Lead Software Engineer, Payroll

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 growing team of 1,800+ Personios across Europe and the US are building user-friendly products that delight our 14,000+ customers and their 1.5 million employees. Ready to make an impact from day one?

About Personio

At Personio, we’re on a mission to transform HR and payroll technology, making it seamless and scalable for businesses across Europe. As one of the fastest-growing tech companies, we’re building an all-in-one HR and payroll platform that empowers organizations to put their people first.

The Role: Lead Backend Engineer – Payroll Team

We’re looking for a Lead Backend Engineer to join our Payroll Team, the role will be based in Munich or Madrid. Our team is focused on simplifying and improving the payroll customer onboarding and implementation experience, ensuring our customers have a seamless transition to Personio’s payroll services.

About the Payroll Team

Our team is dedicated to automate and simplify the complexities of the payroll implementation process to provide our customers with great UX and accelerate their time to value. Our long-term goal is to create better in-app tools and knowledge resources for our customers, streamlining their payroll experience. As part of this team, you will:

Work on automating payroll onboarding to improve the customer experience.

Build tools to enhance payroll implementation efficiency.

Contribute to a data-intensive environment where accuracy, scalability, and performance are crucial.

Collaborate across backend and frontend technologies, ensuring seamless integration.

What You\’ll Do:

Develop High-Impact Solutions – Design and build scalable, efficient backend systems for payroll onboarding and automation.

Hands-On Development – Write clean, maintainable, and performant code using Kotlin, Java, or Scala.

Improve User Experience – Work on intuitive in-app tools to simplify payroll workflows.

Cross-Team Collaboration – Partner with product managers, frontend engineers, and other teams to align on priorities and deliver end-to-end solutions.

Enhance System Performance – Optimize database queries, improve response times, and scale backend services efficiently.

Full-Stack Contributions – While this is a backend-heavy role, the ability to contribute to frontend work is a plus.

What We’re Looking For:

5+ years of backend engineering experience, preferably in JVM-based languages (Kotlin, Java, or Scala preferred).

Strong understanding of backend architecture, distributed systems, and API design.

Experience working with data-intensive applications and optimizing performance.

Ability to work across backend and frontend technologies, demonstrating full-stack capabilities.

Strong problem-solving skills and a “maker” mentality, with a drive to build impactful solutions.

Why Join Personio?

Competitive compensation package including salary, benefits, and pre-IPO equity.

28 days of paid vacation (+ extra days after 2 and 4 years).

2 fully paid Impact Days per year for social initiatives.

Generous parental leave, mental health support, and sabbatical opportunities.

Engaging team culture with regular events and company-wide initiatives.

Interview Process:

HR Call with Stephen to assess team fit (30 mins)

Hiring Manager screen with Engineering Leader (45 min)

Live coding (60 mins)

System Design (60 mins)

Culture Interview with cross-functional team members. (30 mins)

Department Interview with department lead (30 mins)

Ready to make an impact? Join us in shaping the future of HR tech!

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