Founding AI Engineer

About InCycling

Each year, the chemical and pharmaceutical industries destroy more than €30 billion worth of usable materials. Not because they're unsafe, but because the systems that manage them weren't built for circularity. InCycling changes that.

We're building a cloud-native middleware that connects directly to enterprise ERPs, such as SAP S/4HANA via the SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP) and Integration Suite, and automatically matches surplus materials with verified traders and buyers.

Our platform enables AI-driven circularity: detecting surplus, understanding material quality, matching it to compatible downstream use cases, and helping companies prove measurable reductions in CO₂ emissions and industrial waste.

Why Now

InCycling was founded by experienced industry executives, each with over 20 years of leadership experience in biotech and pharma. We've lived the operational complexity of large industrial systems from the inside and understand the barriers that keep circularity from scaling.

Based in Berlin and part of the AI Nation Accelerator, we're already working hands-on with our first industrial partner and have access to real ERP data.

Joining InCycling means becoming a founding member of a high-performing team with a strong industry network that knows how to execute, open doors, and navigate regulated industries. It's a chance to build something foundational from day one, combining technological innovation, business excellence and tangible ecological impact.

Your Role

This is a founding individual contributor role with a clear path to technical leadership and team-building responsibilities as the company scales. You'll grow from hands-on IC to leading the AI/automation function as the organisation scales.

This role is the technical and conceptual architect of InCycling's intelligence layer. You'll own core AI decisions, help design our agentic automation workflows, shape our data model, and set the foundation for how AI connects chemistry, data, and sustainability.This is a greenfield project - you'll get to make the technology choices that define how InCycling's AI systems work there are no legacy constraints.

Tasks

What You'll Work On
• Develop and evolve the AI-driven matching engine that pairs surplus listings with the right buyers.

• Design autonomous AI agents that automate the discovery, validation and communication loop between surplus owners and potential buyers.

• Build NLP pipelines and LLM components to parse Safety Data Sheets (SDS),

Certificates of Analysis (CoA) and lab reports - extracting purity levels, hazard data, and regulatory parameters.

• Define our MLOps and automation stack (data contracts, CI/CD for models, retraining pipelines, monitoring).

• Ensure system performance and integrity - scalable, observable, and secure.

• Collaborate closely with the founding team and our Founding Systems Engineer to integrate AI logic seamlessly into the middleware.

Founding Impact

• Make core product and architecture decisions that define the company's technical DNA.

• Shape the first AI/automation team - define roles, standards, and how we scale from pilot to production.

• Represent InCycling's technical vision in collaborations, grants, and accelerator projects.

In Your First 6–12 Months

• Design and ship the first production-ready matching engine.

• Set up the initial MLOps stack including monitoring, deployment automation, and basic retraining workflows.

• Build and deploy the first generation of automation agents into ERP-connected

workflows.

• Establish the initial knowledge graph and compatibility scoring logic for core use cases.

Requirements

Must-Have

• Significant hands-on experience in AI, MLOps, or Intelligent Automation (Python, FastAPI or similar frameworks).

• Experience building data-driven or NLP-based decision systems in production.

• Strong understanding of model deployment, versioning, observability, and lifecycle management.

• Experience working with unstructured or semi-structured technical documents (e.g., SDS, specifications, reports).

• Based in Berlin or willing to relocate.

Nice-to-Have

• Familiarity with agent frameworks and multi-agent orchestration (e.g., LangChain, LangGraph, CrewAI, AutoGen, or equivalent).

• Understanding of ERP or industrial data environments and integration patterns.• Understanding of data pipelines and APIs, especially ERP or industrial data environments.

• Strong grasp of system design principles: scalability, security, observability.

• Curiosity for sustainability tech and how AI can make industrial processes

regenerative.

Benefits

Compensation

• Full-time founding engineer position with VSOP participation (4-year vesting

schedule).

• Salary and equity details will be discussed during the interview process based on experience and mutual fit.

• Ownership in the value you help create, structured for founding-level engineers.

Why Join Us

• Founding impact: full decision-making scope over AI strategy and implementation.

• Real traction: live industrial data, first partner integration, and AI Nation Accelerator support.

• Mission-driven work: build technology that directly prevents waste and CO₂

emissions.

• Collaborative culture: small, execution-oriented team with autonomy and

transparency.

How to Apply

Send a short note and your CV

Share a short example of a system or workflow you have built that connected intelligence, automation and real-world impact - and what you would build first at InCycling.