Note: this posting is deliberately anonymized. We'll share the company and the full context on the first call.

About the role

Imagine being the person who builds it all. As the first dedicated AI hire at a small, AI-forward business in Berlin, you'll own the entire data and AI layer: how information is stored, connected, retrieved and put to work. You'll also work closely with stakeholders across the business to set up good structures, processes and habits around it.

This is a hands-on IC role with real ownership and a direct line to leadership. The team already uses frontier models and MCP connectors day to day. Your job is to take that much further.

What you'll do

Own the data and AI layer

Design how data flows and connects across the business, and make it clean, structured and usable
Build internal document retrieval and search across the knowledge base, docs and communication tools
Design and ship automations and agentic workflows that remove repetitive work
Find new ways to use AI across the business, then turn the best ideas into reliable internal tools
Own access controls, data governance and evals, so the systems are reliable and safe

Work with stakeholders

Sit with people across the business, understand how they work, and agree on the right structures and workflows with them
Run enablement: help a non-technical team become genuinely AI-native
Work hands-on with technical teams of partner companies: office hours, short build sprints and practical AI adoption
Turn what works into reusable playbooks

About you

You've shipped agentic / LLM systems in production: agent pipelines, RAG, evals, MCP servers, workflow orchestration
Strong production Python across the modern LLM stack (frontier model APIs, vector stores, LangGraph / agent SDKs)
You think in systems and data models, not just prompts
An evaluation mindset: you measure before you trust
Consulting-grade communication: you can sit with an exec or a CTO and walk out with a scoped build
Good security instincts and a self-starter who can run parallel workstreams
Roughly 3-9 years of experience; shipping matters more than titles
Fluent English; based in Berlin or willing to relocate (this is an in-person team)

Nice to have

Forward-deployed, solutions or platform engineering at an AI-tooling company or startup
Early-stage startup or founder experience
Public artefacts: open source, technical writing, talks
German or another European language

Why join

A greenfield: you own the whole data and AI layer from day one
Real influence on how a small business works, with a direct line to leadership
Small, fast, already AI-curious team in Berlin