--- title: 'Forward Deployed Engineer at Tacto' canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/forward-deployed-engineer-tacto-munich-4jbf68j4axfg' type: 'job' last_seen: '2026-09-11' --- # Forward Deployed Engineer at Tacto - **Company:** Tacto - **Location:** Munich, Germany - **Employment:** full-time - **Work type:** onsite - **Posted:** 2026-08-12 - **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-11 - **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/tacto/08260ebb-1abd-472c-8cb0-bf4d6503d460 ## Job description ## Your Impact Procurement is over 50% of revenue for industrial companies and their biggest lever for profitability. The hard part is not the software, it is that every customer's reality is different: a different ERP, a different data model, decades of undocumented process. Generic platforms stall exactly there, and that is where most enterprise AI value quietly dies. Forward Deployed Engineering is how we close that gap. You sit inside the customer's environment, build in their production data, and turn what you learn there into product. You are one of the first FDEs at Tacto, so you are not slotting into a playbook, you are writing it while shipping in real accounts. ## Your Tasks Build in customer environments. Data pipelines, agents, and custom logic on top of the Tacto platform, in real production data. Own the technical side of a deployment. Extraction, mapping, validation, enrichment, until the customer's procurement team can actually work with the result. Be in the room, on site. Run data workshops with key users, debug alongside their IT, and see how a company really buys instead of how the process documentation says it buys. Turn what you learn at the edge into product. Document the pattern and push it to Product and Engineering instead of quietly rebuilding the same one-off for the next customer. Automate your own job. If a step in a deployment can be done by an agent, you build the agent and prove it works. Make it one team. Hold the boundary with Solution Engineering and Customer Value so the customer experiences one Tacto, not three. ## Your Profile - You are a builder. You have shipped software, automations, agents, or technical projects that real users relied on. - You write code yourself. You are comfortable with Python and SQL and use AI coding tools to move fast. - You are AI-native. You have built with LLMs against real data and understand where agents work, where they fail, and where humans still matter. - You thrive in messy environments. Incomplete requirements, undocumented data, and conflicting stakeholder input do not stop you from making progress. - You can earn customer trust. You explain technical decisions clearly, handle pushback, and do not over-promise. - You have 0-4 years of experience with evidence of a steep learning curve through strong technical work, ambitious startups, internships, or things you built from zero. - You speak native-level German and fluent English, are based in Munich, and are willing to travel regularly across DACH. ## Why This Role is Awesome You get to combine building software with seeing exactly how it creates value in the real world. You will ship into production, work directly with industrial customers, and turn what you learn at the edge into product improvements. Do this well for 12 to 18 months and you are among the people who defined what Forward Deployed Engineering means at Tacto, with a direct line into the product roadmap and an obvious next step, whether that is leading a team, going deeper into product, or owning a segment. What This Role Is, and Isn't We want to be honest about what you are signing up for. - This is not an engineering role with customers kept at a safe distance. Customer contact is the job, not a tax on the job. If you want a ticket queue and clean requirements, this is the wrong role. - This is not consulting. Nobody here bills days. You are measured on what the customer can do afterwards and on what made it into the platform. - It is deliberately broad. If you want to specialise narrowly you will be frustrated here. - The deal: prove yourself, deliver real impact, make a strong case for yourself, then we back your next step in every way we can. ## Why Tacto We bet on young talent and mean it. We consistently back smart, hungry, young people with real ownership early. 70%+ of our Leadership Team was promoted internally: you deliver impact and sky is the limit at Tacto. Backed to win big. We are Sequoia and Index-funded with €50M+ behind us. Our founders sit at the same table as the people defining the global AI agenda. We're building Tacto to be the lighthouse for European industrial AI. A truly AI-native organization, with every resource you could dream of. All the leading AI tools and custom agents at your fingertips, plus dedicated people who keep us at the frontier. High bar, high speed, genuinely fun. You'll be surrounded by extremely smart and ambitious people who set the bar high and push you to get better every week. Intense, fast, and the opposite of boring. A front-row seat in the European startup ecosystem. Weekly exposure to leading founders and operators through internal and external events (Lunch & Learns, hackathons, community gatherings). Check out all upcoming and past events here: https://luma.com/tacto You'll build something that lasts and that matters. You'll help build the company that keeps European industry competitive for the long term. 