Founding CTO

HEYGermany UG (haftungsbeschränkt); Potsdam; On-site; EUR 50,000 - 65,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Founder equity

Co-founder ownership

Impactful social mission

Job summary

HeyGermany UG (haftungsbeschränkt) is seeking a founding CTO in Germany to own technology strategy and lead the product roadmap. You will design scalable systems for recognition, document processing and talent matching while shaping the company’s technical direction.

You’ll work with the Founder & CEO, build the engineering team, and translate complex regulatory flows into user-friendly digital products. Strong English is required; German is a plus.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of professional software engineering with hands-on development.
• Bachelor’s degree in CS/Engineering; Master’s preferred.
• Proven track record shipping a real product end-to-end in a technical lead role.

Responsibilities

• Own technology strategy, architecture and help shape product roadmap.
• Design and build scalable systems for qualification recognition and matching.
• Turn regulatory processes into simple, intuitive digital products.
• Stay hands-on across frontend, backend, APIs, data and cloud infra.
• Develop AI capabilities in document analysis and workflow automation.
• Lead HeyGermany’s product and engineering team as you grow.

Skills

7+ years exp

Bachelor's degree in CS/EE

Masters preferred

Modern web stack

LLMs / AI systems

Product leadership

Education

Bachelor's in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Software Engineering or closely related

Job description

Stellenbeschreibung

About HeyGermany
Germany urgently needs international talent. Yet complex and lengthy recognition processes prevent many qualified professionals from working in the jobs they trained for. At the same time, employers struggle to fill critical positions.
HeyGermany wants to change that. We are building the digital infrastructure to make professional recognition and work integration faster and easier. We are starting with nursing and plan to expand into other regulated professions. Our mission is to remove bureaucratic barriers and help international talent access jobs that match their qualifications.
The Role

We are looking for a hands‑on, product-minded Founding CTO with the ambition to build HeyGermany as a co‑founder. You will take ownership of our technology and play a leading role in product development. You will work closely with the Founder & CEO on company strategy, product direction and execution. We already have a live MVP (www.hey-germany.com), an initial recognition engine and talent pool, 400+ talent pool conversions, our first enterprise pilot and secured public funding. Your challenge will be to turn this foundation into a scalable technology platform that can take HeyGermany from one profession to many.

What You’ll Do

• Own our technology strategy and architecture and help shape our product strategy and roadmap.
• Design and build scalable systems for qualification recognition, document processing, workflow automation and talent matching.
• Turn complex regulatory and bureaucratic processes into simple, intuitive digital products.
• Stay hands‑on across the stack and make key decisions across frontend, backend, APIs, data and cloud infrastructure.
• Develop our AI capabilities where they create real value, particularly in document analysis, structured data extraction and workflow automation.
• Work directly with users, employers and domain experts. As we grow, you will build and lead HeyGermany’s product and engineering team.

What We’re Looking For

• We care less about your current title than about what you have built and the level of ownership you are ready to take.
• 7+ years of professional software engineering experience with strong hands‑on development skills.
• A Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Software
• Engineering or a closely related technical discipline. A Master’s degree is preferred.
• A proven track record of shipping a real product end‑to‑end in a leading technical role, for example as a founder, founding engineer, startup CTO or technical lead.
• Strong experience with a modern web stack, ideally TypeScript, React/Next.js, backend development, APIs, databases and cloud infrastructure.
• Practical experience building with LLMs and modern AI systems, including RAG, agents and evaluations, and using AI effectively in your day‑to‑day work.
• Strong product judgment and the ability to turn customer and business problems into pragmatic product and technical decisions.
• The ability to move fast in an early‑stage environment and make good trade‑offs between speed, quality and scalability.
• A founder mindset and strong connection to our mission. You want real ownership, are comfortable with the ambiguity of a pre‑seed company and care about the business beyond technology.
• Strong English communication skills are required. German is a plus.
• Experience with document intelligence/OCR, B2B SaaS, marketplaces, HR Tech, Global
• Mobility or regulated/GDPR‑sensitive products is valuable, but not required.

What We Offer

• €50,000-€65,000 annual base salary, depending on experience, plus meaningful equity reflecting the founder‑level ownership of the role.
• The opportunity to become a true co‑founder, with long‑term ownership of technology and meaningful participation in the company’s upside.
• Founder‑level influence over product, technology and company strategy, with the opportunity to build our architecture and future engineering organisation from the ground up.
• A live product, early traction, our first enterprise pilot and secured public funding. We are currently in conversations with investors for our next stage of growth.
• The opportunity to work on a problem with tangible social and economic impact: helping international professionals access jobs that match their qualifications while helping employers access talent they urgently need.

We believe professional opportunities should be determined by people’s skills, not by their ability to navigate bureaucracy. If this is a company you would like to help build, we would like to hear from you.