketplace.

What you'll do

You will own the end-to-end architecture and execution of our core platform, taking our voice-first matching engine from 0 to 1 across Next.js, FastAPI, and modern cloud infrastructure.

• Architect and build the core Next.js frontend (hosted on Vercel) and Python backend services deployed across GCP/AWS.
• Orchestrate production-grade LLM workflows, implementing Langfuse for tracing and Sentry for application monitoring.
• Build low-latency, production-grade conversational voice UX integrating ElevenLabs and modern audio pipelines.
• Design a secure data stack handling authentication, secrets, and safe processing of sensitive candidate data.
• Establish pragmatic technical standards and cloud infrastructure optimized for developer velocity and zero legacy overhead.

What success looks like

Month 1: You will deeply understand our existing prototypes, partner with the founders to lock down the V1 architecture, and ship your first production-ready API integrations across our Next.js, Vercel, and cloud stack.

Month 2-3: You will lead the end-to-end build of our core matching engine and ElevenLabs-powered voice pipeline, instrumenting observability with Langfuse and Sentry.

By end of Q1: You will have established a robust, secure, and highly scalable production system ready to process thousands of live, multi-turn voice interviews.

Who this is a fit for

• Strong full-stack developer experienced in TypeScript (Next.js/Vercel) and asynchronous Python services.
• Hands-on creator experienced with modern cloud infrastructure across GCP or AWS.
• Pragmatic builder who has integrated production voice pipelines (e.g. ElevenLabs) and LLM observability tools like Langfuse.
• Security-minded engineer who bakes monitoring (Sentry), reliability, and safe data handling into early-stage code.
• Power user who builds with modern harnesses like Cursor, Claude Code, and Codex.
• Fast shipper who thrives in 0→1 startup environments with end-to-end technical ownership.

The offer

• True founding-team status as Technical Hire #1 with maximum ownership and zero bureaucracy.
• A high-leverage environment in Berlin (hybrid) with an experienced, ambitious founder team backed by Merantix Capital.
• Direct ownership of our modern tooling and cloud architecture across GCP, AWS, and Vercel.
• The chance to define our AI observability and engineering culture from the ground up.

This probably isn't for you if

• You need structured Jira tickets, predefined product specs, or corporate hand-holding to start shipping code.
• You prefer maintaining legacy enterprise systems over the fast-paced ambiguity of 0→1 building.
• You are uncomfortable making rapid, pragmatic trade-offs between clean architecture and speed to market.

Who are Atlas & Nova?

I'll go first. I'm Nova, an AI that gets to know you on a quick call — what you're great at and what you want from your career. Then I help you land your dream job: surfacing roles you'd never want to miss, and backing you up with applications, interview prep, and a bit of moral support.

And I'm Atlas, an AI Recruiter who talks to companies to understand exactly who they're looking to hire. Then I recruit from Nova's network and make an introduction the moment I spot an excellent candidate.

How does this work?

Nova is an AI agent for job searching and career coaching. She works for you.

Atlas is the AI recruiter working for the company. He recruits from Nova's network.

If it's a match and the company wants to meet you, they'll make the intro. In the meantime, if you'd like, Nova will keep sending you strong alternatives.

We never post fake jobs

This isn't a trick. It's a real, open role that Atlas is recruiting for right now from Nova's network.

Sometimes Atlas's clients ask him to anonymise their roles when he advertises them, which means he can't share every detail in the job description. We know that can make a post look a little vague — but there isn't much we can do about it.

Give Nova a try. You could land this role. And if not, most people find her genuinely useful in their job search — and we're giving her help away for free.

This job is hosted on whybrilliant.com. Register on WhyBrilliant.com and apply for the role directly.