Backend Engineer, Backend Core

Intro

At Pleo, we’re on a mission to revolutionise the way businesses manage company spending. No more outdated processes, clunky spreadsheets, or frustrating delays - we believe spend management should be seamless, empowering, and surprisingly effective for finance teams and employees alike. We’re creating tools that promote autonomy, foster trust, and let businesses focus on what truly matters.

Our culture is built on transparency, collaboration, and a deep commitment to innovation – which is reflected in our spending solution. At Pleo, you’ll join a passionate team shaping the future of work, all while having some fun along the way.

About the role

We're looking for a Backend Engineer to join our Backend Core team at Pleo. The Backend Core team is part of the Backend and Infrastructure Platform group together with the Security, Developer Experience, and SRE teams. As an engineer on the Backend Core team, you will build first-class tooling, libraries, and paved paths to support Pleo's engineering community. You will have the opportunity to help design, develop, and shape how we build scalable, robust, distributed products. You’ll work closely with teams within the group and across product engineering. This presents an excellent opportunity to continue growing in your role and both broaden and deepen your skills.

In this role, you'll help build and scale our backend systems and be part of exciting projects as we continue to grow our product and service offerings. If you're passionate about solving complex technical challenges, developing high-impact solutions, and want to work in a culture that values transparency, collaboration, and a deep commitment to innovation, then this role is for you.

What you’ll be doing

As a Backend Engineer, you will:

• Design and build tooling for scalable systems primarily using Kotlin.
• Break down complexity and work with the team to ensure scalability, maintainability, and testability.
• Ship services and tools that greatly increase developer productivity and application quality.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to develop innovative solutions across Pleo.
• Continue to refine and define our tech stack and implement optimisations to ensure high reliability and scalability.

What you bring

You'll thrive in this role if you have:

• Experience in server-side languages, especially Kotlin, and knowledge of distributed systems, microservices, and cloud environments (e.g., AWS, Kubernetes).
• Proficiency with relational databases like PostgreSQL, testing frameworks (e.g., JUnit, Testcontainers), and observability tools like Grafana.
• A collaborative mindset to problem solve with other engineers and across teams.
• A mindset of maintaining high standards for code quality and reliability.
• A passion for innovation and driving impactful solutions within a fast-paced scale-up environment.

How you’ll develop in this role

In your first six months at Pleo, you’ll:

• Contribute to backend initiatives to improve system performance and scalability. Collaborate with teams to drive innovation in product and infrastructure.
• Grow your expertise in Kotlin and distributed systems.
• Contribute to shaping the future of our product as Pleo scales globally.

We’re committed to supporting your growth, whether through taking on larger projects, stepping into leadership roles, or expanding your technical expertise.

Salary Range

The annual salary for this position varies based on your location:

• United Kingdom: €78,700 -€83,500
• Spain/Portugal: €71,500 - €75,900

We’re happy to share more about our approach to pay and this range during your first call with us!

Engineering Hiring Blog Post

Show me the benefits!

• Your own Pleo card (no more out-of-pocket spending!)
• Lunch is on us for your work days - enjoy catered meals or receive a lunch allowance based on your local office 🍜
• Comprehensive private healthcare - depending on your location, coverage options include Vitality, Alan or Médis
• 25 days of holiday + your public holidays
• We offer hybrid and fully remote working options
• Option to purchase 5 additional days of holiday through a salary sacrifice
• We use MyndUp to give our employees access to free mental health and well-being support with great success so far
• Paid parental leave - we want to make sure that we're supportive of families and help you feel that you don't have to compromise your family due to work 👶

#LI-DNI

About your application

• Please submit your application in English; it’s our company language so you’ll be speaking lots of it if you join 💕
• We treat all candidates equally: If you are interested please apply through our application system - any correspondence should come from there! Our lovely support isn't able to pass on any calls/ emails our way - and this makes sure that the candidate experience is smooth and fair to everyone 😊
• We’re on a mission to make everyone feel valued at work. That’s only achievable if our team reflects the diversity of the world around us - and that starts with you, hitting apply, even if you are worried you might not tick all the boxes! We embrace and encourage people from all backgrounds to apply - regardless of race/ethnicity, colour, religion, nationality, gender, sex, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disability, neurodiversity, socio-economic status, culture or beliefs.

When you submit an application we process your personal data as a data processor. Find out more about how your data is used in the FAQs section at the bottom of our jobs page.