Technical Co-Founder / CTO

We are a VC-backed open-source startup in Germany building the critical infrastructure layer that keeps autonomous AI agents reliable and controlled in production.

Overview

Why this role matters

AI agents are transitioning rapidly from experimental prototypes to mission-critical production workflows, creating an urgent need for runtime telemetry, policy enforcement, and automated failure recovery. As Technical Co-Founder / CTO, you will partner directly with the Founder to architect our core technology from day zero and establish our definitive technical edge in the AI infrastructure ecosystem.

Responsibilities

What you'll do

You will own the overall technical architecture, hands-on engineering, and system design from zero to production.

  • Architect and build the core platform for AI agent runtime reliability, telemetry, and automated remediation.
  • Design scalable distributed systems, developer-first APIs, and execution environments for production AI agents.
  • Ship production code daily while driving technical strategy, infrastructure decisions, and security standards.
  • Translate early customer feedback and production edge cases directly into architecture and product capabilities.
  • Steer our open-source codebase and actively cultivate the developer community.
  • Recruit, mentor, and scale the engineering team as company operations expand.

Candidate profile

Who this is a fit for

  • Proven software engineer with deep expertise in distributed systems, backend architectures, and APIs.
  • Hands-on builder with a track record of shipping production-grade developer infrastructure from scratch.
  • Pragmatic technologist who writes clean code daily and navigates early-stage ambiguity.
  • Experienced with or deeply curious about AI agent frameworks, observability, and OpenTelemetry.
  • Based in Germany (or willing to relocate) with prior startup or founder experience.

Culture

What it's like to work here

The company operates as an early-stage, fast-moving, and open-source-driven environment where ownership is high. Daily collaboration centers on daily syncs, rapid iterative prototyping, and close collaborative sparring between the Founder and CTO. Decisions are pragmatic, technical, and biased toward shipping and working closely with early users and the open-source community. The rhythm is remote-first across Germany with an intense focus on shipping reliable agent infrastructure.

What you get

The offer

  • Complete autonomy and ownership over the technical vision, tech stack, and engineering culture.
  • Direct collaborative sparring partner in the Founder with a bias toward rapid shipping.
  • Remote-first flexibility across Germany combined with high-cadence, high-trust execution.
  • The platform to shape a core open-source standard in the emerging agentic AI stack.

Skills

Backend systems · Distributed systems · Infrastructure · API design · Production software engineering · Hands-on coding · AI agents and agentic frameworks · AI/LLM observability · OpenTelemetry · Early-stage startup experience · Open-source community building

A quick note

This probably isn't for you if:

  • You want to manage managers or delegate coding rather than staying hands-on in the codebase.
  • You need mature processes, defined roadmaps, and rigid structure rather than rapid prototyping and discovery.
  • You prefer closed-source development over open-source community engagement and building in public.

Ready?

Let's talk

Check out our open repository to see how we build, and reach out directly to start a technical sparring session with us.

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Technical Co-Founder / CTO, WhyBrilliant · WhyBrilliant