Founding Software Engineer

Founding Software Engineer at Hera (YC S25) We're building the world's first AI motion designer that creates professional animations in seconds. About Hera Video 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. Hera 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. In our first two weeks after launch, users created over 200,000 animations. Our 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. About the Role This 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. Building 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. You will: Partner with the founders to deliver user-centric product solutions from concept to production Own end-to-end development of full-stack features with scalable architecture design Build and optimize agentic LLM systems incorporating tool-calling, multi-step reasoning, and MCP protocols Optimize LLM inference performance, cost efficiency, and latency across multiple model architectures Develop a high-performance motion graphics engine Drive architectural decisions that support scalable growth to millions of users Tech Stack Our 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. What Makes You a Great Fit You're hungry. Not just ambitious, but obsessed with building something massive You're entrepreneurial. You've built things before and demand ownership You thrive in ambiguity. No roadmaps, no PMs, just problems to solve You have a growth mindset. We're small today, but building something huge. To grow the company, each of us needs to grow personally You work like an athlete. High performance, consistent improvement, whatever it takes to win You want to work in-person in Berlin (we help you relocate if needed) We hire for slope, not intercept. We don't care about credentials; we care about trajectory You're NOT a Good Fit If: You're picky about what you work on You lack curiosity or the hunger to learn You prefer structured environments with clear boundaries You think AI is just hype You want to specialize in one technology Why Hera? We'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: Life-changing equity stake Above-market salary Build a product used by thousands daily The chance to redefine how millions of users create video Office in Berlin Mitte (1 minute from Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz) All meals on us - we serve lunch and dinner 6 days/week