Mercura (YC W25) helps the companies that build the real world move at software speed, automating the back-office work that runs the $12 trillion industry behind every hospital, school, and power plant. We started with one of their biggest bottlenecks - turning messy technical requests into accurate quotes. With a team of 16, we're now targeting $10M by the end of 2026 as well as our expansion into the US.

About the role

As a Staff Engineer, you will be the technical backbone of Mercura's engineering team - spanning multiple products and development streams. This is a deeply hands-on role for engineers who lead by doing: writing production code, solving the hardest architectural problems, and making the people around them meaningfully better.

We're looking for a highly technical engineers who want to ship core systems, strengthen architecture across products, and leave every codebase they touch in better shape than they found it. If you want outsized technical ownership without moving into management, this is your role.

What you will be working on

Technical Leadership in Code: Own the most complex and highest-leverage engineering work across Mercura's product suite - building core systems, shared frameworks, and critical infrastructure that other engineers build on top of.

Cross-Product Architecture: Define and evolve architecture decisions across multiple products. You'll make the calls that prevent architectural dead-ends two years from now.

Hands-On Execution: Spend the majority of your time writing and shipping code. You lead by example - when something is hard, you're in the trenches.

Engineering Quality: Eliminate technical debt by refactoring abstractions and raising reliability, standards across all teams.

Technical Mentorship: Elevate the engineers around you through code review, pairing, and direct feedback. Help teams deliver consistently without burning out or accumulating hidden risk.

AI Systems: Contribute to the architecture and implementation of Mercura's AI capabilities - from LLM pipelines to data infrastructure - at the intersection of performance and product quality.

What we offer

Actual ownership: You own a real area end to end. No one stands between you and your problem. It's uncomfortable at times, and that's exactly why you'll grow faster here than in any normal job.

Exceptional colleagues: You'll work alongside experienced operators, ex-founders, Science Olympiad medallists, and top graduates from Google, Bain, MIT, TUM, Harvard, CDTM, Oxford, and Cambridge.

Build something with real-world impact: We ship code that directly helps a massive, yet overlooked manual industry run more efficiently and sustainably. With us, you can work on AI that contributes to economic growth and stability on a huge scale.

Radical clarity: You'll always know where the company stands and why we decide what we decide. Your input is genuinely wanted, and the best argument wins.

Steepest possible learning curve: There's no faster way to grow than building a company from scratch. You'll take real responsibility, do things no one has done before, and have founder-like freedom in your domain. Over five Mercura alumni have gone on to found their own companies and raise millions after their time with us.

Tools, no questions: Your own company card and any AI or productivity tools you need to do your best work, without approval theater.

Real shares: Real equity in Mercura inclduing voting rights, with the most favorable tax treatment. No VSOP, no ESOP.

The everyday: Free team dinners up to 4x/week, UrbanSportsClub membership, a company bike, and team workouts 3x/week. Easy relocation to Munich — our office sits in the WERK1 startup incubator, with access to apartments next door from around €800/month.

What we're looking for

Technical Skills & Experience:

8+ years of software engineering experience, with a track record of solving genuinely hard technical problems in production

Deep expertise across the stack - strong in backend systems, APIs, and infrastructure, comfortable in frontend when needed (Python, React, TypeScript)