Artificial Intelligence Engineer

Lead AI Engineer | AI-Native Startup | Dusseldorf
Location: Dusseldorf (5 days onsite)
Employment: Full-time
Package: Competitive salary + benefits
Languages: German & English

Optimus Search has been exclusively retained to identify a Lead AI Engineer for a fast-growing, well-funded AI startup based in Dusseldorf
The company is building an AI-native product from the ground up and is looking for a senior engineer who can combine deep hands-on technical ability with the potential to take increasing ownership of the engineering team as the business scales.

This is a hands-on leadership position. You'll still be building, designing architecture and solving difficult AI engineering problems, while helping establish the technical standards, processes and culture of a growing team.

The Role
You'll work closely with the founders and engineering team to build and scale production AI systems.
You'll have significant influence over AI architecture, engineering decisions, product development and technical direction, with the opportunity to play a major role in how the wider engineering organisation develops.

Responsibilities include:
Lead the design and development of production AI and LLM applications.
Build and scale Generative AI, RAG and Agentic AI systems.
Make key architectural and technical decisions.
Remain highly hands-on across engineering and delivery.
Take ownership of complex technical problems from concept through to production.
Establish engineering standards and best practices.
Mentor and support other engineers.
Work directly with founders on product and technology strategy.
Help prioritise technical initiatives as the company scales.
Contribute to hiring and building the future AI engineering team.
Continuously evaluate emerging AI technologies and determine where they can create genuine product value.

Your Background
Strong professional experience across AI Engineering, Machine Learning or Software Engineering.
Hands-on experience building production applications using LLMs and Generative AI.
Strong Python engineering skills.
Experience with areas such as RAG, AI Agents, Agentic workflows, vector databases and LLM orchestration.
Strong understanding of software architecture and production engineering.
Experience taking AI products from experimentation into production.
Previous startup or scale-up experience is highly desirable.
High level of ownership and comfort operating in an ambiguous, fast-moving environment.
Product-minded approach rather than purely research-focused AI experience.
Comfortable working closely with founders and commercial stakeholders.
Previous experience leading, mentoring or managing engineers is highly desirable.
Experience building or scaling an engineering team would be particularly attractive.

Why Join?
Take a leading technical position within an early-stage AI company.
Work directly with the founding team.
Build genuinely AI-native products rather than adding AI onto legacy technology.
Significant influence over architecture, product and technical strategy.
Remain hands-on while developing your leadership responsibilities.
Opportunity to help build and shape the AI engineering team.
Meaningful equity participation and long-term upside.
Significant scope for the role to grow alongside the company.

This is particularly suited to a strong Senior / Lead AI Engineer who still wants to build but is ready to take considerably more ownership over people, architecture and technical direction.

you've already led or mentored engineering teams and want to do that within an ambitious AI startup, please apply for a confidential discussion.