Backend Engineer

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 No more outdated processes, clunky spreadsheets, or frustrating delays we believe spend management should be seamless, empowering, and surprisingly effective for finance teams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

Were looking for a Backend Engineer to join our team at Pleo. In this role, youll help build and scale our backend systems and be part of exciting projects as we continue to grow our product and service offerings. If youre passionate about solving complex technical challenges 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:

• Lead initiatives to design, build, and maintain scalable microservices primarily using Kotlin.
• Collaborate with crossfunctional teams to develop innovative solutions across Platform, Services, SMB, and other domains.
• Analyze system performance and implement optimizations to ensure high reliability and scalability.
• Participate in code reviews, postmortems, and provide mentorship to other engineers.
• Proactively address technical debt and guide the team through technical challenges and migrations.

• What you bring
  

  Youll thrive in this role if you have:

  • Expertise in serverside languages, especially Kotlin, and experience with 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.
  • Strong problemsolving skills and a collaborative mindset to mentor and upskill your teammates.
  • A proven ability to lead large projects, manage ambiguity, and maintain high standards for code quality and reliability.
  • A passion for innovation and driving impactful solutions within a fastpaced scaleup environment.
    
    

  • Who you’ll be working with and reporting to

    You’ll report to our Engineering Manager and work closely with crossfunctional product teams, including Credit , Platform, Partnerships, SMB and more. Our collaborative team is dedicated to building worldclass solutions, and you’ll have the opportunity to partner with other departments to drive success. While the specific team youll be working with will be decided later, our hiring process remains streamlined and consistent across all roles. This allows us to evaluate your skills and potential, ensuring a great fit for the team you eventually join. No matter which domain you land in, you will be part of a dynamic, collaborative environment where youll tackle complex challenges, build reusable components, and contribute to shaping the future of our product.

    
    How you’ll develop in this role

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

    • Lead 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 while mentoring other engineers. 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, or expanding your technical expertise.

    • Salary Range

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

      • United Kingdom: £68,000 £72,000
      • SpainPortugal: €72,000 €76,000

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

        Check out our Engineering Hiring Blog Post to get an indepth overview of our hiring process and what to expect. Enjoy the reading!

        Show me the benefits!

        • Your own Pleo card (no more outofpocket 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
        • We offer 25 days of holiday + your public holidays
        • For our Team, we offer both 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 wellbeing support with great success so far ❤️‍🩹
        • Access to LinkedIn Learning acquire new skills, stay abreast of industry trends and fuel your personal and professional development continuously
        • Paid parental leave we want to make sure that were supportive of families and help you feel that you dont have to compromise your family due to work 👶

        • #LID

          #LIDN
          Why join us?
          
          Working at Pleo means youre working on something very exciting: the future of work. Our mission is to help every company go beyond the books. Pleo itself means ‘more than you’d expect’, and it’s been the secret to our success over the last 8 years. So it’s only fitting that we’d pass this philosophy onto our customers to help them make the most of their finances.
          
          We think company spending should be delegated to all employees and teams, that it should be as automated as possible, and that it should drive a culture of responsible spending. Finance teams shouldn’t be siloed from the rest of the organisation – they should work in unity with marketing, sales, IT and everyone else.
          
          Speaking of working in unity, our values tell the story of how we work at Pleo. We have four core values, the first of which is ‘champion the customer’, which means we address real pain points that businesses face. Next up is ‘succeed as a team’, which highlights how our strength lies in our diversity and trust in each other. We also ‘make it happen’ by taking bold decisions and following through to deliver results. Last but not least, we ‘build to scale’, creating lasting solutions that address today’s challenges and anticipate tomorrow’s needs.
          
          So, in a nutshell, thats Pleo. Today we are a 850+ team, from over 100 nations, sitting in our Copenhagen HQ, London, Stockholm, Berlin, Madrid, Montreal and Lisbon offices —and quite a few fulltime remotes in 35 other countries! Being HQd out of Copenhagen means were inspired by things like a good worklife balance. If you dont work in the office with us, well help you set up the best remote setup possible and make sure you still have time to connect with your team.
          
          
          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 isnt 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 raceethnicity, colour, religion, nationality, gender, sex, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disability, neurodiversity, socioeconomic 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.