{"id":1135179,"url":"https://alion.io/job/docs-founding-software-engineer","title":"Founding Software Engineer","company":{"id":1045004,"name":"Hera","domain":"hera.video","url":"https://alion.io/company/docs-4","size_band":"11-50","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Work at a Startup","truth_index":null},"role":"Backend","role_family":"Backend","seniority":"middle","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"remote","remote_scope":"stated_countries","remote_scope_basis":"posting_text","remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"inferred","locations":["Berlin, Germany"],"countries":["DE"],"hiring_countries":["US","DE"],"hiring_countries_total":2,"salary":{"min":90000,"max":130000,"currency":"EUR","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":144872},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":3,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":true,"has_equity":true,"technologies":[{"name":"Adobe After Effects","optional":false},{"name":"LLM","optional":false},{"name":"Model Context Protocol","optional":false},{"name":"YouTube","optional":false},{"name":"AWS","optional":true},{"name":"GCP","optional":true},{"name":"Next.js","optional":true},{"name":"PostgreSQL","optional":true},{"name":"React.js","optional":true},{"name":"TypeScript","optional":true}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-09-23T07:28:22Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-10-23","last_verified_at":"2026-11-09T00:39:19Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":46,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":46},"description":"Founding Software Engineer at Hera (YC S25)\nWe're building the world's first AI motion designer that creates professional animations in seconds.\nAbout Hera\nVideo is the most effective medium, but video creators waste countless hours animating seconds of content. Motion design tools like After Effects require mastering complex user interfaces, turning creative work into button-clicking hell. We're starting with motion design because it's the most painful and expensive part of video creation.\nHera is the first AI motion designer that creates professional animations through conversation. Unlike video-gen tools, Hera generates code-based animations where every parameter can be fine-tuned through prompts or on-canvas editing, giving users the control of After Effects with the simplicity of Lovable.\nIn our first two weeks after launch, users created over 200,000 animations.\nOur founders: Peter Tribelhorn (CEO) built YouTube channels with 50B+ views. Chia-Lun Wu (CTO) was one of the first developers at Vyond, where he built their video editor used by 20,000 businesses today.\nAbout the Role\nThis is our first hire. You won't just be an engineer, you'll be a founding member shaping the technical foundation of a company that will enable 5% of the world's population to create video content.\nBuilding creative software is uniquely challenging: there's no fixed process users follow. Everyone wants to create something new, express their ideas differently. This means endless edge cases and the need for exceptionally robust software.\nYou will:\nPartner with the founders to deliver user-centric product solutions from concept to production\nOwn end-to-end development of full-stack features with scalable architecture design\nBuild and optimize agentic LLM systems incorporating tool-calling, multi-step reasoning, and MCP protocols\nOptimize LLM inference performance, cost efficiency, and latency across multiple model architectures\nDevelop a high-performance motion graphics engine\nDrive architectural decisions that support scalable growth to millions of users\nTech Stack\nOur technology choices evolve with our needs. Current core technologies include TypeScript, React.js, Next.js, PostgreSQL, GCP/AWS, and our proprietary motion graphics engine. We prioritize learning velocity, end-to-end delivery, and adopt new languages or frameworks when they best serve our users and product goals.\nWhat Makes You a Great Fit\nYou're hungry. Not just ambitious, but obsessed with building something massive\n\nYou're entrepreneurial. You've built things before and demand ownership\n\nYou thrive in ambiguity. No roadmaps, no PMs, just problems to solve\n\nYou have a growth mindset. We're small today, but building something huge. To grow the company, each of us needs to grow personally\n\nYou work like an athlete. High performance, consistent improvement, whatever it takes to win\n\nYou want to work in-person in Berlin (we help you relocate if needed)\n\nWe hire for slope, not intercept. We don't care about credentials; we care about trajectory\n\nYou're NOT a Good Fit If:\nYou're picky about what you work on\nYou lack curiosity or the hunger to learn\nYou prefer structured environments with clear boundaries\nYou think AI is just hype\nYou want to specialize in one technology\nWhy Hera?\nWe're building this team like Real Madrid: small, elite, with each person being a superstar. We believe we can reach $100M ARR with less than 20 people. As a founding engineer, you'll have:\nLife-changing equity stake \nAbove-market salary\nBuild a product used by thousands daily\nThe chance to redefine how millions of users create video\nOffice in Berlin Mitte (1 minute from Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz)\nAll meals on us - we serve lunch and dinner 6 days/week","description_format":"text","description_chars":3729,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":3,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":null,"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":["Equity"],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"United States","iso":"US","kind":"country"},{"name":"Germany","iso":"DE","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":true,"industries":["AI Agents","Photo & Video Editing Software"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-09-23T07:28:22Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":16,"band":"cold","label":"Long shot","p_open":1,"p_active":0.461,"p_room":0.35,"age_days":45,"expected_fill_days":7,"reasons":["conf:1","win:tail"],"computed_at":"2026-11-08T05:47:12Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":144872,"is_top_pay":false},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/docs-founding-software-engineer","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/docs-founding-software-engineer.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-11-09T04:49:48Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":4473,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-11-10T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.1,"usd":0.01,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":1045004},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=1045004"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fdocs-founding-software-engineer"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":2,"usd":0.2},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fdocs-founding-software-engineer"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.1,"usd":0.01},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fdocs-founding-software-engineer"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/docs-founding-software-engineer\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fdocs-founding-software-engineer"}],"agent":{"mcp":"https://alion.io/mcp/jobs","mcp_open":"https://alion.io/mcp/open","next":[{"tool":"get_job","arguments":{"id":1135179}},{"tool":"search_jobs","arguments":{"company":"hera.video","detail":"compact"}},{"tool":"match_people","arguments":{"job_id":1135179},"note":"people open to offers who fit this vacancy"}],"note":"The same data through MCP tools: https://alion.io/mcp/open needs no sign-in (compact searches, postings, people); https://alion.io/mcp with an Alion account has everything. Docs: https://alion.io/developers"}}