ABOUT MERCURA
Mercura is building AI software for the backbone of our economy.
Backed by Y Combinator, we raised a heavily oversubscribed round at one of the highest valuations in our cohort. As one of Europe's fastest growing startups, we surpassed $2M in ARR in in our first year. Now, we are looking for team members ready to go all-in to help us reach our next milestone: $10M ARR by the end of 2026.
One of our co-founders, Lukas, grew up in a trades family that has been active in the construction industry for over 115 years. Having worked on the construction site himself, he learned first-hand how slow and manual quoting still is in the industry.
In an era where AI becomes ubiquitous, we set out on a deeply personal mission: bring AI to the backbone of our economy - to the companies that keep our world running. To amplify human expertise and free people to do what only humans can do.
ABOUT THE ROLE
As a Forward Deployed Engineer, you will be the technical face of Mercura - the person who turns a signed deal into a live, working AI deployment.
You'll spend most of your time deep in technical work: integrating our software into complex enterprise systems, structuring customer data for AI, and adapting models to fit real-world workflows. But you'll also engage directly with users and senior stakeholders daily - debugging their problems, understanding their processes, and walking C-level stakeholders through a prototype you built overnight.
If you're a builder who gets energy from talking to customers and solving hard technical problems in messy, real-world environments - this role is for you.
WHAT YOU WILL BE WORKING ON
- Customer Implementation: Own the full technical implementation of our software after the sales handoff - from first kickoff to go-live. You are the person who makes it work.
- AI Adaptation: Configure and finetune Mercura's AI for customer specific use cases - including prompt engineering and model behavior adjustments to match their domain and processes.
- Data Structuring & System Integration: Bring customer data into shape and build customer system integrations (e.g., SAP, APIs)
- Prototyping: Build prototypes that demonstrate new features or solve emerging customer problems and evolve them into scalable solutions
- Customer Relationships: Engage daily with technical, senior business stakeholders and users at customer organizations. You translate their pain into engineering decisions - and back again.
- Feedback Loop: Be the voice of the customer inside Mercura. Surface patterns, edge cases, and product gaps to the core engineering team with enough context to move fast.
WHAT WE OFFER
- Learn to build a company: Over five Mercura alumni have gone on to found their own companies and raise millions after their time with us. At Mercura, you’ll take on real responsibility and gain the hands-on experience only possible in a high-growth startup.
- Guaranteed career advancement opportunities in a rapidly growing team
- An ambitious team that feels like family and sees their work as more than just a job
- Real shares in our company with the most favorable tax treatment - no VSOP/ESOP
- Free team dinner (up to 4x/week)
- UrbanSportsClub membership and access to a company bike - join our team workouts 3x/week
- Easy relocation to Munich - our office is located in the Werk1 Startup Incubator https://en.werk1.com/coliving-apartments-munich/, where you can rent a 1-bedroom apartment right next to the office for just €800/month
- Access to any AI or productivity tools you need
The target total compensation (cash+bonus+equity) for this position is €75,000-€145,000 annually. Actual offers and compensation are based on specific job duties, experience, performance, total rewards structure, and other considerations.
WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR
Technical Skills & Experience:
- Full-Stack Engineering: You are comfortable across frontend, backend, and data pipelines (Python, React, Typescript, SQL, APIs)
- System Integrations: Experience connecting software to ERP systems, REST/GraphQL APIs, webhooks or B2B SaaS implementations is a plus
- Data Wrangling: Ability to make sense of messy, inconsistent real-world data and build reliable structure around it fast
- AI & LLMs: Practical experience with LLMs, agents, and prompt engineering — you know how to adapt model behavior to fit a specific domain and workflow
Commitment & Mindset:
- Customer obsession: You thrive at the intersection of engineering, product, and real customer environments, and find it genuinely satisfying to solve customer problems end-to-end - not just hand it off
- High agency & ownership: You don't wait to be told what to do. When something is broken or missing, you fix it
- Communication: You can explain technical features to engineer, users and a CFO - and know which mode you're in
- Mission-driven: Your job is part of how you define yourself. You treat your work as a top priority, and you're fully committed to achieving ambitious goals amid uncertainty
- Scrappiness: You're comfortable with ambiguity, imperfect data, and legacy systems. You find a way
- You want to work in-person in Munich with a higher intensity than in a 9-5 job
YOUR TEAM & MENTORS
You will work with
- Sean https://www.linkedin.com/in/sean-sdahl/ (Co-Founder & CTO; Silver Medallist at the International Physics Olympiad (IPhO))
- Kolya https://www.linkedin.com/in/kolya-krafeld/ (prev. SWE at SF-based startup Etleap)
- Ben https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-beinke/ (prev. AI Engineer at Aleph Alpha)
- Gabriel https://www.linkedin.com/in/gabriel-hauss/ (built Maastricht University's course selection system; Oxford graduate)
- Admir https://www.linkedin.com/in/azatega/ (Bronze Medallist at the International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI))
- Mark https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-jacobsen-413749220/ (prev. SWE at Capital One, Cambridge Graduate)
- Nico https://www.linkedin.com/in/nico-stabla/ (prev. Engineering at SaaS startups Luminovo & Fides)
Your mentors will be
- Rohan Ramanath https://www.linkedin.com/in/rohanramanath/ (General Manager AI Product at Nubank, prev. co-founder Hyperplane)
- Daniel Ribeiro Silva https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielribeirosilva/ (Senior Director of ML at Nubank, prev. co-founder Hyperplane)
ABOUT THE INTERVIEW
Step 1: Intro call
Casual intro meeting with one of the founders to get to know each other and introduce Mercura
Step 2: Technical Interview
For the take-home exercise, we’ll provide you with a task. You’ll have a 3 hours to design and implement a small application end-to-end including the frontend, backend, and any supporting components you consider necessary.
The goal is to build a functional solution to a problem similar to those we encounter in our day-to-day work. This should give you a realistic sense of the kinds of systems we build and how we approach product development.
Afterwards, you’ll present your results in a 45-minute session, where we’ll discuss your design decisions, implementation choices, and potential improvements.
Step 3: Personal Fit
Meet another co-founder to get a feel for our culture and working style.
Step 4: 2nd Technical Interview
In this 1-hour session we will simulate a technical customer meeting together.
Step 4: On-Site
Work alongside the entire team for a day on-site from our Munich office to fully immerse yourself in our culture and collaboration style. This on-site will be paid.
Step 5: Offer & Reference Checks
If we see a great fit, you will get an offer, including a competitive compensation package with equity participation. At the same time, we’ll ask you to provide 2–3 references so we can gather additional insights into your strengths and working style.
WHY MERCURA
- Join an ambitious team that feels like family: Your future colleagues are experienced operators, ex-founders, Science Olympiad medallists, and top graduates from places such as Google,