Product Engineer

Europe | Full-time | Remote

Build at startup speed on software that matters

We're working with a fast-growing energy tech startup building software for the next generation of distributed energy.

Solar panels, batteries, EVs and heat pumps are rapidly changing how energy is produced, consumed and managed. That creates huge opportunities, but also serious complexity for energy companies trying to coordinate millions of distributed assets.

The company is building software that helps energy players manage, optimise and orchestrate those assets at scale.

They are now looking for an exceptional Product Engineer to join the team.

This is not a traditional software engineering role where requirements arrive neatly packaged in tickets.

They are looking for someone who can take an ambiguous problem, understand what actually matters, make good technical and product decisions, and then build and ship the solution quickly.

Someone who is first and foremost an excellent engineer, but who is comfortable operating close to customers, product and founders.

The role

You'll work closely with the founders, customers and the wider engineering team.

You will be expected to own outcomes rather than just implementation.

That means:

• Building and shipping high-quality software quickly
• Taking ambiguous problems from idea to production
• Talking directly with customers when needed to understand the real problem
• Deciding what is worth building and what is not
• Making pragmatic technical decisions without waiting for perfect specifications
• Iterating quickly based on real-world feedback
• Turning recurring problems into scalable product features
• Working across APIs, integrations and distributed systems
• Building reliable systems where correctness and uptime matter
• Using AI and agentic development tools to dramatically increase engineering speed and leverage
• Contributing to architecture, product direction and engineering practices as the company grows

This role has a strong Founding Engineer feel to it.

The team is still small, so individual engineers have significant influence over what gets built and how it gets built.

What we're looking for

You are first and foremost an exceptionally strong software engineer.

You have evidence of having built real products in environments where speed, ownership and judgment mattered.

You naturally ask:

What problem are we actually solving?
What is the simplest useful solution?
How can we ship this quickly without compromising what actually matters?

You should bring:

• Excellent software engineering fundamentals
• A track record of building and shipping production software
• Experience in startups, scale-ups or similarly high-ownership environments
• Strong zero-to-one experience, or clear evidence of building where little structure existed
• The ability to work independently without detailed specifications
• Strong product and technical judgment
• Comfort making decisions under ambiguity
• High personal ownership and bias towards action
• Strong communication skills
• Extensive use of AI-assisted and agentic development tools
• A desire to commit fully to a small, ambitious team

Experience in energy is valuable, but not required.

Relevant experience may include areas such as:

• Energy or climate tech
• Distributed systems
• Real-time systems
• Infrastructure
• IoT
• Fintech or trading systems
• APIs and complex integrations
• High-reliability software

If you have worked with VPPs, EMS, DERMS, batteries, EV charging, demand response or energy trading, that is a strong plus.

What matters most is that you are a high-calibre engineer who can learn quickly and build at speed.

Technical environment

The current stack includes Python, TypeScript and SQL, but the team is not hiring against a rigid technology checklist.

They care much more about engineering ability, problem solving and what you have actually built.

The company works AI-first.

AI and agentic tooling are an important part of the engineering workflow. The expectation is not simply that you occasionally use a coding assistant, but that you actively use modern tools to increase your output, shorten feedback loops and move significantly faster.

Human judgment remains critical, particularly around architecture, reliability and deciding what should be built.

Location and commitment

This is a full-time role within Europe.

The team works remotely across several European locations and comes together regularly in person.

The full team typically meets approximately every 2–3 months for a week-long offsite / hackathon.

Candidates should be comfortable travelling for these sessions and working closely with the wider team.

This role requires full professional commitment to Powernaut. It is not designed to be combined with other ongoing client work or external freelance commitments.

English is the working language.

Why join?

You'll join at a stage where one engineer can still have a significant influence on both the product and the company.

You can expect:

• High autonomy and ownership
• Direct collaboration with the CTO, founders and customers
• A very high engineering bar
• The opportunity to build and ship quickly
• Real influence over architecture and product direction
• A small team with minimal bureaucracy
• An AI-first engineering culture
• Competitive compensation
• Participation in the company's ESOP programme
• Regular in-person team sessions
• The opportunity to work on technically difficult problems with real-world impact

Interview process

Stage 1: Conversation with the CTO & Co-founder
A discussion around your background, motivation, engineering judgment, ownership and how you like to work.

Stage 2: Technical case study / deep dive
A practical exercise designed to reflect how the team actually builds, including the use of AI tooling.

Stage 3: Final in-person round
A full day with the team.

Interested?

If you're an engineer who gets frustrated by slow-moving teams, likes building from first principles, uses AI to move faster, and wants real ownership over what gets shipped, we'd like to hear from you.