(Intern) Product Engineer

Job description

YOUR IMPACT As an intern at Tacto, you'll have real impact and real ownership. It's important for us to give motivated, ambitious students a steep learning curve and an honest look at what it takes to build one of Europe's fastest-growing startups. We hold interns to the same bar as full-time hires, which means we only bring on people who we trust to lead projects independently and who we'd genuinely want to work with long-term. The Product Engineer track is for people who want to build the product itself - the platform, the agents, the integrations, the data layer that procurement teams across Europe rely on. You'll join one of our technical teams - Product, Design, Engineering, or Data Automation – based on where your skills and our needs align. By the end of the program you'll have shipped things to our customers, built alongside strong role models, and walked away with a network that lasts. WHERE YOU MIGHT WORK Depending on the match, you could join one of these teams: - Product – Define what we build and why. Talk to customers, prototype, prioritize, and ship features that move procurement teams from spreadsheets to AI-native operations - Design – Own how Tacto looks and feels. Design the patterns for how procurement professionals supervise AI agents - challenges no one has solved before - Engineering – Build the platform, the agentic systems, and the infrastructure powering autonomous procurement. Modern stack, high ownership, fast feedback loops HOW IT WORKS 1. You apply once - this application covers all our technical internship positions 2. Tell us your preferences - rank the areas you're most interested in (we ask in the application form) 3. First call - we'll come prepared with a clear proposal on which team we think fits best and why. We discuss your skills, our needs, and where you can have the most impact 4. Case study - if we move forward, you'll work on a technical case with the team lead from your proposed department 5. We match and place you - you join a specific team & are all set to ship from day 1 Once you're in, you'll work primarily in your team. Depending on interest and capacity, there are usually opportunities to contribute to cross-functional projects as well to broaden your horizon. We also host regular events with top-tier founders and speakers from the startup ecosystem — e.g. Andreas Klinger at Lunch & Learn https://tactotechnologygmbh.pixieset.com/lunchandlearnwandreasklinger/, 2-day AI Hackathon in our office https://tactotechnologygmbh.pixieset.com/techeuropemunichhackathon/, Basti Schuon at Lunch & Learn https://tactotechnologygmbh.pixieset.com/tactolunchandlearnwithbastischuon/ - so you get exposure to the full picture of building a startup, not just your corner of it. WHAT YOU NEED TO WORK AT TACTO - Experience in a fast-paced environment (startup, scale-up, strong technical project, whatever pushed you) - AI native - you live in Cursor, Claude, ChatGPT, v0, Lovable or whatever ships next. You build agents, automate your own workflows, and treat new models as tools to test the day they drop. If your default for a hard problem isn't "let me see what I can do with AI", this isn't the role - Self-driven + Naturally curious - you don't need hand-holding - A real builder mindset: you've shipped side projects, contributed to OSS, hacked on AI tools, or built something people use - Strong communication skills in German and English - You care about the problem we are solving & are mission-aligned - helping the European Industry to stay competitive in the long-term - For Design: a portfolio or shipped work that shows taste, systems thinking, and ability to simplify complexity - For Engineering: comfort with a modern stack (TypeScript, Python, or similar), shipped projects, and an instinct for clean, fast iteration WHERE OUR PREVIOUS INTERNS WORK NOW After Tacto, over 10 former interns have founded their own companies, with e.g. 3 already going through Y Combinator. Others have joined programs like CDTM (5+ acceptances), moved into top tech firms, or joined early-stage startups and VCs. The common thread: they all got a real understanding of what it takes to build and scale a company. [https://app.ashbyhq.com/api/images/user-content/b5123e49-7e66-4e8e-a544-e4061feee49b/08869673-97e2-4eba-902b-c86b08714213/Tacto_where_our_interns_work_now%20(3).png] OUR BACKGROUND Tacto is building the intelligence layer that connects AI to the physical world of manufacturing, starting with procurement. AI is transforming every industry, but it stops at the factory gate. The knowledge that holds manufacturing together - part costs, suppliers, materials - is scattered across systems and people. Over 50% of a product's cost originates from suppliers, making procurement the single largest cost lever in manufacturing and the missing connection between the digital and the physical world. Yet it still runs on Excel and legacy systems. We're changing that with our Procurement Intelligence Platform, trusted by hundreds of companies running billions of Euros of material. Based in Munich, we are 100+ passionate builders who are in-office, with high expectations, fast growth, and a lot of fun. We are supported by >€50m from Sequoia, Index, and Europe's leading tech entrepreneurs and industry veterans. WHY IT MATTERS Manufacturing forms Europe's economic backbone, driving a fourth of Europe's GDP and providing over 30% of jobs. These hidden champions and global market leaders manufacture the physical world around us, from the machines that build our cities to the medical devices that save lives. But the world is changing. The US dominates the digital world of bits. China is scaling the world of atoms, manufacturing at unprecedented speed and scale. Geopolitics are more uncertain than ever. Europe's strength lies in its deep industrial knowledge through generations of engineering. Manufacturing worldwide runs on European machines and software. But that heritage is only an advantage if we leverage it in the age of AI. Tacto builds the AI that connects Atoms and Bits, empowering our Industrial Base to Stay Stronger and building a lighthouse for European tech. WHAT WE OFFER The people at Tacto are passionate about building the organization, growing themselves, and our product while having fun and being real. We have high expectations, great talent density, and a culture where your ambition, performance, and agency are what count - not where you come from or how big your ego is. You'll grow at the forefront of AI, have real ownership and impact, and be surrounded by the best people in their field who challenge you and make you better every day. That is demanding and rewarding, but that's where we thrive. Besides that you have: - Money: Competitive salary & equity in the company with real upside, so you are invested in our success - Workplace: A vibrant in-office culture (> 4 days/week) in a beautiful office in central Munich - Development: A development budget and regular exposure to exceptional people, e.g., Lunch & Learns, peer mentoring, external speakers - Time off: 26 + 4 vacation days per year (4 fixed “company rest days”) as well as regular off-sites and team events - Health: Wellpass membership, of course, a fruit basket (!), and access to Jobrad, for your health - Family & Social Security: Voluntary pension contribution, voluntary KITA subsidy for your children Tacto is an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, religion, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disability, or gender identity. Please do not submit personal data revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership, data concerning your health, or data concerning your sexual orientation.