Staff Engineer, Payroll Foundations (d/f/m) (Java, Kotlin)

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 team of 1,500 Personios is building user-friendly products that delight our 15,000+ customers and their 1.5 million employees. Ready to make an impact from day one?

Staff Engineer, Payroll Foundations (d/f/m)

Product & Tech | Full Time | Munich or London

The Role

This role requires 2 days per week in the office and is based in Munich or London. At Personio, we're on a mission to help millions of people have a better work life. Our People Operating System empowers organisations across Europe to manage HR, payroll, and employee experience in one place.

As a Staff Engineer, you will set the technical direction for the Payroll Foundations team, the group responsible for the core systems that power Personio Payroll. These systems ensure employees are paid accurately, payroll processes run reliably, and critical outputs such as payslips and reporting documents are generated at the right time. This is a hands-on technical leadership role for an engineer who can anchor complex, long-running initiatives across the payroll backend, solve the hardest problems around correctness, reliability, and performance at scale, and raise the bar for everyone around them. Your decisions will directly affect thousands of employees being paid correctly every month.

What You'll Do

• Set technical direction: Define the architecture and patterns for the backend systems that power payroll processing pipelines, calculations, and workflows, setting standards that other teams adopt.

• Solve the hardest problems simply: Find the simplest robust solution to complex challenges around correctness, reliability, and performance, writing meaningful amounts of production code yourself where it matters most.

• Drive complex initiatives end to end: Lead long-running technical efforts that span team boundaries within the payroll domain, taking accountability for delivery and quality the whole way through.

• Keep money-critical systems trustworthy: Ensure payroll data is processed accurately and reliably across the platform, and that payslips and reporting outputs are generated dependably, treating correctness as the bar rather than a feature.

• Raise operational excellence: Set the standard for the reliability, performance, and maintainability of payroll backend services, keeping critical workloads dependable at scale.

• Collaborate across boundaries: Partner with product managers and engineers across payroll teams to deliver coherent, well-integrated systems rather than disconnected parts.

• Coach and elevate engineers: Mentor senior engineers through design feedback, pairing on hard problems, and the example you set, raising the technical bar across the domain.

What You Need to Succeed

• Backend and distributed systems expertise: A strong track record architecting and delivering complex backend systems in production, ideally at large scale.

• Correctness-critical experience: Demonstrated experience designing reliable services with high correctness requirements, where accuracy is non-negotiable.

• Strong programming foundations: Deep experience in languages such as Kotlin, Java, or similar.

• Architectural judgement with a bias for simplicity: Strong instincts for choosing the most reliable and efficient solution rather than the most elaborate one.

• Hands-on delivery: Comfort staying close to the code and contributing significant production work while also setting direction for others.

• Cross-team technical leadership: Demonstrated ability to anchor long-running initiatives spanning multiple teams, from direction-setting through to a shipped, dependable result.

• Coaching and influence: A history of raising standards and supporting the growth of the engineers around you.

• AI Fluency: You have hands-on experience using AI to improve your workflow, and the sound judgment to know exactly when to rely on it and when to step in yourself.

Nice to have:

• Regulated-domain experience: Background in fintech, payroll, or other regulated, financially sensitive domains.

• Compliance-critical systems: Familiarity with systems where accuracy and compliance are critical.

Why Personio

Personio is an equal opportunities employer, committed to building an integrative culture where everyone feels welcomed and supported. We embrace uniqueness and understand that our diverse, values-driven culture makes us stronger.

At Personio, we value in-person collaboration while also offering flexibility. This role is office-based, with 2 days per week required in your contracted office location. The remaining days can be worked from home or in the office if you prefer, plus 20 Flex Days per year to work remotely from other locations.

In addition, you'll benefit from:

• A competitive reward package including salary, benefits, and pre-IPO equity

• 28 days of paid vacation, plus additional days after 2 and 4 years

• One fully paid Impact Day per year

• Generous family leave, mental health support, and sabbatical opportunities

• Regular team events, healthy office snacks, drinks, and weekly catered lunches