Jobs in Freiburg, Germany

Co-Founder & CTO (Founding Partner) — Build CARA, the Consulting Killer in Automotive

CARA is a founder-led, AI-first company reinventing how auto dealerships and OEMs communicate with customers. Our mission is bigger than answering calls: we’re building the category leader that will disrupt not only customer interaction, but also the management consulting industry in automotive.

Today’s consultants charge millions for slides that gather dust. CARA flips that model: AI-driven, real-time insights + execution at the dealership level. We start with the frontline (calls, chat, service booking), build the flywheel of dealer data, and evolve into the platform that outpaces BCG, McKinsey & Co. with solutions that actually work in the real world.

This is your chance to build a consulting killer — and change a $9 trillion industry.

You’ll co-create company, culture, and platform from scratch. Your north star: turn CARA’s vision into a rock-solid architecture and strategy that scales from the first dealership pilot to a pan-European platform. You’ll define the tech and build it yourself.

• AI by default. Agents, automation, tool-use first; software only where it adds leverage.

• Outcomes > slides. Measurable impact for dealers, not PowerPoints.

• Data flywheel from day one. Instrument everything, feed the loop, compound insights.

• Ship, learn, repeat. Weeks, not quarters. Reliability over “demo theater.”

• Responsible by design. GDPR-first, least-privilege, human-in-the-loop where it matters.

By the end of your first 3 months, you will have:

1. Defined the technical architecture behind the vision

• Strategy for data flywheel, integrations, scalability, and compliance.

2. Shipped the MVP in production

• First dealership live: inbound voice agent handling calls, classifying intent, booking test drives/service, and escalating.

• Skeleton integrations into a leading CRM/DMS + Twilio telephony.

3. Laid the foundation for scale & trust

• Multi-tenant baseline (auth, audit logging, CI/CD, observability).

• Eval harness & dashboards for latency, cost, quality SLAs.

• Security baseline: GDPR controls, DPA draft, retention policies.

4. Set culture & practices

• Clear coding standards and rituals that balance speed with quality.

• Define & own the architecture. Translate the vision into a long-term tech roadmap, while coding the short-term MVP.

• Tame integrations. Make CRMs/DMSs and legacy APIs your unfair advantage.

• Engineer for scale & trust. Secure, observable systems with proper guardrails.

• Establish AI-first practices. Prompt/data/version mgmt, synthetic data, SLA-driven optimization.

• Build the A-team. Attract top engineers who want to build fast and grow with us.

• Ship relentlessly. MVPs in weeks, scalable platforms in months.

• Founder DNA. You thrive in ambiguity, cut noise, and move fast.

• Hands-on builder. You’ve shipped integration-heavy SaaS or AI products end-to-end.

• AI pragmatism. Comfortable using LLMs/agents via APIs to deliver real value.

• Startup spirit. You care more about impact and ownership than titles.

• MUST: You are based in the European Union.

• English required; German is a strong advantage.

• Lean salary. Enough to live; upside in the company we build.

IT