About this role
MissionFounded in 2024 by Lukas Zörner and Anil Can Baykal, Integral set out to redefine how accounting, taxation and payroll works for SMEs in Europe, starting with Germany. The company is backed by General Catalyst, Cherry Ventures, Puzzle Ventures and entrepreneurs across Europe.
As our Engineering Lead, you will help define our tech stack and shape our engineering culture. This role involves frequent context switching across multiple domains, technologies, and business problems. In a given week, you may move between infrastructure, backend systems, integrations, AI initiatives, frontend work, and discussions with product stakeholders. Success in this role requires comfort with ambiguity, strong prioritization skills, and a willingness to take ownership from problem definition through production deployment and ongoing support. You will work alongside experienced engineers in a small, high-impact team that takes pride in crafting quality solutions and learning together. This role is onsite at our Berlin office.
Core responsibilitiesDesign, develop, and deploy across the entire technology stack: from backend services and infrastructure to frontend development; build, test, and ship solutions based on evolving business requirements without sacrificing quality
Take end-to-end ownership of architectural decisions from initial design through to implementation; collaborate with the senior team to refine solutions and ensure they meet real business objectives
Maintain detailed documentation of technical decisions, processes, and system architecture; foster transparency and continuity by sharing insights clearly and consistently across the team
Work directly with the founding engineering team on the core platform that powers Integral's accounting, payroll, and tax services for thousands of SMEs across Germany.
What makes this role special
You are joining a small, senior team where your decisions shape the architecture, not just a ticket in a backlog
Direct collaboration with the CTO & Co-Founder from day one
High ownership: you ship, you learn, you improve
Your work has immediate, visible impact on a product used by SME founders who rely on Integral for their financial operations
The engineering culture is yours to help define.
Your profileYour Experience & Mindset
8 to 10+ years of professional experience in software engineering with a strong track record of building and shipping in startup or scaleup environments
Experience across multiple companies and environments; you have seen different architecture patterns, made the mistakes, and know what actually works
Staff, Principal, or Senior Engineer background where building and owning was the main focus, not coordinating or managing
Proficiency across a broad technical background with a strong foundation in system design and architecture
Strong command of at least two of the following: Java/Kotlin, JavaScript/TypeScript, React/React Native, Python
Expertise in architectural decision-making: you can design systems that balance complexity with long-term maintainability
Autonomous and pragmatic: you frame problems independently, design solutions, and execute without needing extensive support from other teams
Strong written communication: you write detailed technical documentation and decision rationale as a default, not an afterthought
Focused execution: you thrive in a hands-on role and are energised by practical outcomes, not by building a team around you.
Preferred Experience
Experience building in regulated or compliance-heavy domains
Familiarity with German accounting, payroll, or tax systems is a plus but not required
Experience integrating LLMs or AI capabilities into production systems.
The processWe move fast. With the right candidate, the full process takes less than 10 days.
1. Intro call with our Talent Acquisition Lead 2. Technical deep-dive with our CTO and founding engineering team 3. On-site in Berlin: meet the team and work through a real engineering problem together 4. Reference call
Our offerAbove-market salary
Direct line to the Founders — no filter, no queue, no committee
Total autonomy on what you build; we measure hours saved
The best tools, no questions asked: Claude Max, Cursor, OpenAI, whatever ships next week
Internal tools and resources purpose-built to support agentic AI development at scale — read about how we work at engineering.integral.de
28 vacation days per year with December 24th and 31st each counting as half days
Either Urban Sports Club membership, coupons via Hrmony or Deutschland Ticket, your choice
Laptop of your choice: MacBook or Windows Pro
Company pension plan (betriebliche Altersvorsorge)
Modern office in the heart of Berlin Prenzlauer Berg, steps away from Mauerpark
Fully onsite at our Berlin office: we believe the best work happens when sharp people are in the same room
Weekly team lunches provided by us, office BBQs and a dinner budget for late office nights past 8pm
A team of 50+ (and growing!) ambitious, diverse people learning and building together.
The opportunity of a decade to build a category-defining AI-native services leader