Hiring philosophy
Who we hire shapes Langfuse more than any plan we write. For the steps, see the hiring process.
Stay small, keep the bar high
We stay as small as we can, because one strong person can scope, design and ship what used to take a team. If we are unsure, we would rather miss a great candidate than hire the wrong one.
Hell yes, on both sides
A few soft yeses do not add up to a yes: someone here has to be excited about you, and you have to be "hell yes, I want to work at Langfuse". We work to earn that, and we try to meet you in person.
Owners, end to end
Engineers own a product area from the decision through launch. Marketing and growth roles are the same shape: you write, and you shape the role.
What you did, not where you did it
A well-known company or school helps us find people, but it does not decide. We want someone who executed well on a hard problem, wherever they did it.
We go deep and ask the uneasy questions
We keep asking until we reach the reasoning, including follow-ups that are not comfortable. That shows both sides whether you would enjoy making these calls.
AI pilled
Almost everyone here works with agents all day and keeps getting better at it (Productivity & AI). We expect the same: you understand what you shipped, and we would merge it.
Each round stands on its own, and we move fast
Each interviewer judges only their own conversation, so one round does not tilt the next. We aim to get from the first call to a decision in about two weeks.
Interviews should feel like the job
You work on real problems with the people you would work with, so try the product and read the handbook and docs first. The job is a customer conversation, an RFC, a lot of code, and a launch (principles), with Berlin every two months and company offsites, most recently Tokyo and Berlin.
What we look for
No candidate checks every box. These are the signals we look for, and why we most often say no.
- You love the work. You enjoy building for a technical audience and want thousands of customers to use what you build.
- Ownership. You drove the outcome, and you can say what you would undo.
- Depth of thinking. You can go from the trade-off to what it led to and what you learned.
- Taste and pragmatism. You know when to cut scope and when a better user experience beats elegant technology.
- Customers. You talk to the developers using your work, and that changes the plan.
- Clear motivation. You know why you joined your past companies and why you left them.
- Startup fit. You decide through ambiguity on a small team where everyone does support.
- Clear, direct communication. You say what works and where you are unsure, and you change it when the facts change.
What usually leads to a no:
- Lots of "we" and no "I".
- Motivation that would fit any company.
- Answers that stop at the headline.
- Work you built with AI but cannot explain.
- Coordinating or handing work over, without owning a product.
- A code review that misses security, data access, or performance problems.
A plus, not a requirement: early startup or founder experience, and open source contributions.
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