Tech Lead - Factory OS

Europe's defense industrial base cannot respond at the speed modern conflict requires. Legacy suppliers operate on month long timelines. Tribal knowledge is retiring. Supply chains are fragile. SAEKI is building the operating system for autonomous factories - the infrastructure that lets Europe manufacture mission-critical components at software speed.

You'll own the interface layer between our Manufacturing Intelligence (MI) stack and the humans who use it: customers placing orders on our portal, operators running our flagship Factory ONE in Germany, engineers optimizing production. Your work directly determines whether a defense program gets parts in weeks instead of months.

The Role

As the Tech Lead - Factory OS, you are the Architect and Owner of our Manufacturing Intelligence interface stack. Your mandate is twofold: building the foundational architecture of our Factory OS and building the engineering team required to manifest it. You are a Player-Coach who owns a core division of the company, acting as the bridge between the CEO's vision and production-ready code.

Based at our new HQ in Zurich (Oerlikon), you'll lead development of the complete interface stack of our Manufacturing Intelligence platform:

Customer-Facing Products: Our Customer Portal, ERP and MES, Partner Integration APIs, Defense-grade Security.

Factory-Facing Tools: Operator Interfaces, Production Dashboards, Quality Management systems.

Note: You do not need to have defense or manufacturing experience to excel in this role

What We're Looking For

• 5-7+ years of experience as a software engineer with a track record of architecting complex, scalable platforms that serve real users under real constraints.
• Divisional Leadership: Proven experience owning a core element of a company or leading a new product division from 0-to-1.
• Team Construction: Experience recruiting and mentoring high-performance engineering teams. You know how to identify and attract "A-Players."
• Technical Agency: You are an expert in our tech stack (React, TypeScript, and Go, Python, or Rust) and are comfortable making high-stakes architectural decisions with minimal supervision.
• Builder, not a Manager: You lead through code, not just meetings. You own the architecture from design to deployment.
• Maniacal Urgency: You understand that speed is our only edge. You thrive in the "chaos-to-order" phase of a startup.
• Industrial Grit: You are comfortable spending time on the production floor in Germany to ensure your architecture survives the reality of a factory.
• On-site: Ability to work in-person at our HQ in Zurich, Switzerland.

• Mission: Rebuild Europe's industrial backbone. Not many software engineers get to work on manufacturing sovereignty.
• Ownership: This is your stack. Architectural decisions are yours to make.
• Team: "Special Forces" model. Everyone senior, everyone ships. No politics, no bureaucracy. Direct feedback, high standards.
• Compensation: Competitive senior engineer salary + meaningful equity.
• Location: Zurich HQ. Hybrid options available where applicable.

• Resume: Focus on systems you've built and owned.
• GitHub/Portfolio: Show us work you're proud of — code, machines, or production systems.
• Cover letter: Why this mission? Why now? What would you build first?

SAEKI is building the operating system for autonomous factories. The infrastructure that lets Europe manufacture mission-critical components at software speed.