Senior Developer & Product Owner (m/f/d)

We are a growing AI start-up based in Cologne. Our platform makes public tender business predictable for European mid-sized companies: find the right tenders, evaluate them, complete the bid documents and handle bidder questions – from search to submission. Around 40 companies use it today.

For our next growth phase we are not looking for a pure developer role, nor for a pure product owner role, but for both in one person: you build, you sit at the table in customer projects, you translate business requirements into architecture – and you step by step take over product ownership for your area.

The role

You start as a senior developer on our team and grow into the product owner role. In practice: you keep writing code – but you increasingly decide which code gets written. You are the person who translates between customer, business requirement and engineering team, and who steers delivery together with the team.

This only works if both halves are real. We are not looking for someone who only writes tickets after six months – and not for someone who treats customer calls as an interruption.

Your tasks

Engineering & AI software architecture

• You build on the core of our platform: frontend (React / Next.js), backend (TypeScript / Python), REST APIs and microservices
• You own the architecture of our AI features – RAG pipelines, document processing, LLM orchestration, evaluation and quality assurance of model outputs
• You make technology decisions and can justify them: build vs. buy, model selection, data storage, scaling
• Code reviews, testing and CI/CD are part of how you build, not something that happens afterwards

Customer projects & understanding requirements

• You work hands-on in customer projects – from kick-off through pilot to rollout
• You talk directly to the people using the product (bid managers, sales, engineering, costing) and understand what is really behind a requirement
• You turn unstructured customer wishes into workable tickets, interfaces and data models
• You recognise early what stays a one-off and what belongs in the standard product – and you say no when it is the right answer

Product ownership & steering

• You own the backlog and prioritisation for your product area
• You plan releases together with the team, steer delivery and keep commitments to customers on track
• You work closely with our CTO (AI) and the management team on the product roadmap
• You make sure the team knows why it is building something, not just what

Your profile

• At least 5 years of professional software development experience, including demonstrable experience working directly in customer projects
• Strong in TypeScript / Node.js and / or Python; experience with React / Next.js
• Experience with Docker, microservice architectures, REST APIs and CI/CD
• Hands-on experience with LLM-based applications (RAG, embeddings, prompting, evaluation) – or a clear willingness to get up to speed here quickly
• You can make architecture decisions and explain them to non-technical people
• You approach customers rather than waiting for tickets
• Fluent German is required – our customers and all tender documents are German-language; good English on top

Nice to have

• Experience as a product owner, tech lead or team lead
• Knowledge of the public procurement space (VgV, UVgO, VOB, GAEB, TED)
• Experience with on-prem or hybrid deployments at customer sites
• Linux and hosting experience – our platform runs GDPR-compliant on German infrastructure, with Keycloak for authentication

What we offer

• Real product ownership from day one – flat hierarchies and short decision-making processes
• Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) – we are happy to discuss this in person
• Remote-first: 100 % remote possible, flexible working hours
• Modern office in the heart of Cologne (Richmodstraße 31) incl. free drinks, kitchen, AC, terrace, bean bags, a hammock and a table tennis table
• Paying customers and a product that is live in production – not a concept on slides
• Fair working conditions; diversity and social commitment matter to us, and we donate to charitable organisations every year

Interested?

Send us a link, a video, a painting or a classic CV – and tell us why you want to join us.

hr@aiconver.com

Gehalt: 51.400,40€ - 80.000,00€ pro Jahr

Leistungen:

• Aktienoptionen
• Betriebliche Weiterbildung
• Erfolgsbeteiligung
• Firmenevents
• Flexible Arbeitszeiten
• Homeoffice-Möglichkeit

Arbeitsort: Homeoffice