Tech Lead — Users & Auth (Líder Técnico/a - Usuarios y Autenticación) - Hybrid

Clara; Bogotá ciudad; Hybrid; COP 180,000,000 - 320,000,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

ESOP

Multicultural team

Learning budget

Hybrid work model

High ownership culture

Job summary

Clara seeks a Tech Lead for Users & Auth to own architecture, drive end-to-end delivery, and pair with product to shape roadmap. This is a hands-on builder role with no people management, operating across Latin America with strong emphasis on backend Java/Spring and frontend React.

You will influence system health, security, and scalable design. The role requires leadership in technical discussions across geographies, excellent communication in English, and a willingness to push for high

Qualifications

• 6+ years of software engineering experience in a technical leadership role (Staff+).
• Hands-on builder who codes and reviews; not a people manager.
• Strong architecture and system-design judgment in complex domains.
• Solid product sense; collaborates with product to define and prioritize work.
• Full-stack focus with backend strength in Java/Spring and frontend React.
• Working knowledge of auth, identity, and security; AI tooling is leveraged.
• English proficiency to lead technical discussions across geographies.

Responsibilities

• Own architecture and system design within your domain; code and contribute architecture docs.
• Own the team's execution rhythm: sprint planning, standups, backlog grooming, retrospectives; drive velocity and WIP health.
• Set and uphold engineering excellence: code reviews, test coverage, and technical debt management.
• Unblock the team with reviews, pairing, and debugging.
• Own product specs from a technical lens; flag feasibility gaps and leverage AI where it closes gaps.
• Own system health: security posture, scalability, performance, and availability.

Skills

Staff+ leadership

Hands-on builder

Architecture & system design

Product sense

Full-stack (Java/Spring, React)

Auth/security knowledge

AI tooling awareness

English proficiency

Tools

Auth0

Job description

Ready to accelerate your career?

Clara is the fastest-growing company in Latin America. We've built the leading solution for companies to make and manage all their payments. We already help over 20,000 large and growing businesses operate with agility and financial clarity through locally issued corporate cards, bill pay, financing, and a powerful B2B platform built for scale.

Clara is backed by some of the most successful investors in the world, including top regional VCs like monashees, Kaszek, and Canary, and leading global funds like Notable Capital, Coatue, DST Global Partners, ICONIQ Growth, General Catalyst, Citi Ventures, SV Angel, Citius, Endeavor Catalyst, and Goldman Sachs - in addition to dozens of angel investors and local family offices.
We’re building the financial infrastructure that powers high-performing organizations across the region. We invite you to join us if you want to be part of a fast-paced environment that will accelerate your career and support you to do some of the best work of your life alongside a passionate and committed team distributed across the Americas.

Tech Lead — Users & Auth

We're looking for a Tech Lead to be the senior technical authority for our Users & Auth team — the systems that define how users exist and move within Clara's platform: authentication, authorization, identity, and access control. This is a hands‑on Builder role, not a people‑management one: you lead by building. Your PRs, your architecture docs, and your reviews are what the team calibrates to. You'll set the technical direction and work hand in hand with product on the definitions and priorities that shape the team's work — you're not the product owner, but you bring enough product sense to push back, give strong signal, and help decide what's worth building. The work is invisible when it's done right and critical when it's not, and some of Clara's biggest bets run straight through it.

We move fast and trust our leads to own outcomes end‑to‑end. That means autonomy to make decisions, proactivity to surface problems before they become blockers, and the attitude to push initiatives across the finish line without waiting to be told what to do.

Your responsibilities will include:

• Owning architecture and system design within your team's domain — tech stack, API contracts, data models, and infrastructure. You hold the architecture call for your systems, and you stay hands‑on writing code
• Owning the team's execution rhythm — sprint planning, standups, backlog grooming, retros — and being accountable for velocity: PR cycle time, deploy frequency, and healthy WIP
• Setting and holding engineering excellence — code review standards, test coverage, and proactive management of technical debt
• Unblocking the team day to day through code reviews, design reviews, pairing, and debugging
• Owning product specs from the technical lens — reviewing them before work starts, flagging feasibility gaps and complexity, and spotting where AI tooling can close what would otherwise be a quarter of engineering
• Owning system health for the services you own: security posture, scalability, performance, and availability

Who you are

• 6+ years of software engineering experience, with a track record as the senior technical voice on a team (Staff+ level). This is a technical leadership role, not people management — career development and performance sit with a Director, so you can stay focused on the technical bar
• A hands‑on Builder — still deep in the systems, setting the standard through your own PRs, architecture docs, and reviews, not through oversight
• Strong architecture and system‑design judgment in a complex domain
• Strong product sense — you work well with product partners, give sharp feedback on definitions and priorities, and can weigh in on what to build and why
• Full‑stack engineering with your strength on the backend. We work primarily in Java and Spring on the backend and React on the frontend — depth in those is a plus, but we care more about strong fundamentals and how fast you ramp than about years in any one stack
• Working knowledge of auth, identity, and security best practices — Auth0 exposure is a plus
• The most fluent AI user in the room — you model AI‑native engineering day to day and actively find where AI tooling closes product gaps. At Clara, AI is part of how we work, not a side topic
• English proficiency, with the ability to lead technical discussions across geographies

We've kept this list short on purpose — these are the things that actually matter. If you check most of these and the rest you'd close with curiosity and the right tools, we want to hear from you.

Why join Clara

At Clara, you’ll have the autonomy, speed, and support to make meaningful impact — not just on your team, but on how organizations are run across Latin America.

Who we are

• We’re the leading B2B fintech for spend management in Latin America.

• Certified as one of the world's fastest-growing companies, a Great Place to Work, and a LinkedIn Top Startup.

• Passionate about making Latin America more prosperous and competitive.

• Constantly innovating to build financial infrastructure that enables each of our customers to thrive.

• Product-led, high‑talent‑density culture — designed for builders who raise the bar.

• Proud of our open, inclusive, and values‑driven environment.

What we believe in

• #Clarity. We say things clearly, directly, and proactively.

• #Simplicity. We reduce noise to focus on what really matters.

• #Ownership. We take responsibility and never wait to be told.

• #Pride. We build products and experiences we’re proud of.

• #Always Be Changing (ABC). We grow through feedback, risk‑taking, and action.

• #Inclusivity. Every voice counts. Everyone contributes to our mission.

What we offer

• Competitive salary and stock options (ESOP) from day one

• Multicultural team with daily exposure to Portuguese, Spanish, and English (our corporate language)

• Annual learning budget and internal accelerated development paths

• High‑ownership environment: we move fast, learn fast, and raise the bar — together

• Smart, ambitious teammates — low ego, high impact

• Flexible vacation and hybrid work model focused on results

Clara’s Hybrid Policy

Claridians in a hybrid mode split their time between working from the office, talking to or visiting customers, or working from home. This hits a balance between bringing people together for in‑person collaboration and learning from each other, while supporting flexibility about how to do this in a way that makes sense for each individual and team.

We don't enforce a minimum number of days for most roles, but you're expected to spend time at the office organically, and be at the office most days during your ramp‑up or when required by your leader.