Solution Engineer

About Katana

Katana is a remote-first, AI-first B2B SaaS company that builds inventory and manufacturing software for 1,500+ businesses that make and sell physical products around the world. Our 100+ person team across 10+ countries is building what's next, together.

As we move upmarket with our Advantage plan (a plan personalized around each customer's business), more customers come to us with a "job to be done" that our core product doesn't cover on its own: automatically moving stock between warehouses so no location runs out, a reporting flow nobody else needs, or an integration with the one tool their factory floor runs on. Those deals are landing and growing, and one senior Solution Engineer can't build for all of them. That's where you come in.

Most engineering roles put you close to the code or close to the customer's problem. This one gives you both.

You build, not just advise. This is not a sales engineer role. You take a real customer problem, design the solution, build it, and keep it running

You stay close to the customer problems. You understand their business, ask questions that make people think, and explain the value of what you built in their terms, not in terms of the code

You build AI-first. You plan, prompt, then review and validate what the tools produce. AI is how we work every day, not a side experiment

You own it from scope to production and beyond. Whoever builds it estimates it, and owns it after go-live

This isn't a role for someone who wants a finished spec. It's for someone who wants to solve real business problems with working tools, and to be judged on whether the customer's problem actually went away.

About the role

You'll join the Custom Solutions team in Product Engineering and build solutions that extend Katana for one customer, or for a few customers with the same need. You'll work alongside our senior Solution Engineer, who calibrates your estimates and supports your scoping.

You build on top of Katana, not in the core product. You work above our public REST API, using our miniapp platform, automations, spreadsheets, and community apps. That boundary is deliberate: it lets you move fast and own your work fully, safely.

How you work. You work mostly through our Product Manager, who owns the customer's need and priority, and you join customer sessions on an as-needed basis. An engineer reviews your solution designs, and you build for low maintenance on our observability foundation.

What you'll do

Frame the problem

Take a customer problem from the PM, whether it affects one customer or tens of them

Find out why the customer is asking, not just what they're asking for

Scope the most viable solution

Design and build the solution

Lead the solution design and review it with an engineer

Build AI-first on our REST API and miniapps platforms: integrations, miniapps, automations, and data flows

Right-size every solution: build for specific customer needs, not a universal platform for a one-customer need

Take it live and keep it running

Deploy, monitor, and maintain what you build, like the whole team does

Handle keys, credentials, and customer data safely across many client projects

Fix what breaks, and learn from it so it doesn't break again

Make the work better

Demo what you built to customers and teammates, in the customer's terms

Spot repeated needs and help turn one-off builds into reusable tools over time

Give feedback on the miniapps platform you use every day

What success looks like

By week 4: You've shipped a small solution for a real customer. You think in the customer's domain, and you've proposed one improvement to how we run Advantage builds

By month 2: You have implemented one standard build end to end, with your estimate calibrated by our senior Solution Engineer

By month 4: You have implemented multiple builds end to end, with senior support on scoping. Your solutions are monitored and running well.

Your first weeks. You're onboarded to our product and its domain, and tutored on the platforms and tooling you'll use. You join customer calls and team calls to learn first-hand, and an assigned mentor teaches you and answers your questions. We also keep asking for your feedback on our processes, so you have a say in how we improve them.

What we're looking for

How you think (must-have)

Product-minded builder. You start from the customer's problem and the business outcome, not from the technology

You run real discovery. You find out why the customer is asking, and scope the most viable solution together with PMs and stakeholders

Self-starter who handles ambiguity. You turn a vague need into a clear plan, and you share ideas without waiting to be asked

You learn the product deeply. You want to become the Katana and manufacturing expert your customers rely on

What you can do (must-have)

Direct customer contact. You're comfortable talking to end users and getting to the root of their problems. You've worked in support, support engineering, customer success, product, or sales, or as a freelancer or maker with your own users

Proven builder. You've built tools, workflows, or small apps that you or others use, with or without code. You understand how they work and what happens when a step fails. Evidence beats years: show us something you've built that makes you proud

AI-first, and systematic about it. You plan, prompt, and test what the tools produce, and you understand what you've built. You've solved real problems with workflow builders or AI coding tools, such as Make.com, n8n, Claude Code, Codex, or Lovable

You explain what you built and why it matters, to technical and non-technical people alike

Fluent English. It's our working language, and you'll often work with native English speakers

Strongly preferred, not required

You can code, have built or used APIs, and understand system design

A background in ERP, operations, or ecommerce

Cloud basics

We'll teach you

The Katana product and data model

Our miniapp platform

You might be a support or customer success person who automates everything, a freelancer who builds for small businesses, a maker with your own product, or a developer who loves talking to users. If that sounds like you, we'd love to hear from you.

Ways of working

High ownership. You drive your projects from idea to production and after go-live

You speak up early when you're stuck, rather than going quiet

You build for value, not for the technical challenge. What matters to you is whether the customer's problem went away

Flexible hours. Our team works across many time zones, so you choose your working times as long as they align with the team. Customer calls sometimes happen in the evening, and you can plan your day around them, for example by starting later. We don't expect overtime

Travel. We'd like you to visit our Tallinn office about once a quarter, and Katana covers your office visits

What we offer

An annual gross salary of €37,000–€51,000, plus employee stock options

A clear growth path in solution engineering

Real impact at a global growth company, with work customers see and use

A talented, highly committed, global team across engineering, product, sales, and beyond, distributed and hybrid, with one office in Tallinn, Estonia

Time off that's genuinely encouraged: statutory annual leave aligned with local requirements, with a global minimum of 4 weeks, 3 paid health days annually, and your birthday off

A fully paid 1-month sabbatical and a EUR 1,000 travel budget after every four years at Katana

Home office stipend

Health and wellness stipend

Modern tools and tech, including AI-enabled tools that help you work smarter and stay focused on high-impact work

Automated screening and AI disclosure. We use automated tools, including AI, to help review applications and filter candidates. Final decisions are always made by people. If you're i