{"schemaVersion":"jobsearcher.job.v1","id":"1d0877bd989f5fbc25caa13d","url":"https://jobsearcher.com/jobs/1d0877bd989f5fbc25caa13d","canonicalUrl":"https://jobsearcher.com/jobs/1d0877bd989f5fbc25caa13d","title":"Core Database Engineer","description":"The Mission: A Data Engine Manufacturing Can Trust\r\nManufacturing SMBs are currently drowning in complexity. Every day, critical data is lost in a flood of emails, phone calls, and manual spreadsheets that try to bridge the gap between accounting, supply chain, and production.\r\nSophia builds the platform that ends this chaos. We don't just digitize processes; we automate them, driving immediate improvements in revenue and efficiency.\r\nWhy is this hard?\r\nManufacturing data is fragmented, inconsistent, and deeply connected. Our agents must reason over orders, inventory, suppliers, production events, and financial records without compromising correctness, isolation, or auditability. We are building a data layer that makes this operational context safely available to AI systems in real time.\r\nThe destination is clear: Autonomous Manufacturing Operations.\r\nYour Role: Own the Core Data Platform\r\nYou will design and build the database services at the heart of Sophia: the systems that ingest operational data, preserve its history, expose it to agents, and remain reliable as customer workloads grow.\r\nBuild the Data Foundation\r\nDesign schemas, storage abstractions, migrations, and services for complex manufacturing data.\r\nMake Data Available to Agents\r\nDevelop secure mechanisms for AI systems to retrieve, connect, and act on operational data with full traceability.\r\nPerformance & Reliability\r\nOwn query performance, observability, backups, tenant isolation, and graceful failure across customer workloads.\r\nOwnership\r\nWork closely with application and AI engineers, shape the roadmap, and take systems from design through production operations.\r\nThe Stack\r\nWe value tools that allow for speed and type safety.\r\nDatabase\r\nPython, FastAPI, SQL\r\nCloud\r\nAI & Data\r\nWho You Are\r\nWe care about depth, judgment, and what you have built—not a specific number of years.\r\nDatabase-minded Builder\r\nYou have worked deeply with PostgreSQL or another relational database and understand how application choices affect the engine underneath.\r\nSystems Thinker\r\nYou are comfortable debugging performance and correctness across queries, services, distributed systems, and infrastructure.\r\nPragmatic & Curious\r\nYou can balance foundational engineering with shipping, and you are excited to explore how databases should serve agentic applications.\r\nFreiburg & at Customer On-Site\r\nWe work in tight loops. Being in the room together matters at this stage.\r\nWhy Sophia?\r\nHigh Upside\r\nSignificant equity in a VC-backed, high-growth AI startup.\r\nEvery line of code you write will be used by real customers within hours.\r\nAI-First\r\nWe don't just \"use\" AI; we are at the bleeding edge of agentic workflows.\r\nEuropean Backbone\r\nHelp the European manufacturing sector stay competitive globally.\r\nAbout the Founder\r\nI have spent the last 12 years operating at the intersection of manufacturing and technology. My path hasn't been linear — it ranges from co-founding Knusperreich (a pioneer in D2C food) to running a traditional family-owned precision casting firm serving the aerospace and medical sectors.\r\nThat deep dive into the 'Mittelstand' revealed massive friction in industrial procurement, inspiring me to launch KREATIZE . There, we helped machinery companies automate sourcing, backed by €20m in funding from Tier-1 VCs like Atlantic and Earlybird.\r\nWhile I navigated the startup rollercoaster over the last decade, I often felt I was too early or too young to fully capitalize on major tech waves. With AI, that changes. I am convinced the next generation of value belongs to the application layer — solving unsexy, complex problems for real industries. That is the mission behind Sophia .\r\n1 Sequence Matters: We will not scale the organization until we have undeniable Product-Market Fit. We solve the pain point first; we scale second.\r\n2 Talent Density: We hire fewer people, but better people. A small team of A-players outperforms a large army of average performers.\r\n3 Speed is the Moat: We operate with extreme urgency to iterate, learn, and ship faster than the incumbents.\r\n4 Builders Only: Everyone contributes directly to product or revenue. We avoid pure \"management\" layers entirely in the early stage.\r\n5 Brand as Leverage: We invest in brand early to lower CAC and attract top talent, treating it as a compounding asset.\r\nThe Interview Process\r\nWe move fast. Everywhere. We want to go from first chat to offer in 5 days.\r\n01 The Vibe Check (30 min)\r\nChat with Simon about the vision and your background.\r\n02 Product & Tech Deep Dive (45 min)\r\nWe'll walk through a real problem we're facing and see how you think.\r\n03 Technical Challenge (60 min)\r\nA hands-on coding session (no LeetCode; think systems and agents).\r\n04 Onsite Co-Work\r\nSpend half a day with us in Freiburg. We'll build and ship a real feature together.