CEO / Business Co-Founder (f/m/d) role at startup IXPLAIN

IXPLAIN
Kaiserslautern, Germany (DFKI) | On-site / Hybrid | Co-Founder / Equity | Deep Tech / Explainable AI

About iXplain
iXplain is an AI platform for time series analysis that doesn't just detect what is happening in sensor data, but explains why. It combines state-of-the-art machine learning (classification, forecasting, regression, anomaly detection) with Explainable AI and a neuro-symbolic rule engine to turn raw industrial signals into clear, actionable recommendations, already demonstrated in water quality monitoring, energy grids and automotive production.

The opportunity
iXplain grew out of DFKI (German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence) and has a functional demonstrator, shown at Hannover Messe 2025, with live discussions underway in the water and manufacturing sectors. The technology is proven; the company is not yet founded. We are looking for a CEO / Business co-founder to turn a validated research demonstrator into a company, own the commercial relationship with our first industrial partners, and build the business around technology our 3-person research team has already built.

What you will own

Company build-up
- Lead the incorporation of iXplain as a company and define its go-to-market strategy and business model.
- Own fundraising strategy and investor relations for the seed stage.
Commercial validation
- Validate iXplain with real industrial partners in water, energy and automotive/manufacturing, turning early discussions (post-Hannover Messe 2025) into paying pilots.
- Define how iXplain integrates into customers' existing workflows and systems.
Business leadership
- Build the commercial organization, pricing and sales process from scratch alongside the technical co-founders (Dr. Dominique Mercier, CTO; Dr. Tobias Wirth, Advisor).
- Represent iXplain to investors, partners and industrial customers as CEO.

What you bring

Core experience
- Entrepreneurial / business leadership experience, ideally as a founder or in early-stage B2B SaaS or industrial-tech commercialization.
- Track record in business development and closing deals with industrial or enterprise customers.
- Comfortable operating without a playbook, pre-product-market-fit.
Especially valuable
- Domain expertise in water, energy, or automotive/manufacturing industries.
- Experience fundraising from VCs or deep-tech grants (e.g., EXIST, German public funding).
- Ability to speak the language of both data-science researchers and industrial buyers.

Why join iXplain
- Own the CEO seat of a deep-tech AI company with a working, demonstrated product, not a slide deck.
- Backed by DFKI's research and IP in Explainable AI and neuro-symbolic reasoning.
- Equity-based co-founder role with real influence on strategy, hiring and company direction from day one.

iXplain welcomes co-founder candidates regardless of gender, age, ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, sexual identity, or any other characteristic. This is a search for the right partner to build the company with, not a conventional hire.