Job Description

📋 Job title: Backend Engineer

👥 Team: Product

📍 Location: Hybrid work model from Madrid, Spain

🚀 ABOUT US

In 10 years, all companies will operate a non-financial system As we see it, it’s either Dcycle or bust

Sustainability should not be a cosmetic exercise. 🍃 Dcycle is the startup born to make that happen.

Amidst the regulatory, financial, and technical maze that has attempted to equate sustainability with Non-Financial Statements, the industry has made access to information more complex. When faced with a black box, the keyholder becomes indispensable. In this context, the only way to elevate sustainability to the level it deserves is by adding transparency and eliminating all the bullshit

At Dcycle, we are determined to fulfill a mission: giving companies control over sustainability

And we are building an amazing team to make it happen.

💡 What You’ll Do

As a Backend Engineer, you will:

• Design and implement scalable, secure, and maintainable backend services with high-quality code.

• Build robust solutions using Python (2-4 years of experience), with a strong focus on best practices and clean architecture

• Develop microservice solutions using RESTful APIs and event-driven systems (e.g., gRPC, Kafka, SQS), ensuring alignment with product requirements and technical excellence.

• Contribute to CI/CD pipelines (GitHub Actions, AWS CodePipeline) to guarantee reliable deployments and efficient development workflows.

• Work with AWS cloud-native infrastructure, leveraging services like EC2, ECS, Lambda, RDS, DynamoDB to deliver scalable products.

• Apply infrastructure-as-code principles using CloudFormation and CDK to maintain consistency and security across environments.

• Implement system design patterns, including domain-driven design, CQRS, and event sourcing, where they create clear value.

• Collaborate cross-functionally with DevOps, Data, Design, and frontend teams to deliver high-impact features and improvements.

• Use AI and Claude as daily work tools for debugging, documentation, preparing new features, understanding legacy code, exploring solutions, etc. We’re looking for someone who sees this as a competitive advantage, not a threat.

• Drive technical excellence, performance, and reliability in everything you build, contributing to a culture of continuous improvement

• Support and learn from team members while taking full ownership of your deliverables.

🤖 How We Work with AI

At Dcycle, Claude and other AI tools are already an integral part of our workflow This isn’t the future—it’s the present:

• We use Claude for real-time debugging, identifying issues faster and understanding complex system behaviors.

• We document with AI we generate and maintain up-to-date technical documentation, reducing friction.

• We prepare new features we explore architectures, discuss trade-offs, and prototype faster.

• We understand code onboarding to new parts of the codebase, refactoring, and impact analysis are accelerated with AI as a copilot.

We’re looking for profiles who:

• Have genuine curiosity about how AI can amplify their work, not replace it.

• Want to go deeper with these tools, experiment, and share learnings with the team.

• Combine classic technical rigor (testing, architecture, fundamentals) with openness to new ways of doing things

You don’t need to be an AI expert, but you do need the desire to actively incorporate it into your toolkit and evolve with it.

🌐 Tech Stack & Responsibilities

Core Backend & DevOps

• Python (intermediate-advanced level)

• REST/gRPC APIs & messaging queues

• Testing frameworks (pytest, unittest) with TDD/BDD methodologies

• CI/CD with GitHub Actions, CodePipeline, containerization via Docker, ECS, Fargate, EKS

• Debugging and performance optimization in staging and production

• AWS Cloud Architecture EC2, ECS, Lambda, API Gateway, Route 53, ELB

• Databases PostgreSQL, RDS, DynamoDB, Aurora

• Event-driven design using SQS, SNS, Step Functions, EventBridge

• Infrastructure as Code CDK, CloudFormation

• Security IAM, KMS, encryption, least privilege, secret management

• Monitoring & Compliance CloudWatch, X-Ray, AWS Config, ISO 27001 understanding

Software Architecture & System Design

• Highly available, distributed system design

• Domain-driven design, service boundaries

• Trade-off analysis and cost-aware architectural decisions

Data & API Strategy

• SQL/NoSQL schema design, indexing, migrations ( Alembic)

• API lifecycle versioning, rate limiting, observability

• Idempotency, consistency, and secure access patterns

Ownership & Collaboration

• End-to-end ownership of backend projects

• Participate in technical reviews and knowledge sharing

• Promote engineering best practices and documentation

⭐ Who You Are

• Strong problem-solver with a total ownership mentality

• Autonomous, curious, and impact-driven you don’t wait to be told what to do—you identify problems and propose solutions

• You have 2-4 years of backend experience, but act with the autonomy of someone with more mileage

• Solid communication skills, written and verbal

• Passionate about clean, testable, and scalable code

• Curious about AI and new tools you see Claude and similar tools as productivity multipliers

• You want to learn and experiment with modern approaches to product development

• Collaborative and proactive with a great sense of humor

What we’re NOT looking for:

• Profiles who think “this is how it’s always been done”

• People who see AI as a threat or distraction

• Engineers who just want to execute tickets without questioning or proposing

What we ARE looking for:

• Structured and technically solid mindset, but open to new ways of working

• Someone who combines classic fundamentals with modern product thinking

• Brutal agency ability to make decisions, unblock problems, and move fast without sacrificing quality

💸 What We Offer

• 23 vacation days

• 7 days of team-building per year

• Cobee card for added flexibility

• Subsidized training for continuous development

• Competitive gross annual salary depending on experience

• Based in Madrid, Spain

• 3 onsite + 2 remote days as a base

  • +1 remote day for moms and dads with 0–6 yo children

  • +1 remote day if commuting takes longer than 1h (Google Maps base)

• 1-1s will be mandatory onsite

• General All Hands will be mandatory onsite

• Full remote (optional) from the end of the summer team building up to the warm-up week

• Full remote (optional) from Dec 23rd to Jan 6th (both included)

HOW WILL YOU DO IT?

At Dcycle, we take inspiration from models like La Masía at FC Barcelona, one of the most prestigious and recognized football academies in the world. La Masía is much more than just a training facility; it is a true talent factory that has shaped some of the greatest legends in football.

Its success lies in a holistic approach that combines a clear playing philosophy, an innovative methodology, and a long-term commitment to the technical, tactical, and personal development of its players.

At Dcycle, we embrace a long-term vision and a comprehensive development philosophy. We are not just looking for immediate results, but for people with the potential and determination to make a difference. We prioritize professionals who share our mission: giving companies control over sustainability

We don’t just evaluate technical skills or past achievements; we focus on individuals with curiosity, critical thinking, and a commitment to continuous learning. We want people who don’t just complete their tasks but challenge ideas, bring new perspectives, and drive change.

The people who belong in Dcycle are:

• We believe in agency. Agency is significantly more powerful and significantly more scarce than intelligence.

• We fix what’s broken → with ownership, autonomy, and responsibility

• We take humor seriously → spending time together is a pleasure.

• Intelligent → we learn quickly, are versatile, and technically brilliant at something.

The people who belong in Dcycle act:

• With confidence → whether acting autonomously or seeking opinions and getting involved; we value feedback as the only way to grow.

• Guided by metrics → we rely on key metrics to evaluate our efforts.

• Close to the customer → we maintain constant, iterative conversations with our customers and prospects to learn from our experiments (both about the problems and the solutions we create).

• By taking risks → we understand that failure is the price of learning.