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.

Tasks

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.

Requirements

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.

Benefits

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.

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