Principal Engineer & Head of Engineering (Berlin, Germany)

Principal Engineer & Head of Engineering

Company Overview

Basking.io is transforming how workplace leaders manage their real estate portfolios. Basking.io is a fast-growing workplace occupancy and lease management platform that delivers AI-driven analytics and automation. With secure cloud services, advanced integrations, and powerful AI capabilities, we help organizations turn complex workplace data into actionable insights in real time instead of months. We operate at the intersection of real-world workplace data, enterprise SaaS, and applied AI - building systems that customers rely on every day to make high-stakes decisions.

Basking Automation (basking.io) is a workplace analytics platform, helping corporate real estate managers to get a detailed understanding of how their offices are being used. To provide these insights, Basking is using existing WiFi networks and machine learning algorithms. It's fast to deploy across portfolios, affordable at scale and privacy-compliant. Basking.io is a Techstars- and Innogy Ventures-backed company. It has won the German Property Association's Office Awards 2019, is endorsed as one of "The 2019 Top 25 Under The Radar CRETech Companies You Must Watch"​, and partnered with Colliers International to provide occupancy analytics to its clients in EMEA and the US.

Job Summary

We’re hiring a Principal Engineer & Head of Engineering to lead Basking’s engineering function as a hands-on technical leader. This is a player–coach role for someone who still designs systems, reviews and writes production code, and enjoys building alongside a small, high-impact team. You will combine deep technical ownership with people leadership, working closely with the CEO and Head of Product to shape Basking’s platform as we enter our next stage: building an agentic AI layer on top of a multi-product enterprise SaaS foundation. As a member of the leadership team, you will own engineering execution end to end - from architecture and infrastructure to team growth, delivery, and technical quality.

Key Responsibilities

• Own the end-to-end technical architecture of Basking’s platform (backend services, APIs, data pipelines, and infrastructure)
• Act as the primary technical authority, setting standards for system design, code quality, and long-term maintainability
• Stay hands-on through architecture reviews, code reviews, and selective contributions to production systems
• Design, operate, and evolve AWS- and Kubernetes-based infrastructure, balancing reliability, scalability, cost, and security
• Drive pragmatic, production-grade use of AI/LLMs and data analytics focused on real customer value
• Lead and mentor a small, senior engineering team as a player–coach; hire strong engineers and foster a high-ownership culture
• Partner closely with the CEO, Product, Data Analytics, and Customer Success to translate ambiguous problems into scalable solutions
• Balance short-term delivery with long-term platform evolution

Requirements / Qualifications

• Senior technical leadership experience (e.g. Principal/Staff Engineer, Engineering Manager, Head of Engineering) in a SaaS or data-driven environment
• 8+ years of backend and distributed systems engineering, with a clear history of staying hands-on while leading teams
• Strong production experience with AWS and Kubernetes, and operating reliable, scalable distributed systems
• Deep understanding of APIs, data modeling, and data-intensive architectures
• Practical experience bringing AI/ML or LLM-based systems into production
• Track record of improving engineering foundations (CI/CD, testing, observability) without over-engineering
• Familiarity with security and compliance requirements (e.g. SOC 2 / ISO-style controls)
• Clear communicator, comfortable with ambiguity, decisive in technical trade-offs, and enjoys close collaboration with a small, senior team

Preferred Qualifications

• Familiarity with Go (or strong experience in similar backend languages such as Python or Java) is a plus

Location

Berlin, Germany (Hybrid)

Employment Type

Full-time

Salary & Benefits

• The opportunity to lead engineering at a high-growth SaaS company going through AI-first transformation.
• Shape the next generation of AI solutions for real-world problems.
• International, collaborative team environment.
• Competitive compensation with equity participation.