Senior Platform Engineer - Developer Experience (d/f/m)

Devops Academy; Dublin; Hybrid; EUR 110,000 - 140,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive reward package with pre-IR

28 days vacation + anniversary days

Impact Day

Family leave and mental health support

Weekly catered lunch

Job summary

Personio is seeking a Senior Platform Engineer for Developer Experience to shape developer productivity across a large platform ecosystem. You will own platform solutions, govern GRPC/Protobuf, and build GraphQL middleware enabling hundreds of developers to ship faster.

You will collaborate with cross-functional teams, contribute to observability practices, and mentor others while maintaining highly available services and a strong engineering culture.

Qualifications

• Over 5 years of experience in platform engineering or backend development.
• Strong programming skills in Kotlin.
• Deep expertise in GRPC and Protobuf.
• Experience with GraphQL is a strong plus, particularly middleware or gateway layers.
• Demonstrated impact in observability and monitoring practices.
• Data-driven approach using metrics to evaluate performance and adoption.

Responsibilities

• Designing and supporting platform solutions for 300+ developers across 40+ product teams.
• Building and evolving GraphQL middleware layer that connects frontends with backend services.
• Creating internal tools and SDKs to enhance developer productivity and platform adoption.
• Establishing standards for GRPC, Protobuf, and GraphQL across the org.
• Analyzing and optimizing platform systems for scale, performance, and reliability.
• Collaborating with product teams for seamless platform integration.
• Documenting platform capabilities and conducting internal training sessions.
• Collaborating with Foundations to create a coherent developer platform.
• Driving technical excellence by simplifying architecture and reducing debt.

Skills

Kotlin

GRPC

Protobuf

GraphQL

Gradle

Observability

Metrics

Communication

Code reviews

Tools

Gradle

GraphQL middleware

GRPC governance

Protobuf governance

Job description

Senior Platform Engineer - Developer Experience (d/f/m)

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?

The Role

This role requires 2 days per week in the office and is based in Munich or Berlin.

Join us to shape the future of software in the underserved and high-impact HR technology industry. Your work will have a direct and tangible impact on customers, offering ownership and the chance to make a meaningful difference. As we prepare for significant growth, you'll face exciting challenges and have the opportunity to influence our path toward becoming one of the world's leading tech companies.

This role is ideal for a highly collaborative Engineer who thrives in a centralized platform role and is passionate about developer productivity and platform excellence. As a Senior Platform Engineer, you will play a key role in building and evolving platform solutions—from GRPC/Protobuf governance to GraphQL middleware that empower hundreds of developers to ship faster and more reliably.

What You’ll Do

• Designing and supporting platform solutions that empower 300+ developers across 40+ product teams (from GRPC/Protobuf governance to GraphQL middleware)
• Building and evolving our GraphQL middleware layer that connects frontends with backend services
• Creating internal tools and SDKs to enhance developer productivity and platform adoption
• Establishing standards and best practices for GRPC, Protobuf, and GraphQL across the organization
• Analyzing and optimizing platform systems to enhance scale, performance, and developer experience
• Working hand-in-hand with product teams to ensure seamless platform integration
• Documenting platform capabilities and running internal training sessions
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams within Foundations to create a coherent developer platform
• Drive technical excellence by simplifying platform architecture and managing technical debt

What You Need to Succeed

• Over 5 years of experience in platform engineering or backend development, with a track record of building developer-facing tools and platforms
• Strong programming skills in Kotlin – You're an experienced software engineer, and walked in the shoes of product engineers to understand their needs
• Deep expertise in GRPC and Protobuf – You've designed, implemented, and governed these technologies at scale
• Deep Protobuf experience (schema design, evolution strategies, code generation) is a bonus
• Experience with GraphQL is a strong plus, particularly in building middleware or gateway layers
• Strong Gradle experience is a bonus
• Demonstrated impact in establishing observability practices and instrumenting platforms for monitoring and debugging
• You are data-driven and passionate about using metrics to evaluate platform performance and adoption
• Experience working with modern engineering best practices for high-availability platforms, including testing strategies, performance optimization, and reliability considerations
• Strong communication skills, with the ability to build relationships across teams and influence technical decisions at scale
• Comfortable working in a highly collaborative environment, engaging in code reviews, pair programming, and cross-team discussions
• Willingness to be on-call and take ownership of operational responsibilities for platform services

Why Personio?

Personio is an equal opportunities employer, committed to building an integrative culture where everyone feels welcomed and supported. We embrace uniqueness and understand that our diverse, values-driven culture makes us stronger. We are proud to have an inclusive workplace environment that will foster your development no matter your gender, civil status, family status, sexual orientation, religion, age, disability, education level, or race.

At Personio, we value in-person collaboration while also offering flexibility. This role is office-based, with 2 days per week required in your contracted office location. The remaining days can be worked from home or in the office if you prefer. In addition, you’ll have 20 Flex Days per year to work remotely from other locations. Aside from our people, culture, and mission, check out some of the other benefits that make Personio a great place to work:

• Receive a competitive reward package – reevaluated each year – that includes salary, benefits, and pre-IPO equity.
• Enjoy 28 days of paid vacation, plus an additional day after 2 and 4 years.
• Make an impact on the environment and society with 1 (fully paid) Impact Day.
• Receive generous family leave, child support, mental health support (including 24 sessions per year with Oli for yourself and 10 sessions for a significant other), and sabbatical opportunities.
• We enjoy gathering for meals, cultural initiatives, and events like local Summer Sessions and year-end celebrations. There's also healthy snacks, drinks, and a weekly catered lunch.

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