Root Sustainability | AI / ML Engineer, Senior UX/UI Designer | REMOTE / The Netherlands (or hybrid) | Full-time | Seed-stage + equity
We’re Root Sustainability. We help companies understand the environmental footprint of what they produce, starting from messy, incomplete operational data. Think tens of millions of purchase order lines, vague product descriptions, complex supply chains, messy ERP exports, and sustainability logic that does not fit neatly into spreadsheets. Our goal is to turn all of that into auditable, high-granularity insights that feel clear and usable.
We’ve recently closed a EUR 1M seed round and are growing the team across both product design and AI. We are building foundational systems, not wrappers, and we are looking for people who want to own real problems end to end.
Roles:
AI / ML Engineer
You will take the lead on everything AI inside the product. This is a hands-on role: designing, building, evaluating, and deploying LLM-powered features end to end. You will work closely with our engineering team, but you will own the AI direction from prototype to production.
Senior UX/UI Designer
You will own UX/UI end to end: research, flows, wireframes, prototypes, and polished interfaces that make complex sustainability domains feel obvious. You work closely with product and engineering as a partner, shaping what we build next.
What you will do (AI / ML):
Design domain-specific inference pipelines for environmental data.
Make LLM outputs stable, traceable, and reproducible.
Build structured reasoning systems, not just chat.
Use embeddings and semantic similarity to match product descriptions to impact datasets.
Evaluate models for accuracy, hallucinations, and bias.
Deploy and operate LLM workloads on AWS.
Integrate AI outputs into a Python and Postgres platform.
What you will do (UX/UI):
Lead design for key features: mapping, dashboards, workflows.
Turn fuzzy sustainability problems into clear, user-centered interfaces.
Build prototypes and run lightweight user testing.
Maintain and evolve a design system in Figma.
Ship frequently with engineers, not just hand off specs.
You should apply if (AI / ML):
You have 3 to 5+ years experience in software and or ML engineering.
You are strong in Python with hands-on LLM or NLP experience.
You have deployed AI systems in production on AWS or similar.
You think in systems and pipelines, not just prompts.
You care about evaluation, monitoring, and reproducibility.
You have a product mindset and optimize for clarity and user value.
You should apply if (UX/UI):
You have around 5+ years experience in UX/UI with a strong portfolio.
You are pragmatic: clarity over trends, iteration over perfection.
You thrive in early-stage environments with shifting priorities.
You know design systems, user research, and can defend decisions.
Bonus: data visualization experience, sustainability interest, accessibility skills.
Constraints:
Authorized to work in the EU or able to work as a contractor.
Availability overlaps with 10:00 to 16:00 CET.
Perks:
Competitive salary with stock options.
Remote-friendly or hybrid with occasional meetups.
Unlimited vacation days.
Direct impact on product direction and core systems.
Small, kind, motivated team solving hard problems together.
Hi HN! I'm Erfan Besharat, a Software & DevOps Engineer with 9+ years of experience across backend, infrastructure, and distributed systems.
I specialize in cloud-native architectures, having led infrastructure at companies in the blockchain, video streaming, and ticketing industries. Most recently, I was Senior DevOps Engineer at GET Protocol, where I helped scale a platform serving over 6.5M attendees and $110M+ in ticket sales.
Currently, I'm running my own consultancy/research lab, Ainur Tech (https://ainurhq.cloud) based in the Netherlands. We've been fortunate to support companies and public sector organizations across Europe, from municipalities to small and large software and art studios. Feel free to take a look at our current and previous clients on the website.
I'm also building a side project called UniDeck (https://unideck.app) with our team, a no-code dashboard and portal builder that lets anyone craft personalized web experiences using widgets, integrations, and AI. Think Grafana meets browser new-tab simplicity.
Looking for:
- Remote or hybrid DevOps / Platform Engineering roles (Open to Backend roles if it matches my area of focus and interest)
- Contract / consulting gigs around infra automation, Kubernetes, and developer experience
- Or collaborations with teams doing interesting work in OSS, infrastructure, or developer tools
Feel free to contact me on my personal or work email! Happy to grab a drink and chat if you're in NL!
We’re Root Sustainability. We help companies understand the environmental footprint of what they produce, starting from messy, incomplete operational data. Think tens of millions of purchase order lines, vague product descriptions, complex supply chains, messy ERP exports, and sustainability logic that does not fit neatly into spreadsheets. Our goal is to turn all of that into auditable, high-granularity insights that feel clear and usable.
We’ve recently closed a EUR 1M seed round and are growing the team across both product design and AI. We are building foundational systems, not wrappers, and we are looking for people who want to own real problems end to end.
Roles:
AI / ML Engineer
You will take the lead on everything AI inside the product. This is a hands-on role: designing, building, evaluating, and deploying LLM-powered features end to end. You will work closely with our engineering team, but you will own the AI direction from prototype to production.
Senior UX/UI Designer
You will own UX/UI end to end: research, flows, wireframes, prototypes, and polished interfaces that make complex sustainability domains feel obvious. You work closely with product and engineering as a partner, shaping what we build next.
What you will do (AI / ML):
Design domain-specific inference pipelines for environmental data.
Make LLM outputs stable, traceable, and reproducible.
Build structured reasoning systems, not just chat.
Use embeddings and semantic similarity to match product descriptions to impact datasets.
Evaluate models for accuracy, hallucinations, and bias.
Deploy and operate LLM workloads on AWS.
Integrate AI outputs into a Python and Postgres platform.
What you will do (UX/UI):
Lead design for key features: mapping, dashboards, workflows.
Turn fuzzy sustainability problems into clear, user-centered interfaces.
Build prototypes and run lightweight user testing.
Maintain and evolve a design system in Figma.
Ship frequently with engineers, not just hand off specs.
You should apply if (AI / ML):
You have 3 to 5+ years experience in software and or ML engineering.
You are strong in Python with hands-on LLM or NLP experience.
You have deployed AI systems in production on AWS or similar.
You think in systems and pipelines, not just prompts.
You care about evaluation, monitoring, and reproducibility.
You have a product mindset and optimize for clarity and user value.
You should apply if (UX/UI):
You have around 5+ years experience in UX/UI with a strong portfolio.
You are pragmatic: clarity over trends, iteration over perfection.
You thrive in early-stage environments with shifting priorities.
You know design systems, user research, and can defend decisions.
Bonus: data visualization experience, sustainability interest, accessibility skills.
Constraints:
Authorized to work in the EU or able to work as a contractor.
Availability overlaps with 10:00 to 16:00 CET.
Perks:
Competitive salary with stock options.
Remote-friendly or hybrid with occasional meetups.
Unlimited vacation days.
Direct impact on product direction and core systems.
Small, kind, motivated team solving hard problems together.
How to apply:
AI / ML Engineer: https://root-sustainability.homerun.co/ai-ml-engineer
Senior UX/UI Designer: https://root-sustainability.homerun.co/senior-ux-ui-designer