Founding Engineering Team Lead (HandsOn)

Berlin • Cybersecurity & AI Startup • Recently Funded

A newly funded cybersecurity startup in Berlin is looking for a Engineering Team Lead to join as a founding team member and help design the core security, identity, and enforcement foundations of a next-generation AI-powered risk management platform.

We are an early-stage startup founded by experienced cybersecurity leaders with backgrounds in Israeli intelligence units.

We are looking for a hands-on Founding Engineering Team Lead for a hybrid role based in central Berlin. If you are passionate about cybersecurity and AI, thrive in fast-paced startup environments, and enjoy building complex platforms from the ground up, this is an opportunity to make a real impact.

We’re building a next-generation cyber risk platform that helps enterprises understand, measure, and reduce identity risk at scale. Our goal is to turn complex identity and security data into clear, actionable risk insights that CISOs and CTOs can trust. You will work from scratch on core platform components from day one, shaping how modern enterprises manage and reason about risk using cloud-native systems, AI-driven analysis, and automated enforcement through AI agents.

Tasks

Key Responsibilities

Lead and grow a small, high-performing engineering team while remaining hands-on

Design, build, and review production backend and platform code alongside the team

Own delivery of the engineering roadmap, balancing speed, quality, and security

Act as a technical leader by setting architecture direction and enforcing engineering standards

Contribute directly to critical features, integrations, and platform foundations

Establish lightweight engineering processes that enable fast execution without bureaucracy

Mentor engineers through code reviews, pairing, and technical guidance

Contribute hands-on in design and build architecture, configure systems, code 70% of the time in GoLang.

Remove blockers and unblock delivery across backend, frontend, data, and DevOps

Collaborate closely with CEO, CPTO, and product leadership on technical and execution decisions

Support hiring, onboarding, and technical evaluation of engineers

Foster a culture of ownership, pragmatism, and low ego

Build whole Security platform setup from scratch

Partner closely with backend and AI engineers to design secure service boundaries and deployment models

Troubleshoot and resolve complex production incidents across infrastructure, networking, and application layers

Build PoCs and validate infrastructure and security design decisions in an early-stage environment

Support compliance readiness by enabling controls, logging, and evidence collection for security frameworks

Continuously improve platform cost efficiency, reliability, and operational maturity

This role reports directly to CEO & CPTO

Requirements

Must have skills

10+ years of professional software engineering experience

3+ years of experience leading engineering teams while remaining hands-on

3+ years of GoLang experience

3+ years experience with AWS in production environments

Strong code quality bar and experience with architectural reviews

Ability to context-switch between technical topics and people leadership

Strong execution mindset and comfort operating under ambiguity

Hands-on coding mentality; can build things from scratch including security architecture yourself

Hands-on experience with Docker, Kubernetes (EKS) and containerized workloads

Experience with CI/CD pipelines (GitHub Actions or similar)

Experience with monitoring, logging, observability (Grafana, OpenTelemetry, Prometheus)

Experience with Coding CoPilots (Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, AWS CodeWhisperer, Codex, etc.)

Knowledge of Experience supporting production SaaS platforms

High ownership mentality, startup mindset, and ability to move quickly

Experience in startup or scale-up environments

Low ego, high commitment, and a true tech startup mentality

Excellent English communication skills

Nice-to-have requirements

Previous experience as a founding or early-stage Engineering Manager

Experience in cybersecurity, identity, or enterprise SaaS platforms

Exposure to DevOps, SRE, or data engineering

Experience scaling teams and systems simultaneously

Experience with security architecture, identity security, or security engineering

Familiarity with compliance frameworks (NIS2, DORA, ISO 27001, SOC 2)

Understanding of OAuth/OIDC, API tokens, IdP, scopes, SSO, SCIM, roles, RBAC/ABAC, service accounts

Familiarity with cloud identity and security controls (e.g. IAM, CloudTrail, Azure Active Directory / Entra ID)

Hands-on with SIEM platforms such as Splunk, Microsoft Sentinel, or IBM QRadar

Experience designing permission models, identity graphs, or access control frameworks

Knowledge of tokenization, Zero Trust principles, least privilege, and continuous verification

Experience with Security related to AI/LLM systems, agent logic, or willingness to learn fast

Familiarity with AI agent behavior, LLM security, or agent sandboxing

Previous experience in cybersecurity, identity startups

You are a fan of rock or metal music

Excellent German communication skills

Benefits

Benefits

Founding Team Member Equity — ESOPs in a cybersecurity company

Competitive Compensation — salary aligned with market, flexible early-stage arrangements possible

Founding Team Member Status — shape the company from day one and own critical technical decisions

Fresh Funding Secured — immediate runway to build, hire, and execute fast

Security Contribution — contribute to security architecture across identity, AI agents, and enforcement

High Autonomy — freedom to design and build without corporate overhead

Work with a Technical CEO and CPTO — fast iteration, strong alignment, clear direction

Cutting-Edge Domain — identity security, SaaS-to-SaaS access, AI agent governance

Massive Learning Curve — quickly gain depth in cybersecurity, identity, and AI systems

Fast Career Path — opportunity evolve into leadership as we scale the engineering team

Berlin Location — top-tier tech environment with strong cybersecurity and AI ecosystems

Direct Impact — your architecture and code become the foundation of the entire platform

Best Equipment and Tools - High quality equipment and modern tools to help you do your best work from day one

Team Offsites - Regular team offsites designed to build strong connections, alignment, and shared momentum

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