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. ## About Tacto ## Company Overview - **One-liner**: Tacto provides an AI-driven procurement intelligence platform that helps industrial and manufacturing companies automate sourcing, supplier management, and cost optimization. - **Entity Type**: Private (Series A) - **Headquarters**: Munich, Germany - **Founded**: 2020 - **Founders**: André Petry, Johannes Groll, Nico Bentenrieder ## Core Business - **Primary Industry**: AI-powered procurement software for manufacturing and industrial sectors - **Target Customers**: B2B; mid-market to enterprise manufacturing companies (e.g., HYMER, HERMA, VEMAG MASCHINENBAU, Meiller Elevators) - **Mission**: “Intelligent Procurement. Resilient Supply Chains. Tenable Margins. Market-Leading Enterprises. A Future Built for Strength.” — Tacto aims to transform supply chains from a cost center into a strategic competitive advantage for European industry. ## Products & Services - **Tacto Procurement Intelligence Platform**: A unified SaaS platform that ingests internal ERP data and external market intelligence. Key modules include: - **Spend & Cost Intelligence**: Real-time visibility into price and volume trends, cost breakdowns, and category benchmarks to identify savings. - **Supplier Intelligence**: Centralized supplier memory with documents, evaluations, performance data, and risk monitoring. - **Sourcing & RFQ Agent**: AI-powered RFQ process that automates supplier selection and intelligent evaluation of offer PDFs. - **Compliance Intelligence**: Automated detection of regulatory risks (e.g., emissions, conflict minerals) to ensure compliance. - **Negotiation & Should Cost Agent**: AI agents that create cost models from raw materials, energy, and labor data, and prepare data-driven negotiation strategies. - **Defender Agent**: Monitors and flags supply chain risks in real time. ## Market Standing - **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly disclosed - **Total Funding**: Approximately €55M–$60.8M (USD) across three rounds: - Pre-Seed (Sep 2020): $1.2M led by UVC Partners, Visionaries Club - Seed (Mar 2022): $5.8M led by Cherry Ventures - Series A (Dec 2023): €53.8M (approx. $59M) led by Index Ventures and Sequoia Capital - **Key Metric**: Customer-reported savings of up to 75% in negotiation preparation time, with typical addressable spend savings of 4.5–10%. Customers have realized €250k–€400k+ in savings. - **Notable Investors/Partners**: Sequoia Capital, Index Ventures, Cherry Ventures, UVC Partners, Visionaries Club - **Growth Signals**: - Headcount: ~128–150 employees as of mid-2026 (+18% YoY) - Active job postings: 27 (up 28.6% quarterly and yearly) - Customer wins across major German industrials (HYMER, HERMA, VEMAG, Meiller) - 4X Procurement Excellence Award winner - ISO 27001 certified and GDPR compliant ## Competitive Advantages - **Deep Industry Expertise**: Founders and team combine decades of industrial manufacturing DNA with world-class AI research. - **Vertical-Specific AI**: Unlike generic procurement tools, Tacto builds domain-specific AI agents trained on manufacturing supply chain data (cost breakdowns, raw material indexes, regulatory frameworks). - **Integrated Data Layer**: Unites internal ERP data with external market intelligence in a single “Procurement Brain” — a moat that grows stickier with each new customer. - **European Data Sovereignty**: Hosted in the EU, GDPR compliant — a critical differentiator for European manufacturers. - **Proven ROI**: Measurable savings outcomes (€250k–€400k+ per customer) and high customer retention. ## Strategic Focus - **Reinventing European Manufacturing**: Positioned as “Europe’s chance to build a globally leading AI company” — doubling down on the industrial core. - **AI Agent Expansion**: Continuously adding new autonomous agents (Negotiation, Should Cost, RFQ, Defender) to automate more of the procurement workflow. - **Scaling Across Industrials**: Expanding from mid-market to enterprise accounts, targeting large manufacturing groups across Germany and broader Europe. - **Building a Talent Lighthouse**: Investing heavily in talent to build a world-class AI and product team in Munich. ## Why Work Here - **Culture**: Described as a meritocracy — “results are all that matter, not appearance, age, titles, or internal politics.” Emphasis on ownership, real impact, and constant evolution. - **Values**: “We stay real” (authenticity, honesty), “Where merit matters,” “Great things are built through grit,” and “Caring is key.” - **Work Environment**: Hybrid/office presence in Munich; team spans 6 countries (Germany, Austria, US, Portugal, UK, Italy). Strong engineering and product culture with 25% of staff in technical roles. - **Growth & Impact**: Employees own outcomes end-to-end, working side-by-side with industrial customers. The company invests heavily in people development and offers real ownership over product and strategy. - **Notable Perks**: Backed by top-tier VCs (Sequoia, Index); ISO 27001 certified; strong focus on European tech sovereignty and building a “lighthouse” for the continent. - **Open Roles (27 active)**: Product Engineer, Head of Product Design, Enterprise Account Executive, People & Talent Lead, Customer Value Manager, Expansion Lead, and more. ## Sources 1. [tacto.ai](https://www.tacto.ai/en/about-us) 2. [tacto.ai](https://www.tacto.ai/en) 3. [tacto.ai](https://www.tacto.ai/en/career) 4. [linkedin.com](https://de.linkedin.com/company/tactotechnology) 5. [tracxn.com](https://tracxn.com/d/companies/tacto/__qKsqtHsg6R_5aTTVf4ZYM4w3gbNNc3NG3iapk6nCBtc) ## Other roles at Tacto - [Founding Account Executive – Benelux](https://feeny.ai/job/founding-account-executive-benelux-tacto-munich-tmj2r7sa3mmr) — Munich, Germany - [Founding Account Executive – Nordics](https://feeny.ai/job/founding-account-executive-nordics-tacto-munich-bwqzbwnet9af) — Munich, Germany - [Sales Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/sales-manager-tacto-munich-cydbq6agah3x) — Munich, Germany - [(Senior) Account Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-account-manager-tacto-munich-71w62j1ne2qt) — Munich, Germany - [Forward Deployed Engineering Team Lead](https://feeny.ai/job/forward-deployed-engineering-team-lead-tacto-munich-jy0fncvayt2r) — Munich, Germany - [(Senior) Value Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-value-engineer-tacto-munich-4tr8wh5r1gyy) — Munich, Germany - [(Intern) Founder's Associate](https://feeny.ai/job/intern-founder-s-associate-tacto-munich-cdbe2aw7rcn9) — Munich, Germany - [(Intern) Videographer & Creative Mind](https://feeny.ai/job/intern-videographer-creative-mind-tacto-munich-hf5zp19g41em) — Munich, Germany - [Enterprise Account Executive](https://feeny.ai/job/enterprise-account-executive-tacto-munich-mm88j37mke2b) — Munich, Germany - [Account Executive](https://feeny.ai/job/account-executive-tacto-munich-memfb95aerpv) — Munich, Germany