Senior Backend Engineer (Hybrid set up)
Swiss Re · Madrid, Spain · 1d ago
Are you a versatile, curious engineer who thinks in solutions rather than stacks? At Swiss Re, we build technology with real purpose and we are looking for a Senior Backend Engineer to help shape the next stage of our engineering journey.
About the Role
Within our IT Resilience unit, we develop the platforms, integrations and capabilities that help Swiss Re understand and manage its complex technology landscape. This is a hands-on senior role with genuine scope to influence how we engineer solutions. You will work across backend services, integrations and automation, strengthen engineering resilience across the team, mentor less experienced engineers and help us build new capabilities through AI Agents and intelligent automation.
We are not looking for someone defined by a single language or stack. We are looking for an experienced, curious engineer who brings strong fundamentals, fresh technical thinking, and the versatility to work across different technologies. Someone excited by the opportunity to help build our AI competency, comfortable learning new approaches and energised by turning complex problems into pragmatic, scalable solutions.
Key Responsibilities
- Design and develop reliable backend services, APIs, integrations, and automation, selecting technologies based on the problem and desired outcome
- Work across different languages, platforms, and technologies, applying strong engineering principles rather than being constrained to a particular stack
- Strengthen engineering resilience and contingency across our technology landscape, with the versatility to contribute to backend services and data integration or transformation workloads when required
- Help shape and build AI Agent and intelligent automation capabilities, identifying meaningful opportunities and helping promising ideas progress from experimentation into practical solutions
- Work with enterprise data and databases to support integration, transformation, automation and application requirements
- Provide strong technical and design input, working alongside our Solutions Architect and engineering colleagues to translate complex business and IT resilience challenges into pragmatic, scalable, and maintainable solutions
- Build and operate software using modern engineering practices, including automated testing, CI/CD, containerisation, observability and cloud deployment
- Mentor junior engineers and help raise engineering standards, providing constructive technical challenge and guidance on design, code quality, testing and problem solving
- Share knowledge and contribute to reusable engineering patterns, standards and practices across the team
About the Team
You will be joining the Service Asset & Configuration Management (SACM) team, part of Swiss Re's IT Resilience unit. The team builds and operates capabilities that provide trusted information about Swiss Re's technology assets, applications and their relationships, supporting technology management, operational resilience, and informed decision-making across the organisation. The broader team also encompasses Application Portfolio Management, tracking key application attributes and lifecycles which together ensure Swiss Re maintains a clear, accurate and actionable view of its technology estate. It is a collaborative, curious team that values strong engineering, continuous learning, and the opportunity to make a real impact.
About You
You are an experienced engineer who thinks like an engineer first — choosing technologies based on the problem rather than personal preference. You bring fresh technical thinking, take ownership of challenges from idea through to working solution, and have the judgement to balance innovation with reliability, security, and operational resilience. You enjoy mentoring others, sharing knowledge and helping teams become stronger together.
We are looking for candidates who meet these requirements:
- 6+ years of professional software engineering experience, with the ability to operate confidently at Senior Engineer level, including a strong foundation in backend software engineering covering APIs, integrations and service-based or distributed architectures
- Professional development experience with Python and Go, with sufficient engineering depth to contribute effectively to solutions using either language, and a demonstrated ability to learn and become productive with unfamiliar technologies or stacks
- Good working knowledge of SQL and relational databases, including data models, queries and transformations, along with experience contributing to data integration, transformation, or ETL-style workloads as part of broader software solutions
- Experience with cloud platforms such as Azure, AWS or GCP, combined with a solid understanding of modern software engineering practices including automated testing, CI/CD, source control, and production support
- Strong system and solution design skills, with the ability to understand ambiguous problems, evaluate options and shape appropriate technical solutions, alongside strong communication skills and experience mentoring less experienced engineers
- Demonstrated curiosity and learning agility around emerging technologies, with an interest in developing practical AI and intelligent automation capabilities.
These are additional nice to haves:
- Docker, Kubernetes or similar container platforms
- Experience with data pipelines, integrations or data processing at scale
- Monitoring and observability platforms such as Datadog, Grafana or Prometheus
- Frontend or server-side JavaScript technologies such as Angular, React or Node.js
- Experience working within complex enterprise technology environments
- Practical experimentation with generative AI, LLMs or AI-enabled applications
- Exposure to AI Agents, tool integration, Model Context Protocol (MCP), RAG, embeddings or vector search
- Experience identifying opportunities for automation and taking them from idea through to implementation
For Spain the base salary range for this position is between EUR 60,000 and EUR 100,000 (for a full-time role). The specific salary offered considers:
- the requirements, scope, complexity and responsibilities of the role,
- the applicant’s own profile including education/qualifications, expertise, specialisation, skills and experience.
In the situation where you do not meet all the requirements or you significantly exceed these, the offered salary may be below or above the advertised range.
In addition to your base salary, you may be eligible for additional rewards and benefits including an attractive performance-based bonus.
About Swiss Re
Swiss Re is one of the world’s leading providers of reinsurance, insurance and other forms of insurance-based risk transfer, working to make the world more resilient. We anticipate and manage a wide variety of risks, from natural catastrophes and climate change to cybercrime. Combining experience with creative thinking and cutting-edge expertise, we create new opportunities and solutions for our clients. This is possible thanks to the collaboration of more than 14,000 employees across the world.
Our success depends on our ability to build an inclusive culture encouraging fresh perspectives and innovative thinking. We embrace a workplace where everyone has equal opportunities to thrive and develop professionally regardless of their age, gender, race, ethnicity, gender identity and/or expression, sexual orientation, physical or mental ability, skillset, thought or other characteristics. In our inclusive and flexible environment everyone can bring their authentic selves to work and their passion for sustainability.
If you are an experienced professional returning to the workforce after a career break, we encourage you to apply for open positions that match your skills and experience.
Reference Code: 139593