Senior Software Engineer - Payroll Foundation - Munich/London - (d/f/m)

Personio; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary

28 days paid holiday

Flex Days

Family leave

Mental health support

Regular team events

Job summary

A tech company in the HR sector is seeking a Senior Backend Engineer to join their Payroll Foundations team. This role involves building and maintaining backend systems for payroll processing, ensuring accuracy and reliability. Candidates should have strong experience in backend systems, proficiency in Kotlin or Java, and excellent problem-solving skills. The position offers flexible working arrangements with 2 days required in-office and additional remote work options, plus a variety of employee benefits.

Qualifications

• Strong experience building backend systems in production environments.
• Experience working with distributed systems or large-scale backend services.
• Strong programming experience in languages such as Kotlin/Java, or similar.
• Ability to design reliable services with high correctness requirements.
• Strong problem-solving and debugging skills.

Responsibilities

• Build and maintain backend systems that power payroll processing pipelines.
• Design and improve services responsible for payroll calculations and processing workflows.
• Ensure payroll data is processed accurately and reliably across the platform.
• Work on systems responsible for generating payslips and payroll reporting outputs.
• Improve reliability, performance, and maintainability of payroll backend services.
• Collaborate with product managers and engineers across payroll teams.
• Contribute to technical decisions and architectural improvements within the payroll domain.

Skills

Backend system development

Distributed systems

Kotlin/Java programming

Problem-solving

Collaborative work

Problem-solving

Job description

Personio's intelligent HR platform helps small and medium-sized organizations unlock the power of people by making complicated, time-consuming tasks simple and efficient. Our team of 1,500 Personios is building user-friendly products that delight our 15,000+ customers and their 1.5 million employees. Ready to make an impact from day one?

Senior Backend Engineer (L5)

Payroll Foundations Team

Location: Munich (preferred) or London

The Role

At Personio, we’re on a mission to help millions of people have a better work life. Our People Operating System empowers organisations across Europe to manage HR, payroll, and employee experience in one place.

As a Senior Backend Engineer, you will join the Payroll Foundations team, the group responsible for the core systems that power Personio Payroll. These systems ensure employees are paid accurately, payroll processes run reliably, and critical payroll outputs such as payslips and reporting documents are generated at the right time.

You will work on the backend infrastructure that sits at the heart of payroll processing, solving complex problems around correctness, reliability, and performance at scale.

This role offers the opportunity to work on high-impact systems where quality, accuracy, and engineering excellence directly affect thousands of employees being paid correctly every month.

What You’ll Do

• Build and maintain backend systems that power payroll processing pipelines
• Design and improve services responsible for payroll calculations and processing workflows
• Ensure payroll data is processed accurately and reliably across the platform
• Work on systems responsible for generating payslips and payroll reporting outputs
• Improve reliability, performance, and maintainability of payroll backend services
• Collaborate with product managers and engineers across payroll teams
• Contribute to technical decisions and architectural improvements within the payroll domain

What We’re Looking For

• Strong experience building backend systems in production environments
• Experience working with distributed systems or large-scale backend services
• Strong programming experience in languages such as Kotlin/Java, or similar
• Experience designing reliable services with high correctness requirements
• Ability to work in a collaborative engineering environment
• Strong problem-solving and debugging skills

Nice to have:

• Experience in fintech, payroll, or other regulated domains
• Familiarity with systems where accuracy and compliance are critical

Why Personio

Personio is an equal opportunities employer, committed to building an inclusive and values-driven culture.

This role requires 2 days per week in office. The remaining days can be worked from home, plus 20 Flex Days per year to work remotely from other locations.

Benefits

• Competitive salary, benefits, and pre-IPO equity
• 28 days paid holiday, plus extra days after 2 and 4 years
• One fully paid Impact Day per year
• Family leave, mental health support, and sabbatical options
• Regular team events, office snacks, drinks, and weekly catered lunches