\r\nJ-18808-Ljbffr","company":"Krops","rawCompany":"krops","city":"New Bremen","state":"OH","isRemote":false,"isActive":false,"createdAt":"2026-08-09T00:45:18.791Z","occupations":[{"code":"15-1243.00","title":"Database Architects","slug":"database-architects"},{"code":"15-1243.01","title":"Data Warehousing Specialists","slug":"data-warehousing-specialists"},{"code":"15-1252.00","title":"Software Developers","slug":"software-developers"}],"industries":[{"code":"513210","title":"Software Publishers","slug":"software-publishers"},{"code":"541511","title":"Custom Computer Programming Services","slug":"custom-computer-programming-services"},{"code":"541512","title":"Computer Systems Design Services","slug":"computer-systems-design-services"}],"jobPosting":{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"JobPosting","title":"Core Database Engineer","description":"The Mission: A Data Engine Manufacturing Can Trust\r\nManufacturing SMBs are currently drowning in complexity. Every day, critical data is lost in a flood of emails, phone calls, and manual spreadsheets that try to bridge the gap between accounting, supply chain, and production.\r\nSophia builds the platform that ends this chaos. We don't just digitize processes; we automate them, driving immediate improvements in revenue and efficiency.\r\nWhy is this hard?\r\nManufacturing data is fragmented, inconsistent, and deeply connected. Our agents must reason over orders, inventory, suppliers, production events, and financial records without compromising correctness, isolation, or auditability. We are building a data layer that makes this operational context safely available to AI systems in real time.\r\nThe destination is clear: Autonomous Manufacturing Operations.\r\nYour Role: Own the Core Data Platform\r\nYou will design and build the database services at the heart of Sophia: the systems that ingest operational data, preserve its history, expose it to agents, and remain reliable as customer workloads grow.\r\nBuild the Data Foundation\r\nDesign schemas, storage abstractions, migrations, and services for complex manufacturing data.\r\nMake Data Available to Agents\r\nDevelop secure mechanisms for AI systems to retrieve, connect, and act on operational data with full traceability.\r\nPerformance & Reliability\r\nOwn query performance, observability, backups, tenant isolation, and graceful failure across customer workloads.\r\nOwnership\r\nWork closely with application and AI engineers, shape the roadmap, and take systems from design through production operations.\r\nThe Stack\r\nWe value tools that allow for speed and type safety.\r\nDatabase\r\nPython, FastAPI, SQL\r\nCloud\r\nAI & Data\r\nWho You Are\r\nWe care about depth, judgment, and what you have built—not a specific number of years.\r\nDatabase-minded Builder\r\nYou have worked deeply with PostgreSQL or another relational database and understand how application choices affect the engine underneath.\r\nSystems Thinker\r\nYou are comfortable debugging performance and correctness across queries, services, distributed systems, and infrastructure.\r\nPragmatic & Curious\r\nYou can balance foundational engineering with shipping, and you are excited to explore how databases should serve agentic applications.\r\nFreiburg & at Customer On-Site\r\nWe work in tight loops. Being in the room together matters at this stage.\r\nWhy Sophia?\r\nHigh Upside\r\nSignificant equity in a VC-backed, high-growth AI startup.\r\nEvery line of code you write will be used by real customers within hours.\r\nAI-First\r\nWe don't just \"use\" AI; we are at the bleeding edge of agentic workflows.\r\nEuropean Backbone\r\nHelp the European manufacturing sector stay competitive globally.\r\nAbout the Founder\r\nI have spent the last 12 years operating at the intersection of manufacturing and technology. My path hasn't been linear — it ranges from co-founding Knusperreich (a pioneer in D2C food) to running a traditional family-owned precision casting firm serving the aerospace and medical sectors.\r\nThat deep dive into the 'Mittelstand' revealed massive friction in industrial procurement, inspiring me to launch KREATIZE . There, we helped machinery companies automate sourcing, backed by €20m in funding from Tier-1 VCs like Atlantic and Earlybird.\r\nWhile I navigated the startup rollercoaster over the last decade, I often felt I was too early or too young to fully capitalize on major tech waves. With AI, that changes. I am convinced the next generation of value belongs to the application layer — solving unsexy, complex problems for real industries. That is the mission behind Sophia .\r\n1 Sequence Matters: We will not scale the organization until we have undeniable Product-Market Fit. We solve the pain point first; we scale second.\r\n2 Talent Density: We hire fewer people, but better people. A small team of A-players outperforms a large army of average performers.\r\n3 Speed is the Moat: We operate with extreme urgency to iterate, learn, and ship faster than the incumbents.\r\n4 Builders Only: Everyone contributes directly to product or revenue. We avoid pure \"management\" layers entirely in the early stage.\r\n5 Brand as Leverage: We invest in brand early to lower CAC and attract top talent, treating it as a compounding asset.\r\nThe Interview Process\r\nWe move fast. Everywhere. We want to go from first chat to offer in 5 days.\r\n01 The Vibe Check (30 min)\r\nChat with Simon about the vision and your background.\r\n02 Product & Tech Deep Dive (45 min)\r\nWe'll walk through a real problem we're facing and see how you think.\r\n03 Technical Challenge (60 min)\r\nA hands-on coding session (no LeetCode; think systems and agents).\r\n04 Onsite Co-Work\r\nSpend half a day with us in Freiburg. We'll build and ship a real feature together.\r\nJ-18808-Ljbffr","datePosted":"2026-08-09T00:45:18.791Z","dateModified":"2026-08-09T00:45:18.791Z","hiringOrganization":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Krops","sameAs":"https://jobsearcher.com"},"jobLocation":{"@type":"Place","address":{"@type":"PostalAddress","addressLocality":"New Bremen","addressRegion":"OH","addressCountry":"US"}},"identifier":{"@type":"PropertyValue","name":"JobSearcher","value":"1d0877bd989f5fbc25caa13d"},"url":"https://jobsearcher.com/jobs/1d0877bd989f5fbc25caa13d"}}