Founding Principal Engineer

Python Software Foundation; Berlin; Hybrid; EUR 120.000 - 180.000; Vollzeit

Benefits dieser Stelle

VSOP share option

Flexible hours

EU Blue Card sponsorship

Zusammenfassung

Ferto seeks a founding engineering leader to own the platform end-to-end, including backend, data, infrastructure and security. You will prepare the system for clinical use, ensure reliability as we scale, and build identity, access, and data handling trusted by clinics and auditors.

You will define architectural direction, set engineering standards, and help hire the team that follows. Berlin-based, VSOP options, and flexible hours are offered.

Qualifikationen

• Built backend platforms from scratch and ran them in production through outages and growth.
• Depth in database design: indexing, locking, replication, zero-downtime migrations, backups.
• Security by default: authentication, authorization, tenant isolation, secrets, audit logging.
• Identity: providers, sessions, tokens, roles, onboarding and offboarding.
• Infrastructure as code, containers, Linux, networking and cloud are daily tools.
• You write high-quality code and stand behind every line shipped.

Aufgaben

• Own the platform end to end: backend, data, infrastructure and security.
• Prepare the system for clinical use and ensure reliability as we grow.
• Design identity, access, and data handling trusted by clinics and auditors.
• Make architectural calls on what to build now vs defer or drop.
• Set engineering standards and help hire the team that follows.

Kenntnisse

Backend design

Security engineering

Identity management

Cloud & IaC

Leadership

Tools

PostgreSQL

OpenTofu

Jobbeschreibung

You own the platform behind our medical device: backend services, data, infrastructure, security and identity. A first version runs today. The work is to make it trustworthy enough for clinical use: patient data that stays safe, an audit trail that holds up for years, and a system that recovers when something breaks. You work closely with the founders and our CTO.

How Python is used: the backend, the analysis that turns detections into a result, and our infrastructure scripts are Python. You write mostly Python, plus PostgreSQL and OpenTofu.

What you'll do:

• Own the platform end to end: backend, data, infrastructure and security.
• Get it ready for clinical use, and keep it reliable as we grow.
• Build identity, access and data handling that clinics and auditors can trust.
• Make the architecture calls: what to build now, what to defer, what to cut.
• Set the engineering standard and help hire the team that follows.

What we offer: a founding role with a virtual share option plan (VSOP), a competitive salary (we share the range in our first conversation), and flexible hours. We work from Berlin and meet in person regularly, up to several days a week. English is our working language; German isn't required. We sponsor the EU Blue Card.

Restrictions

• No telecommuting
• No Agencies Please

Requirements

• You've built backend platforms from scratch and run them in production, through outages, data incidents, migrations and growth.
• Database depth: indexing, locking, transactions, replication, zero-downtime schema changes, and backups you've actually restored.
• Security by default: authentication and authorisation, tenant isolation, secrets, audit logging.
• Identity: identity providers, sessions and tokens, roles and permissions, onboarding and offboarding.
• Infrastructure as code, containers, Linux, networking and cloud are everyday tools for you.
• Coding agents are part of your daily work, and you stand behind every line you ship.

Nice to have: regulated environments with audits (medical devices, health, finance), and serving ML models in production.

About the Company

Ferto turns an iPhone on a standard microscope into a lab instrument. Computer vision models locate, track and measure cells in real time, starting with semen analysis. We're a small, well-funded founding team in Berlin, founded in 2026, and we build a medical device together with clinicians and lab staff.