Founding AI Engineer

ABOUT THE COMPANY We're a European defence software startup operating between Paris and Warsaw. Our mission is to build modern software for hostile environments — our customers are European military and police units, including units across France, Germany, Ukraine, and Poland. We do not work on weapons systems or hardware products. We're currently in stealth but have been recognised as one of France's top 20 seed-stage companies. We're backed by Europe's leading defence VC and strategic partners who include founders of well-known technology companies and defence specialists. Our founding team brings together deep software engineering experience, defence-sector research backgrounds, and operational special forces experience. ABOUT THE ROLE This is a founding-team engineering role. You'll work directly with the founders to evolve our early stack and help service our first customers — military and emergency services units operating in demanding, resource-constrained environments. Your initial focus will be on bespoke real-time speech-to-text systems, primarily in Python. The work is highly applied — you'll be building things that get used in the field quickly, under conditions that don't forgive poor engineering. Expect to move fast, make real decisions, and own what you build end-to-end. WHAT WE LOOK FOR Voice AI in constrained environments Experience implementing Voice AI systems where compute, connectivity, or latency constraints are real operational factors — not just benchmarks. Audio processing and low-latency systems Comfortable working with audio pipelines and real-time systems. You understand the tradeoffs and can navigate them under pressure. Strong execution and product mindset Pragmatic, delivery-focused, and able to build from zero. You don't wait for a perfect spec — you figure it out and ship. High tolerance for ambiguity You thrive when requirements are incomplete and timelines are short. Early-stage environments feel like an opportunity, not a risk. Purpose-driven You want your work to have real-world impact — helping those who operate in high-stakes environments do their jobs more effectively. THE TEAM Small and deliberately assembled. The founding team brings together engineers with deep experience at a leading technology company, a former special forces commander with operational field experience, defence-sector PhDs, and ex-founders. It's a team built for this specific problem — technically rigorous, operationally credible, and moving fast. COMPENSATION & BENEFITS Salary €60,000 – €110,000 depending on experience. Equity Meaningful equity as a founding team member. Relocation Sponsorship available for candidates relocating.