Senior Software Engineer
A hands-on senior backend engineer role: you design, build and run production data/backend systems end to end for Opplane, which builds data-focused solutions for financial services and reg-tech. Core stack is Python/Java, GCP or AWS, CI/CD, Terraform and LLM engineering, with required 1-2 month stays in San Francisco.
- Compensation
- Not disclosed
- Location
- Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal
- Work setup
- Hybrid
- Seniority
- Senior
- Employment
- Not specified
- Experience
- 8+ years
- Category
- Software engineering
- Posted
Skills
Must have
- 8+ years building and operating backend/data systems
- Strong object-oriented engineering in production systems (clean design, testable code), with Python and Java preferred
- Hands-on cloud experience deploying on GCP or AWS
- Solid data and infrastructure fundamentals: relational databases, message queuing, containerisation, batch data pipelines in production
- CI/CD implementation experience, ideally with GitLab CI/CD
- Hands-on LLM engineering: shipped LLM-in-the-loop systems and can discuss evaluation, cost control, tool/prompt design and failure modes
- Basic infrastructure as code knowledge (Terraform or equivalent); can read, modify and safely apply existing infra code
- Operational maturity: observability, incident handling, security fundamentals in regulated or client-facing environments
- Independent ownership: break down loosely defined problems, estimate and deliver to production without step-by-step direction
- Availability to travel to San Francisco for stays of one to two months, returning as needed
Nice to have
- Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers, LiteLLM/Langfuse, LangGraph or similar agent frameworks
- AI-assisted development workflows (Claude Code, AI code review) as part of daily practice
- Infrastructure as code (Terraform or equivalent)
- Financial-services or payments domain exposure
- Experience mentoring or pairing with junior engineers
- Start-up / scale-up experience
Full description
The role
This is a hands-on senior engineering role. Most of your time goes into designing, building and running production systems. You'll own features and components end to end, from shaping the design to operating it in production, and you'll have the autonomy to make the technical calls within your scope without checking in on every decision. You'll work closely with the Head of Engineering, contribute to the discussions on how things get built, help unblock teammates when they're stuck, and take your share when something is on fire.
What we need from you
- 8+ years building and operating backend/data systems
- Strong object-oriented engineering in production systems: clean design, testable code, sound abstractions, with Python and Java preferred
- Hands-on cloud experience on GCP or AWS: you've deployed and experimented with at least one of them
- Solid data and infrastructure fundamentals: relational databases, message queuing systems, containerisation, and batch data pipelines in production
- CI/CD implementation: you've built and maintained pipelines that test, build and deploy services to production, ideally with GitLab CI/CD
- Hands-on LLM engineering: you've shipped something with an LLM in the loop and can talk about evaluation, cost control, tool/prompt design and failure modes, not just called an API
- Infrastructure as code: basic knowledge of Terraform or an equivalent. You can read, modify and safely apply existing infrastructure code to make the changes your services need
- Operational maturity: observability, incident handling, security fundamentals (auth, network boundaries, secrets) in regulated or client-facing environments
- Independent ownership: you can take a loosely defined problem, break it into well-scoped pieces, estimate it and deliver it to production without step-by-step direction
- Availability to travel to San Francisco for stays of one to two months, returning as needed
Nice to have
- Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers, LiteLLM/Langfuse, LangGraph or similar agent frameworks
- AI-assisted development workflows (Claude Code, AI code review) as part of your daily practice
- Infrastructure as code (Terraform or equivalent)
- Financial-services or payments domain exposure
- Experience mentoring or pairing with junior engineers
- Start-up / scale-up experience