Head of Artificial Intelligence

Ai Futures; Berlin; On-site; EUR 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Job summary

AI Futures in Berlin seeks a Lead AI Engineer to own core AI architecture and ship production AI products. You will be hands-on, building LLM and agentic systems while guiding a small founding team.

You’ll design architectures, mentor engineers, and shape the product direction with founders. This on-site role offers significant equity and the chance to impact a pre-seed/seed stage startup from day one.

Qualifications

• Experience shipping LLM, GenAI or Agentic AI products into production.
• Strong software engineering fundamentals and architecture skills.
• 0→1 product-building experience and ownership mindset.
• Willingness to make architectural decisions without a playbook.
• Product-minded with customer-centric focus.
• Experience leading or mentoring engineers is desirable.
• Founding Engineer or early technical hire experience is attractive.
• Startup experience (pre-seed/seed/Series A) preferred.
• Based in Berlin or willing to relocate and work on-site.

Responsibilities

• Build and scale production LLM and Agentic AI systems.
• Own key AI architecture and technical decisions.
• Design sophisticated agent workflows, orchestration and tool use.
• Build systems around evaluation, reliability and AI performance.
• Solve problems around model quality, latency and cost.
• Rapidly test new approaches and iterate from real-world feedback.
• Work with founders on product and technical strategy.
• Establish engineering standards as the company scales.
• Mentor engineers and shape the future technical team.

Skills

AI engineering

Software engineering

LLM/GenAI production

Architecture decisions

Ownership mindset

Mentoring

Startup experience

Founding team collaboration

Job description

Lead AI Engineer | AI-Native Startup | Berlin

Location: Berlin - On-site

Employment: Full-time

Package: Competitive salary + Equity

AI Futures has been exclusively retained to identify a Lead AI Engineer for a well-funded, early-stage AI startup in Berlin.

We're looking for a genuine 0→1 builder – someone who has built production AI products, thrives in early-stage environments and wants significant ownership over what gets built and how.

You'll work directly with the founding team, taking ownership of the core AI architecture while remaining deeply hands-on with the product.

The Role

• Build and scale production LLM and Agentic AI systems.
• Own key AI architecture and technical decisions.
• Design sophisticated agent workflows, orchestration and tool use.
• Build systems around evaluation, reliability and AI performance.
• Solve problems around model quality, latency and cost.
• Rapidly test new approaches and iterate based on real-world feedback.
• Work directly with founders on product and technical strategy.
• Establish engineering standards as the company scales.
• Mentor engineers and help shape the future technical team.

What We're Looking For

• Strong AI Engineering / Software Engineering background.
• Experience shipping LLM, GenAI or Agentic AI products into production.
• Strong software engineering and architecture fundamentals.
• Genuine 0→1 product-building experience.
• Comfortable making architectural decisions without an established playbook.
• Product-minded and commercially aware – focused on what customers actually need.
• High ownership and comfortable operating with ambiguity.
• Experience leading or mentoring other engineers is highly desirable.
• Founding Engineer / early technical hire experience is particularly attractive.
• Previous pre-seed, seed or Series A startup experience strongly preferred.
• Based in Berlin or willing to relocate and work predominantly on-site.

Why Join?

• Take ownership of the core AI technology at an early-stage startup.
• Work directly with the founders.
• Build the product 0→1, rather than inherit an established platform.
• Significant influence over architecture, product and technical direction.
• Stay deeply hands-on while developing broader technical leadership.
• Help build the future engineering organisation.
• Meaningful equity and long-term upside.

We're particularly interested in engineers who have already experienced the pace, ambiguity and ownership of an early-stage startup and want an even bigger role in building the next one.