Junior Software Engineer (m/w/d) - (Frankfurt/ Remote)

About Willidrop

Willidrop is a managed marketplace for cross-border car transport in Europe. We connect dealers and carriers to make transport fast, reliable, transparent, and fully digital — from instant quoting to delivery documentation. We’re building the “operating system” for a highly fragmented logistics category and scaling a platform + ops model that’s proven to handle high throughput with a lean team.

The role

We’re hiring an early-career engineer who wants real ownership — not a title. You’ll join early, work closely with the founder and an experienced part-time product/engineering lead (6–12 months overlap), and progressively become the primary owner of the production system.

This is not a CTO / co-founder role. It is a role where you’ll learn how to run and evolve a real marketplace platform end-to-end.

Tasks

What you’ll work on (real responsibilities, day 1)

You’ll contribute across the system that powers:

• Dealer & customer-facing booking + tracking flows (portal + updates)
• Carrier-facing workflows (jobs, pricing, documentation, negotiation)
• Internal tooling: route planning, admin panel, pricing operations

Typical tasks:

• Fix production issues, improve reliability, and reduce manual ops effort
• Ship small-to-medium features across frontend workflows, backend logic, and automation
• Improve data quality (syncs, validation, edge cases) and observability (alerts, logs, dashboards)
• Tighten security + access control (roles, permissions, data exposure)
• Help shape the next iteration of the platform as we scale volume and automate more of the journey

Your ownership path (how you grow)

Months 0–2 (guided): Ship fixes/features with tight feedback, learn the system end-to-end

Months 3–5 (primary operator): You own day-to-day stability and small features independently

Months 6–12 (system owner): You’re the default person for “how does this work?” and “can we change this safely?” — with support for bigger architectural decisions

Current stack (pragmatic, evolving)

• A workflow-oriented product UI augmented with custom JavaScript components
• A Postgres-based backend platform with authentication, access control, and server-side logic
• A custom-built mapping & routing application used for core domain logic
• Automated background jobs and data pipelines connecting internal systems and external tools
• Modern CI/CD pipelines with environment separation and secure secret handling

How we build: Agentic engineering is a must

We actively embrace agentic engineering and modern AI-assisted development (e.g., coding agents, automated refactors, test generation, AI-supported debugging, structured prompt workflows). We’re looking for someone who is curious, hands-on, and proactive about using these tools responsibly to move faster and raise quality.

You don’t need to be an expert today — but you do need the mindset: open, experimental, and pragmatic. If you’re fundamentally opposed to this direction, it’s probably not the right environment for you.

Requirements

What we’re looking for

You don’t need a perfect CV. You do need to be someone who ships reliably, learns fast, and takes production seriously.

Must-haves

• Strong JavaScript fundamentals , comfortable working across backend scripts and browser-based code
• Solid understanding of relational databases (Postgres) and safe schema evolution
• Experience working with a backend platform or BaaS (auth, permissions, server-side logic), preferred supabase
• Ability to debug and improve data flows and background processes (idempotency, retries, edge cases)
• Practical experience with API integrations (authentication, rate limits, error handling)
• Clear ownership mindset: you can break work down, deliver incrementally, and keep systems stable
• Openness to agentic engineering and active use of AI tools as part of daily development

Nice-to-haves

• Experience working with low-code/no-code systems alongside custom code
• Exposure to geospatial, routing, or map-based products
• Familiarity with serverless functions or lightweight backend services
• Experience with CI/CD pipelines and multi-environment deployments
• Background integrating operational tools into production systems

Benefits

What you’ll get

• Real ownership early: you won’t be “ticket-taking” forever
• Direct mentorship + a clear handover path to full technical ownership
• A product that’s already live with clear market pull and a platform vision spanning dealers + carriers
• Competitive salary and employee participation program
• Location: preferred onsite in Frankfurt, remote possible