Senior Software Engineer

About Valeria

Valeria is building the future of HR and payroll in Spain. We're an AI-native platform that automates contracts, payroll, and compliance for companies with high employee turnover (hospitality, delivery, events, agriculture). We're rethinking how an entire industry works—moving from manual, error‑prone processes to intelligent automation. We're a fast‑growing startup backed by top investors, disrupting a €5B+ industry that is still stuck in spreadsheets and legacy software.

You'll be a core member of our product engineering team, designing and building the infrastructure that powers Valeria. From architecting scalable APIs to integrating with Spanish government systems and building AI‑powered features, your work will directly impact how thousands of employees get hired, paid, and managed.

• Design and build scalable backend services using Python (Flask), with clean architecture patterns and modern Python practices
• Architect cloud‑native solutions on Azure with focus on reliability, performance, and cost‑efficiency
• Build and integrate AI capabilities into the product: document processing, contract generation, compliance automation, and intelligent workflow optimization
• Develop complex integrations with external systems:
  Spanish Social Security (Seguridad Social), SEPE, payroll providers, e‑signature APIs—handling real‑world edge cases and compliance requirements
• Implement event‑driven architectures and async processing for high‑volume operations (batch payroll for thousands of employees)
• Optimize database performance: design PostgreSQL schemas, write efficient queries, implement caching strategies with Redis
• Contribute to frontend when needed (React/Type Script stack)—we value full‑stack mindset
• Establish engineering best practices: CI/CD pipelines, comprehensive testing (pytest, integration tests), code reviews, monitoring and observability
• Own features end‑to‑end: from technical design and architecture discussions to deployment, monitoring, and iteration based on customer feedback

Mentor engineers and shape technical decisions as we scale the team.

• 5+ years of professional software engineering experience building scalable production systems
• Strong backend engineering skills with modern languages and frameworks—Python, Go, Node.js/Type Script, Java, Rust, or similar
• Deep understanding of API design (RESTful principles, versioning, authentication)
• Solid database experience:
  PostgreSQL or similar relational databases, query optimization, schema design
• Cloud infrastructure knowledge:
  Azure preferred (or AWS/GCP with willingness to learn Azure)—experience with containerization (Docker), orchestration, and IaC
• Experience with async/concurrent programming and distributed systems concepts
• Startup mindset: comfortable with ambiguity, high autonomy, and fast iteration cycles
• Strong communication skills and ability to collaborate across product, design, and business teams

• Experience with Python in production (Flask or similar lightweight frameworks)—if you haven't used Python recently but have strong backend fundamentals, we'll get you up to speed quickly
• Azure cloud experience:
  App Service, Azure Functions, Azure SQL, Blob Storage, Service Bus, or other Azure services
• AI/ML integration experience: working with LLMs, embeddings, RAG systems, or AI APIs in production environments
• Background in Fin Tech, HR‑tech, or regulated industries (compliance‑heavy products, government integrations)
• Event‑driven architectures: message queues (Azure Service Bus, SQS, RabbitMQ), streaming, pub/sub patterns
• Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, Bicep, Pulumi)
• Frontend skills (React, Type Script, Next.js) for full‑stack contributions

What makes you a great fit:
You're the kind of engineer who cares deeply about code quality, system design, and user impact. You've seen codebases scale (and sometimes struggle to scale). You understand the tradeoffs between speed and perfection in a startup context. You're pragmatic but principled. You're excited to work in a domain where correctness matters—getting payroll wrong affects real people's lives. Bonus points if you're curious about how AI can transform…