Jobs Companies Proton Senior Backend Engineer (Payments)

About this Senior Backend Engineer (Payments) role at Proton

Proton · Barcelona; London

Join Proton and build a better internet where privacy is the default

Proton was founded in 2014 by scientists from CERN on a simple truth: privacy is a fundamental human right. Since then, we’ve built the world’s largest encrypted email service (Proton Mail) and expanded into Proton VPN, Proton Drive, Proton Pass, and Proton Calendar—tools used by millions globally to protect their freedom, fight censorship, and keep their data safe. In some situations, Proton has literally helped save lives!

We are profitable, independent (no VC control), and selectively hire from the top ~1% of applicants. Our 500+ team members across 50+ countries come from leading organizations and elite academic backgrounds. We move fast, keep hierarchy light, and prioritize impact over optics. If you want to do meaningful work with exceptionally high-caliber people, this is it. Join us and do work you can truly be proud of. Check our open-source projects here!

The Payments Team

The goal of the Payments team is to enable revenue generation for the entire Proton ecosystem. This comes in the form of introducing new payment methods for users to architecting our client libraries. This team has impact across all of Proton's products and is critical to the success of the business as a whole.

  • As Proton is a global Company, the Payments Team works to continuously expand the possibilities for users to pay with various payment methods, beyond just plain credit cards or Paypal.
  • The team works in tight collaboration with the Account Team (responsible for the Proton user lifecycle), the Proton Finance team, and every single Business Unit to ensure that plans, promotions and pricing meet user expectations.
  • The mission of the team is to empower anyone in the world who wish to use Proton services, to become a Proton subscriber by building enticing interfaces, being able to progressively reach global markets, by providing the methods and tooling allowing users to pay, and for the Proton organization to properly being able to measure growth, and to follow the relative financial regulations

Tech Stack and Tools:

  • Differently than many other stacks at Proton, the Payments stack depends largely on external services such as payment providers, tax-information providers, currency-conversion providers... As such it is critical, for the success of the service, to build with resilience.
  • Internally our backend code is in general based on PHP/Symfony, our frontend is based on React, our mobile code is based on Kotlin (on Android) and on Swift (on iOS), with a growing shared codebase in Rust.
  • All our client-code is open-source and GPL3.
  • We are migrating our infrastructure to Kubernetes.
  • Everything runs on premise in Proton's data-centers.
  • To organize our work we use classic tools such as Jira and Confluence.

Future Plans:

  • With payments being the backbone of any subscription business, we have ambitious plans to expand the team to cover a wide breadth of topics ranging from demystifying payment performance data across regions/products, to thinking about the holistic strategy of product catalogs, and everything in between. This particular team requires someone who is a strong generalist, who thrives with ambiguity. There's huge potential for growth no matter the domain, and the outcome for any candidate is an in-depth view into how money moves globally.

What you will do:

  • Build features in all of Proton's products.
  • Close interactions with products and engineers across the company.
  • Build scalable software architecture through software engineering best practices.
  • Optimise user experience and design.

Job requirements:

  • Proven experience with back-end development 
  • Expertise in building scalable, high-performance solutions
  • Proficiency with profiling techniques and performance optimization tools
  • Experience leading a team initiative from discovery to production
  • Strong understanding of SQL (MySQL preferred) and data modeling best practices
  • Familiarity with Redis or other caching technologies for performance optimization
  • Knowledge of security best practices and experience implementing secure software solutions
  • In-depth understanding of HTTP/REST, including both the development and consumption of web-based APIs
  • Solid grasp of cryptographic concepts, including key exchange, and the distinction between symmetric and asymmetric encryption

Bonus points for: 

  • Experience within the payments domain

Even if you don’t meet all the requirements listed above, but feel you could still be a great fit, please still apply.

What We Offer

  • Work that Matters: millions of people trust Proton with their privacy. We answer only to our users — not advertisers, not investors with conflicting agendas, not governments. The work you do here is real, and the impact is measurable. (read more about our impact here)
  • Work with smart and dedicated people - Our team is diverse, collaborative, and tight-knit with people coming from all walks of life, including many of the world’s top academic institutions and organizations, such as MIT, Harvard, Stanford, Caltech, Cambridge, and ETH.
  • Technology: you'll get the right hardware and the right software you need to do your best work.
  • Learning & Development: we invest in your growth because sharp people make us better. Proton is one of the fastest ways to accelerate your career because you'll be thrown into real challenges, with real ownership, from day one.
  • Employee Benefits: your wellbeing isn't an afterthought. We offer strong health coverage, solid retirement options, generous leave, and wellness support so you can bring your best self to work every day
  • Stock Options: at Proton, we all have the opportunity to be owners of the company. From day one, you have a real stake in what we're building. When Proton wins, you win.
  • In-Person Collaboration: Amazing things happen when passionate, smart, and purposeful people get together in the same room. With offices across Geneva, Zürich, Barcelona, London and more, you'll spend most of your time collaborating face-to-face with people who genuinely care about what they're building
  • Food: Lunch and snacks are on us every day in our offices so you can focus on the work and not on what's for lunch.
  • Transport: getting to the office shouldn't cost you. We cover public transport, bike allowances, or parking, whichever works for you.
  • Flexible Working: you own your schedule. Set hours that work for you and your team — because outcomes matter more than when the clock says you started.

