About Valeria
Valeria is building the future of HR and payroll in Spain. We are rethinking how companies with high employee turnover (hospitality, delivery, events, agriculture) manage their workforce. Our AI-powered platform automates contracts, payroll, and compliance with Spanish labor regulations, making life easier for both companies and employees.
We are a fast-growing startup backed by top investors, on a mission to disrupt a €5B+ industry that is still largely manual and outdated.
Your Role
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.
What You'Ll Do
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/TypeScript 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
What We're Looking For
Required:
5+ years of professional software engineering experience building scalable production systems
Strong backend engineering skills with modern languages and frameworks—Python, Go, Node.js/TypeScript, 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
Highly Valued:
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 FinTech, 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, TypeScript, 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 traditionally manual workflows.
Our Stack
Core Technologies:
Backend: Python (Flask), clean architecture without heavy frameworks
AI/ML: LLM integrations, document processing… ???
Database: PostgreSQL
Cloud \& Infrastructure: Azure
Frontend: React, TypeScript, Next.js
DevOps \& CI/CD: GitHub Actions, Azure Monitor, Application Insights
Integration Layer: RESTful APIs, async job processing, webhooks
Our technical philosophy:
We've built our infrastructure on Azure as our cloud platform, leveraging its enterprise-grade services for reliability and scalability. We've chosen Python with Flask as our backend foundation because it gives us flexibility and control without the overhead of monolithic frameworks. We prioritize clean, testable code over framework magic. We use modern Python practices—type hints, async patterns where needed, comprehensive testing.
As an AI-native product, we're building intelligence into every layer: automating contract generation, extracting data from documents, predicting compliance issues, and optimizing workflows. If you're excited about applying AI to solve real-world business problems (not just building AI for AI's sake), you'll love working here.
We're looking for engineers who are fluent in modern backend development (regardless of your current primary language) and excited to work with Python in a cutting-edge, production-grade environment. If you've built scalable systems in Node.js, Java… or other modern stacks, you'll find our architecture familiar and our codebase approachable.
What We Offer
Competitive compensation: €60,000 - €70,000 base salary + equity package
Early-stage impact: Join at a stage where your decisions shape the product and company culture
Hybrid/Remote flexibility: Our HQ is in Barcelona, hybrid setup with flexible remote options
Free lunch when you come to the office (by Nora)
Modern engineering culture: We care about clean code, good architecture, and avoiding tech debt
Ownership and autonomy: Small team where your voice matters, direct collaboration with founders
Mission-driven work: Transform how HR and payroll are done in Spain—solve real problems for real businesses
AI at the core: Work on cutting-edge AI applications in a production environment with real users
Why Join Valeria Now?
Timing: We're past the "idea stage" with real customers and revenue, but early enough that you'll have massive impact on product and architecture
Problem space: Payroll and compliance are unsexy but critical—every company needs this, and current solutions are terrible
Technical challenges: Complex domain logic, high-stakes correctness requirements, integrations with legacy government systems, AI applications in document processing and workflow automation
AI opportunity: Build an AI-native product from the ground up, not retrofitting AI into legacy systems
Growth potential: €5B+ market in Spain alone, with expansion opportunities across Europe