Founding Backend Engineer (Java) @ AI Identity Cybersecurity Venture, Berlin

This is an Atlantic portfolio venture. Find out more about us and other ventures in our portfolio here.

About the Venture

We are a newly funded Berlin-based cybersecurity startup building a next-generation identity risk platform for modern enterprises.

Our mission is to help security leaders understand, measure, and reduce identity risk at scale. We turn complex identity and access data into clear, actionable insights - combining cloud-native architecture with AI-driven analysis and automated enforcement.

Founded by experienced cybersecurity leaders with backgrounds in intelligence units, we are building the foundation of a company designed to define how enterprises reason about identity risk in the AI era.

About the Role

We are hiring a Founding Backend Engineer (Java) to help design and build the core platform from the ground up.

This is a high-ownership, high-autonomy role. You will shape key architectural decisions, define engineering standards, and build the backend systems that power our product. As one of the first engineers, your work will directly influence the company’s technical direction, engineering culture, and long-term success.

This role is ideal for someone who thrives in early-stage environments, enjoys solving complex distributed systems challenges, and wants to build foundational systems that modern enterprises will rely on to manage cybersecurity risk.

While your role will by nature be broad and diverse, below are some of the topics you will own:

• Develop and maintain backend applications using Java that power the core of the platform.

• Design and optimise scalable cloud-based infrastructure on AWS using services such as EC2, Lambda, S3, SQS and SNS.

• Design and manage data systems including PostgreSQL, Neo4J, Redis and Elasticsearch to ensure performance, scalability and reliability.

• Develop, deploy and maintain containerised applications using Docker and Kubernetes.

• Automate internal processes and workflows using Bash and Python scripting to improve efficiency and reliability.

• Design, optimise and maintain RESTful and gRPC APIs with strong focus on security, performance and scalability.

• Collaborate closely with frontend engineers, DevOps and product teams to deliver thoughtful and robust applications.

• Monitor, debug and continuously improve backend performance, reliability and system scalability.

• Implement caching strategies, messaging systems and event-driven architectures where appropriate.

• Build and evolve the platform from scratch, helping shape the technical foundations of the company.

What we’re looking for

Core experience

• 7+ years of experience building backend systems using Java, including strong experience with frameworks such as Spring Boot.

• You have a strong hands-on coding mindset and are comfortable building systems from scratch across multiple architectures.

• Experience designing and operating backend services in production SaaS environments, including RESTful and gRPC APIs, messaging systems such as SQS or Kafka, and end-to-end troubleshooting of live systems.

• Hands-on experience with containerized workloads using Docker and Kubernetes (EKS), alongside CI/CD pipelines such as GitHub Actions or similar.

• Strong database experience including PostgreSQL (RDS/Aurora), Neo4J or similar graph databases, and a practical understanding of operating and optimizing data systems in production.

• Experience with Infrastructure as Code tools such as Terraform and modern observability tooling including Grafana, Prometheus and OpenTelemetry.

• Ability to debug and troubleshoot complex production issues across distributed systems.

• Experience supporting and operating production SaaS platforms.

AI & emerging technologies

• Hands-on experience building with AI agents and LLM-based systems, including concepts such as RAG, prompts, embeddings, vector databases and MCP.

• Familiarity with modern AI stacks such as AWS Bedrock, LangChain, pgvector or similar, and an interest in building secure and reliable AI-powered systems.

• Experience using coding copilots such as Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, AWS CodeWhisperer or Codex as part of daily development workflows.

Security, identity & integrations

• Strong understanding of SaaS integrations and application-to-application permission flows.

• Practical knowledge of OAuth/OIDC, API tokens, SSO, SCIM, scopes, roles, RBAC/ABAC, service accounts and identity providers.

• Experience designing permission models, identity graphs or access control frameworks.

• Familiarity with cloud identity and security controls such as AWS IAM, CloudTrail or Azure Active Directory / Entra ID.

• Exposure to security architecture principles including Zero Trust, least privilege and continuous verification.

• Experience working with monitoring or SIEM platforms such as Splunk, Microsoft Sentinel or IBM QRadar.

• Familiarity with compliance frameworks such as NIS2, DORA, ISO 27001 or SOC 2.

Ways of working

• A strong sense of ownership, the ability to move quickly while maintaining quality, and a pragmatic approach to solving complex technical problems.

• Low ego, highly collaborative mindset and the ability to work effectively across engineering and product teams.

• Strong problem-solving ability and excellent communication skills in English.

Nice to have

• Experience with Go or Python.

• Background in cybersecurity, security engineering or identity-focused platforms.

• Exposure to graph-based modelling such as identity graphs, access graphs or risk graphs.

• Experience securing AI or LLM systems, agent logic or sandboxed environments — or a strong willingness to learn quickly in this space.

• Experience operating AWS workloads in production environments.

Why Join

As a founding team member, you’ll receive meaningful equity (ESOP), competitive market-aligned compensation, and real ownership from day one - with direct influence over the architecture, product, and overall direction of the company alongside deeply technical founders. Backed by fresh funding and a clear execution runway, you’ll build at the intersection of cybersecurity, identity, and AI from our central Berlin hub (hybrid setup), with high-quality equipment and regular team offsites to bring everyone together.