Technical Co-Founder

Settly; Amsterdam; On-site; EUR 100,000 - 130,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity with a standard 4-year vesting

Direct line to the CEO

Fast-moving environment without bureaucratic layers

Job summary

Settly is looking for a Technical Co-Founder in Amsterdam to lead the technical and product strategy, engineering team, and data infrastructure development. You'll work closely with the founding team to build a platform for international scaling.

This role offers significant ownership and the chance to make a substantial impact in a fast-growing startup. Ideal candidates will have experience in building technical products and managing diverse teams within a startup environment.

Qualifications

• Proven track record in building and scaling technical products at a startup.
• Experience with data pipelines and AI infrastructure.
• Experience managing engineering and product teams.

Responsibilities

• Define and own the technical and product strategy.
• Lead the development of high-impact platform capabilities.
• Ensure reliable delivery across a lean team.

Skills

Technical product development

Data infrastructure building

Team management

Business acumen

Strong communication

Entrepreneurial mindset

Product prioritization

Familiarity with AI/ML

Job description

This is not heads-down engineering. We're looking for a Technical Co-Founder who can be the bridge between business and the product, who will own the entire technical and product strategy, build the data infrastructure from scratch, and ship complex product functionality, while being a genuine business partner to the founding team.

You'll work directly alongside the founders (CEO & CCO) to shape where the product goes, how it scales, and what we build next. In this role, you'll also have a small but mighty and capable team of four. With your vision and leadership, you will create the culture and foundation to enable the next phase of scalable growth.

The immediate focus is clear: build a platform that helps us scale internationally. This is an opportunity where you can start from scratch with real ownership and real upside.

What you’ll own

Technical Strategy & Architecture

• Define & own the technical + product roadmap in close partnership with the CEO & Sr. Product owner
• Architect a scalable data infrastructure to underpin Settly's AI and platform ambitions
• Make pragmatic technology decisions that balance speed, quality, and long-term scalability
• Evaluate and evolve the current stack where necessary

Product Build

• Lead the build of new, high-impact platform capabilities from the ground up
• Develop and ship AI-powered tooling that transforms how relocation is managed end-to-end
• Ensure robust, reliable delivery across a lean team without sacrificing quality
• Manage and develop a team of engineers, a Senior Product Owner and Sr. UX/UI designer
• Set engineering standards, ways of working, and a high-performance culture
• Play an active role in future hiring as the team grows

Co-founder responsibilities

• Own business goals and make sure all product & tech is aligned and delivers
• Contribute to board conversations and investor materials from a technical perspective
• Represent the technical vision externally, to clients, partners, and potential hires
• Challenge, shape, and co‑own the overall company direction alongside the founding team

What we’re looking for

Experience

• Proven track record in building and scaling technical products at a startup or scale‑up
• Experience building the underlying data infrastructure that makes AI work in production. From data pipelines, structured datasets to evaluation frameworks, grading systems, and experiments.
• Experience managing engineering & product teams, you know how to get the best out of both
• Background in B2B SaaS, HR tech, or marketplace products is a strong advantage
• Comfortable with PHP-based stacks or able to evaluate and migrate pragmatically
• Experience working closely with/managing product owners in an early‑stage environment
• Proven ability to contribute to product discovery, not just execute on specs handed to them

Skills & Mindset

• Business acumen, you understand business, how to measure and align product goals
• Entrepreneurial by nature, you see problems as opportunities, not blockers
• Strong product sense: you understand what to build, not just how to build it
• Able to operate across abstraction levels, from architecture decisions to code review
• Able to provide strong product direction to a PM, including prioritisation, scoping, and customer insight
• Clear, direct communicator who can translate technical complexity for non‑technical stakeholders
• Comfortable with ambiguity and early‑stage constraints
• Great English communication skills, verbal and written

Nice to have

• Experience in relocation, mobility, or HR‑tech
• Familiarity with marketplace or vendor platform builds

What success looks like

In your first 12 months, you will:

• Building the data infrastructure in order to launch our AI ambitions.
• Set up a clear framework that measures and drives results within the product organisation
• Ship the first version of Settly's next major platform capability
• Build and validate initial AI-powered tooling across key user workflows
• Establish engineering processes, standards, and a delivery rhythm across the team
• Be a genuine thought partner to the CEO on product direction and company strategy

Why join Settly

• Equity with a standard 4-year vest and 1-year cliff, real ownership, not a token gesture
• Direct line to the CEO and a founding team that values technical leadership at the table
• An interesting space: relocation is a fragmented, relationship-heavy, ripe for disruption
• A team of 17 that moves fast, debates openly & doesn't have layers of bureaucracy in the way