Descripción
We’re looking for a hands‑on Technical Architect to join our Sage HR organisation in Barcelona and play a key role in shaping the technical direction of one of Sage’s most strategic growth products. Sage HR sits at the centre of our HR and payroll ecosystem, already supporting over 4 million employees globally and continuing to scale rapidly as we invest in its future.
This role is deeply embedded with our engineering teams — working alongside product managers, engineers, and technical leaders to define architectural direction, establish patterns, and guide teams. You’ll act as a technical authority, coach, and consultant: setting direction where needed, rolling up your sleeves to solve complex problems, and helping teams navigate scale, technical debt, and an increasingly service‑ and event‑driven architecture.
This is a hybrid role requiring 3 days per week in our Barcelona office.
Responsabilidades principales
In this role you’ll:
Act as the architectural authority for Sage HR, defining and evolving the technical architecture as the product continues to scale from a high‑growth platform into an enterprise‑grade solution.
Work closely with engineering teams, product managers, and engineering leaders to translate product strategy and commercial priorities into clear architectural direction, patterns, and technical approaches.
Provide hands‑on architectural leadership, staying close to delivery by guiding teams through complex technical decisions, problem‑solving alongside engineers, and shaping solutions as work progresses.
Establish and embed architectural standards, patterns, and best practices (including service‑based and event‑driven architectures) to address scale, integration, and long‑term maintainability.
Coach and mentor engineers, helping raise technical maturity and architectural capability across teams — particularly in a context with varying seniority and a high proportion of contingent labour.
Lead architectural thinking around integrations and platform connectivity, working across HR and payroll products and supporting an increasingly API‑ and event‑driven ecosystem.
Tackle technical debt and legacy challenges, guiding the evolution of existing systems towards more modern, scalable architectures.
Partner closely with other architects and senior technical leaders across Sage to ensure local decisions align with wider organisational standards while remaining pragmatic and delivery‑focused.
Champion modern engineering practices and AI‑assisted development approaches, helping teams adopt and use tools such as GitHub Copilot and similar technologies where appropriate
Skills, Knowledge & Experience (Requirements)
Must Have:
Significant experience working as a Technical Architect or Senior Engineering Leader within product‑led software teams, with a strong focus on architecture that supports real delivery.
Deep hands‑on technical expertise with Ruby on Rails and strong experience designing and operating systems on AWS (experience with Azure transferable).
Proven experience designing and evolving service‑based and/or event‑driven architectures, including APIs and integrations between complex systems.
Strong background in scaling software products, including refactoring existing codebases, evolving monolithic systems, and supporting vertical or horizontal growth.
Excellent problem‑solving skills, with the ability to balance architectural direction and pragmatic delivery.
Experience working closely with engineering teams as a coach and consultant, not just a reviewer — able to guide, challenge, and, when needed, roll up sleeves and contribute directly.
Strong communication skills, with the confidence to defend architectural decisions, influence senior stakeholders, and work collaboratively across disciplines.
Nice to Have
Experience working on HR, payroll, or compliance‑sensitive products (not essential).
Exposure to AI‑assisted development tooling (e.g. GitHub Copilot, Claude Code) and interest in applying AI to improve engineering productivity and quality.
Familiarity with multiple database technologies (PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQL Server) and data‑centric architectural challenges.
Experience working in distributed or hybrid teams and navigating complex organisational environments.
Spanish language skills.
At Sage, we offer you an environment where you can grow professionally without compromising your personal well-being. Our benefits package is designed to provide stability, flexibility, and balance:
Medical and dental insurance: Fully funded medical and dental insurance.
Flexible benefits: Exchange part of your salary and make tax savings on meal and transport vouchers, childcare, and training.
Well-being: Free access to the Calm app (for up to 5 users), 24/7 counselling, and emotional support from our Healthy Mind Coaches. We also offer self-care and parenting resources through the Cleo app.
Flexible working: flexibility of working one hour in, one hour out, shortened workdays on Fridays and during the summer, and the opportunity to work from over 40 countries for up to 10 weeks per year through our Work Away program.
Annual leave: 23 working days of vacation, 5 paid days per year for volunteering.
Extended leave: 7 extra days of maternity leave and 5 extra days of paternity leave, on top of the legal allowance, available after one year of service.
Financial support: Life and disability insurance, salary advances of up to 3.5 times your net monthly pay, a €300 net marriage bonus, and access to Sage's employee stock purchase plan at a discounted rate.
Learning and development: Free premium subscription to external learning platforms
Health and Safety Responsibilities
Fostering the safety culture, by leading with your own example.
Following established safety procedures and reporting potential hazards promptly helps maintain a secure and efficient workplace.
Participating in safety training sessions and adhering to preventive guidelines and procedures, the objective is minimizing risks and protecting yourself and the rest of your colleagues.
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