Our Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion

At Proton, we believe diversity drives innovation and strengthens our mission to provide privacy as a default for all. We are committed to fostering an inclusive environment where all individuals, regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, age, sexual orientation, physical ability, or socio-economic background, feel valued and empowered. We strive to create equal opportunities, promote open dialogue, and support continuous learning to ensure every voice is heard and respected.

If you need any extra support or reasonable adjustments during the hiring process, please let your talent partner know.

Candidate Privacy Notice

When you apply for a position, refer a candidate, or are considered for a role at Proton Technologies AG (Proton, we, us, or our), your information is stored in Greenhouse, in accordance with their Service Privacy Policy. This information is used to evaluate your suitability for the posted position. We also retain this information for consideration for future roles that you may apply for or that we believe may align with your background and skills.

If we no longer have a legitimate business need to process your information, we will either delete or anonymize it. Should you have any inquiries about how we use or manage your information, or if you wish to access, correct, or delete your data, please contact our privacy team at careers@proton.ch.

Proton does not accept unsolicited resumes from any sources other than directly from candidates. We will not pay a fee for any placement resulting from an unsolicited offer, even if the candidate is subsequently hired by Proton.

To learn more about our privacy policy, please visit our privacy policy page.

#LI-ONSITE

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About Proton

By applying at a position at Proton AG (“Proton”, “we”, “us”), you understand that your personal data is processed according to the following privacy policy and agree with it. This policy states (i) what data we collect, (ii) the use we make of such data, (iii) the safeguards we put in place to protect your data and (iv) your rights as data subject.

This Privacy Policy is complementary to our general privacy policy to the extend applicable when visiting our website.

  1. Legal Framework

Proton AG is a Company formed under Swiss law and whose Headquarters are located at Route de la Galaise 32, 1228 Plan-les-Ouates, Switzerland. For all questions, you can reach us at careers@proton.ch.

We are subject to the Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection (“FADP”). We are also GDPR compliant. The designated representative of the Company in the European Union (notably for the purpose of art. 27 GDPR) is Proton Europe Sàrl, Rue de Grünewald 94, L-1912 Luxembourg.

  1. Data collection and usage

Your personal data are processed for the purposes of managing our recruitment-related activities, which include setting up and conducting interviews and tests for applicants, evaluating, and assessing the results thereto, and as is otherwise needed in the recruitment and hiring processes. Such processing is legally permissible under Art. 6(1)(f) of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (General Data Protection Regulation, “GDPR”) as necessary for the purposes of the legitimate interests pursued by us, which are the solicitation, evaluation, and selection of applicants for entering a contractual relationship.

Your personal data are retained by us for an initial period of 720 days (“Initial Period”).

2.1 Upon application via our Career page

When applying to a position at Proton, you provide us with personal data such as name, surname, date of birth, address, e-mail address, CV, etc., which we save in our Recruiting Database (“Database”, see below) and process according to this privacy policy.

2.2 Upon sourcing or recommendation

If you are sourced by us and added manually to our Database, the personal data is obtained from public sources, such as LinkedIn. If you are referred to us by a third party for potential employment, the personal data added to our Database is that provided by said third party, and/or data available publicly.

In all cases, upon inclusion in our Database, you will receive an email informing you of your inclusion and of the processing of your personal data.

2.3 At the end of the Initial Period

At the end of the initial period, you will receive an email asking for your permission to extend the period of retention of your personal data, for the purpose of optimising our processes and propose subsequent positions that might be fit for you.

If you give us your consent, we will be able to store and process the data for another 270-day period.

If you don’t consent, your profile and related data will be deleted from our Database at the end of the initial period.

  1. Data Processor

Our Database is operated by Greenhouse, according to their privacy policy and terms of service. Your personal data is thus shared with Greenhouse Software, Inc., a cloud services provider located in the United States of America. The transfer is subject to appropriate additional safeguards, including the Standard Contractual Clauses, as issued by the European Commission.

 

  1. Right to access, rectification, erasure, portability, and right to lodge a complaint

As a company that is complying with the Swiss FADP and the EU GDPR, your privacy is important to us, and we are committed to protecting and safeguarding your data privacy rights.

You have the right to access, restrict, rectify, or delete your personal data. You also have the right to withdraw your consent at any time.

In addition, you may lodge a complaint to the Swiss Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner.

We remain available via email to careers@proton.ch for any inquiry.

  1. 5. Modifications to privacy policy

We reserve the right to periodically review and change this policy. Continued consent and application will be deemed acceptance of such changes.

 

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