Staff Engineer (f/m/d) AI

About plancraft

plancraft is on a mission to revolutionize European trades by providing AI-first software that helps contractors and tradespeople work faster and more efficiently. With strong backing from top European and US investors and a growing customer base of over 30,000 tradespeople, plancraft aims to unify and empower these communities by reducing their administrative burdens while keeping a human-centered approach.

Role Overview

As a Staff Engineer specializing in AI, you will be instrumental in building reliable, scalable AI-enabled products that meaningfully reduce administrative tasks for tradespeople. Your work will span architectural design, engineering best practices, and shaping technical standards across teams. This senior individual contributor role requires deep hands-on experience in complex systems alongside technical leadership and mentoring.

Key Responsibilities

• Define and implement AI capabilities that solve real customer problems and deliver dependable product experiences beyond prototypes.
• Collaborate with fellow Staff Engineers to shape overall system architecture, ensuring consistency and enabling independent team deployments.
• Develop data foundations that convert operational and business data into reliable signals and context fueling AI-driven workflows.
• Influence and evolve engineering approaches to building and evaluating AI-powered features and integrate AI into the software development lifecycle across the organization.
• Lead technical initiatives end-to-end, from discovery through deployment and continuous enhancement.
• Mentor peers through architectural guidance, code reviews, and knowledge sharing to elevate engineering quality company-wide.

Desired Profile

• Proven experience designing and operating AI-enabled or agentic product systems beyond simple prompt engineering, including knowledge retrieval, non-deterministic behavior evaluation, observability, and multi-step agent debugging.
• At least 5 years of software engineering background with strong leadership credentials in building and maintaining large-scale, production-ready distributed systems, asynchronous workflows, and data pipelines.
• Expertise in strongly-typed languages with a polyglot mindset; familiarity or proficiency in TypeScript is desirable but not mandatory.
• Deep understanding of operational versus knowledge data models and how to architect systems to handle both sustainably.
• Excellent system design and domain modeling skills applying advanced techniques like dependency injection, adapter patterns, and error-proof state design.
• Strong product-oriented mindset, prioritizing customer needs and balanced trade-offs between technical excellence and delivery speed.
• Experience influencing technical direction beyond immediate teams and mentoring across organizational boundaries.
• Regular use of AI tools such as Copilot, Claude Code, or Codex to enhance software engineering practices.
• Fluent in English (C1 level); German language skills are a plus but not required.

Working Style & Culture

• A culture of continuous improvement through incremental changes, observable systems, clear architectural boundaries, and encoded engineering decisions.
• Ownership mentality where engineers take responsibility for customer problems, not just tickets.
• Autonomy to shape the technical roadmap, lead complex projects, and influence investments in engineering capabilities.
• Collaboration with Engineering Managers who focus on people and process, while Staff Engineers focus on technical system stewardship.

Benefits & Perks

• Strong team camaraderie with regular team events, both onsite and remote, and recognition culture.
• Empowerment to take ownership and impact decisions in a flat hierarchy and high-trust environment.
• Personal and professional growth supported by semi-annual 360° feedback, a personal learning budget of 1,500€/year, two paid educational days, and targeted enablement programs.
• Work environment enhanced by AI-enabled internal tools and workflows.
• Provision of high-quality equipment including MacBook and premium headphones.
• Flexible work options: remote, hybrid, international (up to two months abroad), and open office space with rooftop terrace in Hamburg.
• Generous vacation policy with 30 days annual leave plus December 24th off, and subsidized sports memberships with organized fitness meetups.
• Mobility support including bike leasing (JobRad) and subsidized public transport passes (Deutschlandticket/BahnCard).
• International and inclusive team with English as the company language and a commitment to diversity and inclusion.

Diversity & Application Process

plancraft values diversity and encourages applicants from all backgrounds to apply even if not all criteria are met perfectly. The hiring process aims to be transparent, efficient, and accommodating, with feedback within five business days and a typical interview timeline of around four weeks. Applicants requiring accommodation during hiring are welcomed to request it.