Backend Engineer – Core Systems

About the role

This role focuses on the foundational banking systems at N26, impacting millions of users. The core team is currently revamping these systems, offering a chance to influence key decisions across the company. Engineers will delve into complex banking domains like payments and ledgers, applying this knowledge to refine system development. The work involves deep problem-solving and direct impact on the company's operations.

The technical environment relies heavily on Kotlin with Spring Boot, deployed on Kubernetes, and uses Kafka for communication, Postgres for databases, all running on AWS. The team emphasizes agentic coding, expecting engineers to leverage tools while maintaining full ownership and critical review of the output. This approach encourages a high degree of autonomy, balanced with close collaboration and knowledge sharing.

Success in this position means taking full ownership of features, from conception to deployment, for systems that manage real money. It requires a commitment to understanding the intricate details of the banking domain to improve what is built. The ideal candidate will drive their own priorities within a cross-functional team, proactively address challenges, and consistently deliver incremental improvements, sharing insights with peers.

The annual salary for this position ranges from $65,000 to $95,000 USD.

Skills that matter here

• Kotlin: The primary language for developing services within the core banking systems.
• Spring Boot: Used as the framework for building services in conjunction with Kotlin.
• Kubernetes: The platform used for deploying and managing services.
• Kafka: Utilized for inter-service communication within the system architecture.
• Postgres: The preferred relational database for backing services.
• AWS: The cloud environment where all systems and services are hosted.

Who this role suits

• A person who enjoys deep technical challenges within a complex domain like banking.
• Someone who thrives with a high degree of autonomy and takes full ownership of their work, from development to deployment.
• An engineer who questions tool outputs, reviews code thoroughly, and is comfortable with agentic coding practices.
• A proactive individual who identifies problems early and proposes solutions, rather than working around issues.

From the employer

• Own features end to end on systems that move real money for millions of customers
• Go deep on the banking domain - payments, ledgers, and the rules beneath them - and use that understanding to question and sharpen what we build
• Drive your own priorities within a cross-functional team, and unblock yourself when you hit a wall
• Raise problems early with a proposed solution, instead of working around them
• Ship incremental improvements and share your findings - including at our Get Stuff Done Days (GSDD)

• Solid grasp of microservice architecture
• Comfortable with relational databases, Postgres preferred
• Experience operating in a modern cloud environment, ideally AWS and Kubernetes
• Full professional proficiency in English
• Nice to have:
• Event-driven systems with Kafka
• Payments, ledgers, or other banking/fintech domain experience

• Accelerate your career growth by joining one of Europe’s most talked about disruptors 🚀.
• Employee benefits that range from a competitive personal development budget, work from home budget, discounts to fitness & wellness memberships, language apps and public transportation.
• As an N26 employee you will have access to a Premium subscription on your personal N26 bank account. As well as subscriptions for friends and family members.
• Additional day of annual leave for each year of service.
• A high degree of autonomy and access to cutting edge technologies - all while working with a friendly team of peers of diverse nationalities, experiences, and backgrounds.
• A relocation package with visa support for those who need it.