Remote | Full-time

Important to Know!

This opportunity may be particularly attractive to someone who enjoys independence, building from zero, and having a meaningful impact on an early-stage product.

At the same time, the startup is self-funded, so the initial budget is limited. However, joining at such an early stage offers the opportunity to grow alongside the business, take on greater responsibility, and potentially benefit from financial growth as the company develops. While the initial compensation is modest, there is room for professional and financial progression over time as the business gains traction.

This is a full-time commitment. Part-time availability or combining this role with other projects would not be a suitable fit. The founders need someone fully engaged in the product who can dedicate their working time and attention to building it.About the Company

The Role

Our client is a European early-stage, self-funded fashion-tech startup developing an AI-driven product.

The company is at a very early stage, with the founders having a product vision but no established technical team or existing codebase. They are looking for their first engineer to take full ownership of bringing the product to life.

This is an opportunity for a senior, hands-on engineer who enjoys building products from scratch and taking responsibility for the entire technical direction.

You will be the sole engineer on the project, working directly with the founders. There is no existing technical team, established codebase, or fully defined specification to rely on. You will help turn an initial product vision into a working solution, making key technical decisions along the way.

The role requires someone comfortable navigating ambiguity, working independently, and taking ownership of everything from architecture and development to testing and deployment.

Key Responsibilities

• Define the initial technical architecture and choose the right technologies for the product.
• Build backend services, APIs, and core application functionality using Python.
• Design and implement data pipelines to support product features and AI-driven workflows.
• Integrate AI capabilities and third-party services into the application.
• Evaluate and integrate image-analysis and computer-vision services to support the product’s functionality.
• Develop end-to-end features, contributing to frontend development where needed.
• Translate high-level business ideas into technical requirements and practical implementation plans.
• Make independent technical decisions, balancing development speed, cost, reliability, and maintainability.
• Own the full development lifecycle, including testing, debugging, deployment, and ongoing improvements.
• Collaborate directly with the founders to validate assumptions, refine requirements, and deliver the initial product.

Requirements

• 5+ years of professional software engineering experience, with strong hands-on development skills.
• Strong proficiency in Python and backend development.
• Experience building and maintaining data pipelines, ETL workflows, or data-intensive applications.
• Practical experience integrating AI/LLM capabilities into real-world applications.
• Experience integrating image-analysis or computer-vision services is highly desirable.
• Full-stack development experience and the ability to contribute to frontend development when necessary.
• Experience building products or MVPs from scratch, ideally in an early-stage startup environment.
• Strong system design and architectural decision-making skills.
• Ability to work autonomously, take full ownership, and make progress without day-to-day technical supervision.
• A pragmatic, product-oriented mindset, with the ability to turn ambiguous requirements into working solutions.
• Fluent spoken English (B2+ or higher) for regular communication with the founders.

If you’re interested in this opportunity and feel excited about building a product from the ground up. You don’t need every requirement to be defined in advance. You know how to ask the right questions, evaluate possible solutions, make sensible technical trade-offs, and deliver results without relying on an existing engineering team.

If this sounds like a challenge you’d enjoy, I look forward to receiving your application and have a talk!